In the third week of the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial, one of the most emotional testimonies so far came from a rape accuser and former employee identified as "Mia." On Thursday, she spent much of her time on the witness stand in tears, avoiding eye contact with Combs as he watched from the defense table.
Mark Von Holden/Invision/AP; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
President Donald Trump said Friday that he hasn't been approached about pardoning Sean "Diddy" Combs β who's currently on trial on sex-trafficking and racketeering charges in Manhattan β but he'd "look at the facts" of the case.
"I would certainly look at the facts," Trump said at an Oval Office press conference. "If I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don't like me, it wouldn't have any impact on me."
Trump talked about Combs' case in response to a question from Fox News' Peter Doocy, who asked whether the president would consider pardoning Combs.
Trump said he was once friends with Combs, even talking about him on "The Apprentice." But their relationship "busted up" when Trump became involved in politics, he said.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have accused Combs of using the resources of his record label and power in the music industry to coerce women into "freak offs," where they'd participate in dayslong, drug-fueled sexual performances with other men while he watched.
In the trial, which began earlier this month and is expected to last several more weeks, witnesses have testified about Combs personally beating and sexually assaulting victims. Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, and his attorneys say his conduct doesn't amount to sex trafficking.
Combs' trial is taking place in the same 26th-floor courtroom where a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse in a civil trial, and where Trump briefly testified in a second trial over additional damages stemming from the abuse claims.
In the Friday press conference, Trump said he had not been following the trial closely and had not spoken to Combs in years.
He said he believes Combs' lawyers are "thinking about" asking for a pardon.
"I think some people have been very close to asking," he said.
Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Taylor Swift shocked fans on Friday by announcing her latest unprecedented power move: buying back her original master recordings, giving her full ownership of her musical catalog for the first time in her career.
"All I've ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy," Swift, 35, wrote on her website.
"To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it," she added.
Indeed, Swift was so adamant that music should belong to its creators β especially in her case as a diaristic songwriter who signed her first record contract at age 15 β that she embarked on the ambitious process to rerecord her first six albums after her masters were acquired by Scooter Braun in 2019. (Braun sold Swift's back catalog to Shamrock Capital, a private-equity firm, in 2020 for a reported $300 million.)
Swift's ambitious rerecording plan wasn't entirely without precedent, but it had never been attempted on such a broad scale. At first, it was met with plenty of skepticism from journalists and industry experts.
"A real fan knows the difference, and will never accept it," a Forbes columnist wrote, referring to the rerecorded versions of Swift's beloved songs.
Even Swift herself wasn't immediately on board. "I'd look at them and go, 'How can I possibly do that?'" she reflected in 2023. "Nobody wants to redo their homework."
You belong with me.
β Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) May 30, 2025
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Letter on my site :) pic.twitter.com/pdb6kGDcVO
And yet, even without unanimous support from the industry, the "Taylor's Version" series became a wild success, partially thanks to their "vault tracks." To prove her point that only the artist knows the full story of her work β and, of course, to incentivize fans to stream and buy albums they've already heard β Swift shrewdly included never-before-heard songs that had originally been left on the cutting room floor.
Swift released the project's first two installments in 2021, "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" and "Red (Taylor's Version)," which yielded a No. 1 hit in the long-awaited "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" and three Grammy nominations. These were followed by "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" and "1989 (Taylor's Version)" in 2023. The latter sold 1,653,000 copies in its first week, surpassing the original, and spawned yet another No. 1 hit in the fan-favorite vault track, "Is It Over Now?"
Fans have been clamoring for the remaining installments, "Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version)" and "Reputation (Taylor's Version)," for literal years now. A common refrain in online Swiftie communities is that "all she has left to reclaim is her name and reputation."
Now, that reclamation is moot. There's no longer any reason (moral, financial, or otherwise) for Swift to complete the "Taylor's Version" project.
In her Friday announcement, Swift even admitted that she's yet to finish rerecording "Reputation," despite months of drumming up anticipation and dropping apparent Easter eggs.
"To be perfectly honest, it's the one album in those first 6 that I thought couldn't be improved upon by redoing it," Swift wrote. "Not the music, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off."
Swift did tease the existence of "Reputation" vault tracks, and she also confirmed "Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version)" is ready to go β but declined to give fans a firm promise or timeline for their release.
"If it happens," she hedged, "it won't be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now."
Like most things that Swift does, this move is bound to be met with mixed reactions. Some Swifties may even be angry about how much they've invested in supporting the "Taylor's Version" albums, mostly on principle, only for the endeavor to render itself redundant.
However, that's not to say the venture was a bust. In fact, the passionate fan response likely gave Swift important leverage in her negotiations with Shamrock; the more that Swifties insisted on listening to "Taylor's Version" albums and shunning the so-called "stolen versions," the less valuable those original recordings became. (In the year after its release, for example, "Fearless (Taylor's Version)" sold 1 million equivalent album units, while the original "Fearless" sold 242,000.)
Moreover, as Swift noted in her announcement, the impact of "Taylor's Version" is already causing ripple effects across the music industry. While it's rare for musicians to own their masters β especially big stars like Swift, who typically sign major label deals that forfeit their masters in exchange for bigger budgets and wider reach β labels are spooked.
