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Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle start-up Nikola who was sentenced to prison last year for fraud, was pardoned by President Donald Trump, the White House confirmed Friday. The pardon of Milton, who was sentenced to four years in prison for exaggerating the potential of his technology, could wipe out hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution that prosecutors were seeking for defrauded investors. Milton, 42, and his wife donated more than $1.8 million to a Trump re-election campaign fund less than a month before the November election, according to the Federal Election Commission. At Milton’s trial, prosecutors say a company video of a prototype truck appearing to be driven down a desert highway was actually a video of a nonfunctioning Nikola that had been rolled down a hill. Milton had not been incarcerated pending an appeal. Milton said late Thursday on social media that he had been pardoned by Trump. “I am incredibly grateful to President Trump for his courage in standing up for what is right and for granting me this sacred pardon of innocence, Milton said. The White House confirmed the pardon Friday, though there was no notice of a pardon on the White House website. When asked by a reporter in a news conference Friday why he pardoned Milton, Trump said it was highly recommended by many people. Trump suggested that Milton was prosecuted because he supported the president. They say the the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president, Trump said. Trump went on to say that Milton did nothing wrong and that the Southern District of New York’s prosecutors were a vicious group of people. During his securities fraud case, Milton was defended by two lawyers with connections to Trump: Marc Mukasey, who has represented the Trump Organization; and Brad Bondi, the brother of Pam Bondi, who Trump appointed as U.S. Attorney General. Trump wasted little time in using his pardon power since beginning his second term. Hours after taking office, he wiped clean the records of roughly 1,500 people who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The next day, Trump announced that he had pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an underground website for selling drugs. Ulbricht had been sentenced to life in prison in 2015 after a high-profile prosecution that highlighted the role of the internet in illegal markets. Nikola, which was a hot start-up and rising star on Wall Street before becoming enmeshed in scandal, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February. Milton, convicted of fraud, was portrayed by prosecutors as a con man six years after he had founded the company in a basement in Utah. Prosecutors said Milton falsely claimed to have built its own revolutionary truck that was actually a General Motors product with Nikolas logo stamped onto it. Called as a government witness, Nikolas CEO testified that Milton was prone to exaggeration when pitching his venture to investors. Milton resigned in 2020 amid reports of fraud that sent Nikolas stock prices into a tailspin. Investors suffered heavy losses as reports questioned Miltons claims that the company had already produced zero-emission 18-wheel trucks. The company paid $125 million in 2021 to settle a civil case against it by the SEC. Nikola didnt admit any wrongdoing. The U.S. District Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment on Miltons pardon. At the time of his conviction U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, Trevor Milton lied to investors again and again on social media, on television, on podcasts, and in print. But todays sentence should be a warning to start-up founders and corporate executives everywhere fake it till you make it is not an excuse for fraud, and if you mislead your investors, you will pay a stiff price. Matt Ott, AP business writer
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E-Commerce
As part of a push to roll back dozens of environmental regulations, the Trump administration is offering coal-fired power plants and other industrial polluters a chance for exemptions from requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene. The Environmental Protection Agency has set up an electronic mailbox to allow regulated companies to request a presidential exemption under the Clean Air Act to a host of Biden-era rules. Companies were asked to send an email by Monday seeking permission from President Donald Trump to bypass the new restrictions. The Clean Air Act enables the president to temporarily exempt industrial sites from new rules if the technology required to meet them is not widely available and if the continued activity is in the interest of national security. Environmental groups denounced the administration’s offer, calling the email address a polluters’ portal that could allow hundreds of companies to evade laws meant to protect the environment and public health. Exemptions would be allowed for nine EPA rules issued by the Biden administration, including limits on mercury, ethylene oxide and other hazardous air pollutants. Mercury exposure can cause brain damage, especially in children. Fetuses are vulnerable to birth defects via exposure in a mothers womb. Margie Alt, campaign director of the Climate Action Campaign, said the request for exemption applications is a gift to the fossil fuel industry” and further indication of a polluters-first agenda” under Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Companies can now apply for a gold-plated, ‘get-out-of-permitting free’ card,” she said, adding that the latest action marked at least the third time Zeldin has moved to weaken enforcement of environmental laws since he took office less than two months ago. On March 12, he announced a series of actions to roll back landmark environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants, climate change and electric vehicles. Last month, Zeldin said he would push for a 65% spending cut at the agency, saying, We dont need to be spending all that money that went through the EPA last year. Trump and Zeldin, aided by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, have also pushed to drastically reduce EPA staffing, and the agency is considering a plan to eliminate its scientific research office. About 1,000 scientists and other employees who help provide the scientific foundation for EPA rules safeguarding human health and the environment could be fired. The EPA’s offer for companies to request exemptions was first reported by The New York Times. Submitting a request via this email box does not entitle the submitter to an exemption,” the EPA said in a statement. The President will make a decision on the merits. Authority for exemptions solely rests with the president, not EPA,” added EPA spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou. Former President Joe Biden offered similar exemptions after issuing a rule last year tightening emission standards for ethylene oxide from commercial facilities that sterilize medical equipment, she noted. Vickie Patton, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund, called EPA’s action an invitation to pollute and an abuse of power by Zeldin. Coal-fired power plants have long used scrubbers and other devices to limit mercury and other toxic pollution and can continue to do so, she said, adding that hundreds of companies nationwide could potentially apply for exemptions that are neither needed nor legal. “We will go to court. We will get their records and we will make that list (of exemptions) public,” she said. Jason Rylander, a lawyer for another environmental group, the Center for Biological Diversity, called the EPA’s actions ridiculous and one more demonstration that the Trump administration wants to help polluters, not protect the environment. It is an enormous stretch to suggest that theres some national interest in giving industry the right to pollute. That doesnt make sense to me, he said. Trump declared an energy emergency early in his term and has embraced policies to boost and oil and gas production, which he sums up as drill, baby drill.” In my view, we’re in the middle of a climate emergency,” Rylander said. But in the Trump administrations view, we have this fictitious national energy emergency that may provide a basis for (Trump) to claim this is somehow in the national security interests of the United States. Exemptions offered this week also could apply to more than 200 chemical plants nationwide that are being required to reduce toxic emissions likely to cause cancer. The rule, issued last year, advanced the former presidents commitment to environmental justice by delivering critical health protections for communities burdened by industrial pollution from ethylene oxide, chloroprene and other dangerous chemicals, the Biden administration said. Formally undoing the Biden administrations protections, however, is complicated and could take years. Exemptions for specific plants may be a faster workaround in the meantime, according to Bradford Mank, a law professor at the University of Cincinnati. Matthew Daly, Associated Press Associated Press writer Michael Phillis contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
This week, the internet had a rare opportunity to transform their selfies and family photos into stunning Studio Ghiblistyle portraits. What started as a lighthearted trend quickly took a darker turn. Soon after “Images for ChatGPT” was unveiled on Tuesday, a tsunami of images generated in the distinctive Studio Ghibli style flooded social media. X users posted Ghiblified versions of their personal photos, popular memes, and public figures like President Donald Trump. Sam Altman, OpenAIs chief executive, changed his profile picture on X to a Ghiblified image of himself and posted, grind for a decade trying to help make superintelligence to cure cancer or whateverwake up one day to hundreds of messages: ‘look i made you into a twink ghibli style haha’. Altman later joked on X that OpenAI’s servers were “melting” from the demand. >be me>grind for a decade trying to help make superintelligence to cure cancer or whatever>mostly no one cares for first 7.5 years, then for 2.5 years everyone hates you for everything>wake up one day to hundreds of messages: "look i made you into a twink ghibli style haha"— Sam Altman (@sama) March 26, 2025 Even the White House’s official X account jumped on the trend, sharing an image of a weeping woman from the Dominican Republicrecently arrested by U.S. immigration agentsstyled as a still from a Studio Ghibli movie. While the internet had its fun, serious ethical questions and copyright concerns began to surface. Critics raised concerns over whether OpenAI was unfairly using the work of artists, including Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki. Animated films like My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away arent made overnight; they require intricate hand-drawn animation and painstaking attention to detail that can take years to complete. According to the Associated Press, the company said the new tool would take a conservative approach when it came to mimicking the aesthetics of individual artists. We added a refusal which triggers when a user attempts to generate an image in the style of a living artist, OpenAI said in a technical paper posted Tuesday. The company added that it permits broader studio styles which people have used to generate and share some truly delightful and inspired original fan creations. The Ghibli-gate controversy is just the latest in a series of lawsuits filed by news organizations, authors, and musicians who claim their work was used to train AI models without permission. As for Miyazaki, the founder of Studio Ghibli, his feelings about AI-generated art are clear. In a resurfaced clip from a 2016 documentary, he called A.I. an insult to life itself. Perhaps something to bear in mind before Ghiblifying a picture of your cat.
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E-Commerce
Greenlands massive cap of ice, containing enough fresh water to raise sea levels by 23 feet, is in serious trouble. Between 2002 and 2023, Greenland lost 270 billion tons of frozen water each year as winter snowfall failed to compensate for ever-fiercer summer temperatures. Thats a significant contributor of sea level rise globally, which is now at a quarter of an inch a year.But underneath all that melting ice is something the whole world wants: the rare earth elements that make modern societyand the clean energy revolutionpossible. That could soon turn Greenland, which has a population size similar to that of Casper, Wyoming, into a mining mecca. Greenlands dominant industry has long been fishing, but its government is now looking to diversify its economy. While the island has opened up a handful of mines, like for gold and rubies, its built and natural environment makes drilling a nightmarefreezing conditions on remote sites without railways or highways for access. The countrys rich reserves of rare earths and geopolitical conflict, however, are making the island look increasingly enticing to mining companies, Arctic conditions be damned.When President Donald Trump talks about the United States acquiring Greenland, its partly for its strategic trade and military location in the Arctic, but also for its mineral resources. According to one Greenland official, the island possesses 39 of the 50 minerals that the United States has classified as critical to national security and economic stability. While the island, an autonomous territory of Denmark, has made clear it is not for sale, its government is signaling it is open to business, particularly in the minerals sector. Earlier this month, Greenlands elections saw the ascendance of the pro-business Demokraatit Party, which has promised to accelerate the development of the countrys minerals and other resources. At the same time, the partys leadership is pushing back hard against Trumps rhetoric.Meltwater drips from glacier ice in Disco Bay, Greenland, revealing bare earth beneath. [Image: Science Photo Library/Getty Images/Grist]Rare earth elements are fundamental to daily life: These words you are reading on a screen are made of the ones and zeroes of binary code. But theyre also made of rare earth elements, such as the terbium in LED screens, praseodymium in batteries, and neodymium in a phones vibration unit. Depending on where you live, the electricity powering this screen may have even come from the dysprosium in wind turbines. These minerals helped build the modern worldand will be in increasing demand going forward. They sit at the heart of pretty much every electric vehicle, cruise missile, advanced magnet, said Adam Lajeunesse, a public policy expert at Canadas St. Francis Xavier University. All of these different minerals are absolutely required to build almost everything that we do in our high-tech environment.To the increasing alarm of Western powers, China now has a stranglehold on the market for rare earth elements, responsible for 70% of production globally. As the renewables revolution unfolds, and as more EVs hit the road, the world will demand ever more of these metals: Between 2020 and 2022, the total value of rare earths used in the energy transition each year quadrupled. That is projected to go up another tenfold by 2035. According to the European Commissions Joint Research Centre, by 2030, Greenland could provide nearly 10,000 tons of rare earth oxides to the global economy. One way to meet that demand, and for the world to diversify control over the rare earths market and speed up clean energy adoption, is to mine in Greenland. (In other words, the way to avoid future ice melt may, ironically, mean capitalizing on the riches revealed by climate-driven ice loss.) On the land currently exposed along the islands edges, mining companies are starting to drill, and the U.S. doesnt want to be left out of the action. But anyone gung-ho on immediately turning Greenland into a rare earths bonanza is in for a rude awakening. More so than elsewhere on the planet, mining the island is an extremely complicated, and lengthy, propositionlogistically, geopolitically, and economically. And most importantly for the people of Greenland, mining of any kind comes with inevitable environmental consequences, like pollution and disruptions to wildlife.The Trump administrations aggressive language has spooked Indigenous Greenlanders in particular, who make up 90% of the population and have endured a long history of brutal colonization, from deadly waves of disease and displacement to forced sterilization. Its been a shock for Greenland, said Aqqaluk Lynge, former president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and cofounder of Greenlands Inuit Ataqatigiit political party. They are looking at us as people that you just can throw out.Lacking the resources to directly invest in mining for rare earths, the Greenland government is approving licenses for exploration. We have all the critical minerals. Everyone wants them, said Jrgen T. Hammeken-Holm, permanent secretary for mineral resources in the Greenland government. The geology is so exciting, but there are a lot of buts.The funny thing about rare earth elements is that theyre not particularly rare. Planet Earth is loaded with themonly in an annoyingly distributed manner. Miners have to process a lot of rock to pluck out small amounts of praseodymium, neodymium, and the 15 other rare earth elements. That makes the minerals very difficult and dirty to mine and then refine: For every ton of rare earths dug up, 2,000 tons of toxic waste are generated.Chinas government cornered the market on rare earths by both subsidizing the industry and streamlining regulations. If you can purchase something from a Chinese company which does not have the same labor regulations, human rights considerations, environmental considerations as you would in Australia or California, youll buy it more cheaply on the Chinese maket, Lajeunesse said. Many critical minerals that are mined elsewhere in the world still go back to China, because the country has spent decades building up its refining capacity.China has used the rare earths market as an economic and political weapon. In 2010, the so-called Rare Earths Trade Dispute broke out, when China refused to ship the minerals to Japana country famous for its manufacturing of technologies. (However, some researchers question whether this was a deliberate embargo or a Chinese effort to reduce rare earth exports generally.) More subtly, China can manipulate the market on rare earths by, say, increasing production to drive down prices. This makes it less economically feasible for other mining outfits to get into the game, given the cost and difficulty of extracting the minerals, solidifying Chinas grip on rare earths.They control every stagethe mining of it, and then the intermediate processing, and then the more sophisticated final product processing, said Heather Exner-Pirot, director of energy, natural resources, and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a think tank in Canada. So they can intervene in the market at all these levels.This is a precarious monopoly for Western economies and governments to navigate. Military aircraft and drones use permanent magnets made of terbium and dysprosium. Medical imaging equipment also relies on rare earths, as do flatscreens and electric motors. Its not just the energy transition that needs a steady supply of these minerals, but modern life itself.As a result, all eyes are turning toward Greenlands rich deposits of rare earths. The island contains 18% of the global reserves for neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium, according to the European Commissions Joint Research Centre. Even a decade ago, scientists reported that the island could meet a quarter of the global demand for rare earths.The question is whether mining companies can overcome the headaches inherent in extracting rare earths from Greenlands ice-free yet still frigid edges. An outfit would have to ship in all their equipment and build their own city at a remote mining site at considerable cost. On top of that, it would be difficult to actually hire enough workers from the islands population of laborers, so a mining company may need to hire internationally and bring them in. Greenland has a population of 57,000, just 65 of whom were involved in mining as of 2020, so the requisite experience just isnt there. Labor laws are much more strict than they would be in a Chinese rare earth mine in Mongolia, Lajeunesse said. All of those things factor together to make Arctic development very expensive.Still, the geopolitical pressure from Chinas domination of the rare earths market has opened Greenland to exploration. No one needs to wait for further deterioration of the islands ice sheet to get to work, as theres enough ice-free land along these edges to dig through. Around 40 mining companies have exploration, prospecting, and exploitation licenses in Greenland, with the majority of the firms based in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. We can give you these minerals, Hammeken-Holm said, but you need to come to Greenland and do the exploration.One of those companies is Critical Metals Corp., which in September drilled 14 holes on the coast of southern Greenland, about 16 miles from the town of Qaqortoq. The New York-based company says its found one of the worlds highest concentrations of gallium, which isnt technically a rare earth element but is still essential in the manufacturing of computer chips.Dramatic change on and around the island, though, could make mining for rare earths even more complicated. While the loss of floating ice in the waters around the island makes it easier and safer for ships to navigate, more chunks of glaciers will drop into the ocean as the world warms, which could become especially hazardous for ships, la the Titanic. Even given the rapid loss of Greenlands 650,000-square-mile ice sheet, though, it would take a long while to lose it allits 1.4 miles thick on average. The Earth itself is also frozen in parts of the island, known as permafrost, which will thaw in the nearer term as temperatures rise. Thats going to give you certainly instability in terms of building access roads and such, said Paul Bierman, a geologist at the University of Vermont and author of the book When the Ice Is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earths Tumultuous History and Perilous Future. The climate is changing, so I think its going to be a very dynamic environment in which to extract minerals. Mining pollution, too, is a major concern: The accessible land along the islands ice-free edges is also where humans live. As mining equipment and ships burn fossil fuels, they produce black carbon. When this settles on ice, it darkens the surface, which then absorbs more sunlightthink of how much hotter you get wearing a black shirt than a white shirt on a summer day. This could further accelerate the melting of Greenlands precarious ice sheet. A 2022 study also found that three legacy mines in Greenland heavily polluted the local environment with metals, like lead and zinc, due to the lack of environmental studies and regulation prior to the 1970s. But it also found no significant pollution at mines established in the last 20 years. A more immediate problem with mining is the potentially toxic dust generated by so much machinery, said Niels Henrik Hooge, a campaigner at NOAH, the Danish chapter of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth. Thats a concern, because all the mining projects are located in areas where people live, or potentially could live, Hooge said. Everything is a bit different in the Arctic, because the environment does not recover very quickly when polluted.Lynge says that a win-win for Greenlanders would be to support mining but insist that its run on hydropower instead of fossil fuels. The island has huge potential for hydropower, and indeed has been approving more projects and expanding another existing facility. Still, no amount of hydropower can negate the impact of mining on the landscape. Theres no sustainable mining in the world, Lynge said. The question is if we can do it a little bit better.Critical Metals Corp., for its part, says that it expects to produce minimal harmful products at its site. Like other mining projects in Greenland, it will need to pass an environmental review. We expect to provide more updates about our plans to reduce our environmental footprint as we get closer to mining operations, said Tony Sage, the companys CEO and executive chairman, in a statement provided to Grist. With that, we believe it is important to keep in mind that rare earth elements are critical materials for cleaner applications, which will help us build a greener planet in the future. Still, wherever theres mining activity, theres potential for spills. Teres also potential for a lot of noise: Ships in particular fill the ocean around Greenland with a din that can stress and disorient fishes and marine mammals, like narwhals, seals, and whales. For vocalizing species, it can disrupt their communication. Theres a lot at stake here economically and politically, too: Fishing is Greenlands predominant industry, accounting for 95% of the islands exports. Rare earth mining, then, is the islands play to diversify its economy, which could help it wean off the subsidies it gets from the Danish government. That, in turn, could help it win independence.Thus far, the mining business has been a bit rocky in Greenland. In 2021, the government banned uranium mining, halting the development of a project by the Australian outfit Greenland Minerals, which would have also produced rare earths at the site. (Greenland Minerals did not respond to multiple requests to comment for this story.) The China-linked company is now suing the Greenland government for $11 billionpotentially spooking other would-be prospectors and the investors already worried about the profitability of mining for rare earths in the far north.When we talk to them, they understand the situation, and theyre not afraid, said Hammeken-Holm. He added that Greenland maintains a dialogue with mining outfits about the challenges, and prospects, of exploration. It is difficult to get private finance for these projects, but we are not alone, he said. Thats a worldwide situation.The growing demand and geopolitical fervor around rare earths may well make Greenland irresistible for mining companies, regardless of the logistical challenges. Hammeken-Holm says that a major discovery, like an especially rich deposit of a given rare earth element, might be the extra boost the country needs to transform itself into an indispensable provider of the critical minerals.Both Exner-Pirot, of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and Lajeunesse, the public policy expert, say that Western powers might get to the point where they intervene aggressively in the market. Like Chinas state-sponsored rare earths industry, the U.S., Canada, Australia, or the European Unionwhich entered into a strategic partnership with Greenland in 2023 to develop critical raw materialsmight band together to guarantee a steady flow of the minerals that make modern militaries, consumerism, and the energy transition possible. Subsidies, for instance, would help make the industry more profitableand palatable for investors. Youd have to accept that youre purchasing and developing minerals for more than the market price, Lajeunesse said. But over the long term, its about developing a security of supply.Already a land of rapid climatological change, Greenland could soon grow richerand more powerful on the world stage. Ton by ton, its disappearing ice will reveal more of the mineral solutions to the worlds woes. Matt Simon, GristTom Vaillant contributed research and reporting.This article originally appeared in Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for its newsletter here.
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E-Commerce
This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to clarify the Trump administration’s “right” to rescind student visas and deport international students who are critical of Israel’s U.S.-backed war on Palestine. However, his bold assertions may have led to even more confusion around what immigration experts say are illegal new procedures. Rubio made the comments at a press conference Thursday in response to a question about the arrest of Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national who wrote an op-ed that offered a narrative critical of Israels siege. He said that at least 300 student visas have already been revoked, but said he hopes it’s even more. “If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you’re coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we’re not going to give you a visa,” Rubio told reporters. Rubio continued, seeming to offer the perspective that the U.S. is within its rights to remove those who use their voices against the administration’s stance. “And we have a right, like every country in the world has a right, to remove you from our country. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Rubio asserted. Rubio’s language this week conjured up images of violent and destructive protests. And President Donald Trump has accused protesters and others whose visas it has terminated of being pro-Hamas, however evidence has only pointed to students speaking out against what the United Nations has called a “genocide.” Rumeysa Ozturk wasn’t even protesting, but was one of four authors on an op-ed urging divestment “from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.” The article made no mention of Hamas. In a jarring video of the student’s arrest, Ozturk is seen being cornered by ICE off-campus and taken into custody. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell called Ozturk’s arrest “disturbing” in a statement on social media. “Based on what we know now, it is alarming that the federal administration chose to ambush and detain her, apparently targeting a law-abiding individual because of her political views.” Mahsa Khanbabai, attorney at Khanbabai Immigration Law, who is part of Ozturk’s legal team said, per the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called Ozturk’s treatment “shocking, cruel, and unconstitutional.” Khanbabai said, “For nearly 24 hours, we could not locate her, and despite a court order to prevent the government from taking her out of Massachusetts, we finally learned the Trump administration had shipped her to Louisiana. Criticizing U.S. foreign policy and human rights violations is neither illegal nor grounds for detention. The government must immediately release Rümeysa to continue her studies and rejoin her community.Ozturk is currently being held at a federal detention facility in Louisianathe same location where Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia graduate student who was arrested on March 8 for organizing student protests, remains.
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E-Commerce
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