In 2023, top music attorneys told Billboard that many are overhauling contracts to prevent artists from rerecording their music down the line, Swift-style. Whether or not their efforts pan out, Swift's peers are now better prepared for the challenge. Her showdown with Braun alerted newer artists to the dangers of overreaching contracts β and inspired many, like Olivia Rodrigo, to maintain control of their masters from a young age.
The "Taylor's Version" series may never conclude in the way Swifties had imagined, but then again, keeping the industry on its toes is what Swift does best.
"I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans," Swift wrote on Friday. "Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion. You'll never know how much it means to me that you cared."
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
It was a praise-filled display of mutual admiration between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon.
To commemorate Musk's official last day with DOGE, Trump held a press conference with the Tesla CEO β gifting Musk a large key in the process.
The president handed Musk a brown box containing the key, saying he reserves this gift for "very special people."
Musk, standing next to the president in a black DOGE cap and a graphic tee reading "The Dogefather," accepted the present, saying it was "amazing" and admiring Trump's revamped golden Oval Office decor.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Trump heaped compliments on Musk and repeatedly thanked him for his work during the event as the two answered questions from the press amid recent reports of fractures in their relationship.
Trump said that DOGE's work would continue after Musk's departure. Trump said the DOGE employees are "geniuses," especially when it comes to computers.
The president said that DOGE's cost savings, which have fallen far short of the $1 trillion goal, could "double and triple," because many of the group's projects take time to complete. Trump flagged the Internal Revenue Service in particular, saying that rebuilding some of the agency's systems would take years.
Friday is Musk's final day as a special government employee and face of the White House DOGE Office, but Trump signaled he may continue to visit and advise from time to time.
"Elon is really not leaving," Trump said. "He's going to be back and forth, I think. I have a feeling. It's his baby."
When asked by a reporter whether he'd continue advising the president, Musk said he expected to. Trump chimed in briefly, too: "I hope so."
Musk said he'd "expect to remain a friend and an advisor."
"Certainly, if there's anything the president wants me to do, I'm at the president's service," he added.
Musk also said that he thinks DOGE could save $1 trillion by its self-imposed deadline of July 4, 2026, so long as it has the support of Trump and Congress. He recently estimated the group has saved $160 billion, and Trump has asked Congress to approve $9 billion worth of suggested cuts.
Musk also teased a potentially longer lifespan for DOGE during Friday's news conference, saying that the president "may choose to extend" its official end date. As for DOGE employees themselves, however long they're around, Musk said "the DOGE team will only grow stronger over time, the DOGE influence will grow stronger."
When Musk first announced his departure from government earlier this month, he said DOGE's missionΒ would live on. On Thursday, the White House confirmed that another prominent DOGE leader, Musk's right-hand manΒ Steve Davis, had also left the team.
Musk has said he's leaving to devote more time to his various companies. He also said he planned to cut back on political spending, after shelling out more than $270 million during the 2024 election.
Brendan McDermid/REUTERS
Hello, and welcome to your weekly dose of Big Tech news and insights. I'm your host, Alistair Barr. My dog Maisie came through her surgery. That cost thousands of dollars. How much would you pay to keep your furry friend alive?
Getty Images, Jenny Chang-Rodriguez
In 2013, my old boss Brad Stone published "The Everything Store." It's the defining book about Amazon's giant e-commerce business. The key idea in the book was infinite product selection. This strategy propelled the company to become the Western world's largest retailer. Based on quarterly sales, it overtook Walmart earlier this year.
Having endless inventory means shoppers are more likely to find what they're looking for on Amazon, increasing the chances they buy something, and return again. That's been a powerful advantage over physical retail stores, which can only stock so much.
However, in recent years, some of Amazon's digital aisles have become cluttered and outdated, which could confuse or frustrate shoppers. So, under CEO Andy Jassy, the company has been purging billions of product listings via a secret project known as "Bend the Curve."
Business Insider's star tech reporter Eugene Kim has the scoop with all the juicy details.
Does this spell the end of The Everything Store? Nope. There's no way Amazon would give up this hard-won advantage.
Instead, it's mostly about cleaning up this giant online marketplace. Product listings get old. Sellers can chuck thousands of listings on there, and some are inaccurate or worse. There are also millions of dollars in cloud savings from not having to host billions of unproductive listings.
Still, this big move has been debated inside Amazon, according to Kim's report. And surveys by Evercore ISI found that fewer shoppers think Amazon's product selection is the best.
Other BI tech stories that caught my eye lately:
My take on who's up and down in the tech industry right now, including updates on Big Tech employee pay.
UP: Tesla surged this week after Elon Musk said he's getting back to work.
DOWN: In late February, investor Ross Gerber predicted a 50% drop in Tesla's share price. The stock is up roughly 20% since then. Ouch!
COMP UPDATE: Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald looked at restricted stock units issued recently by tech companies including Meta, Google, and Uber. RSUs are the main way tech employees get paid. The latest numbers show these equity awards are slowing down or even falling at some companies. The chart below shows changes in RSU grant value per employee.
Cantor Fitzgerald
Other Big Tech stories I found on the interwebs:
This week, I'm telling you about an AI tool that may not be immediately obvious as AI. But it most certainly is.
Tesla uses thousands of chips in massive data centers to train AI models that understand video collected from millions of the company's vehicles. This is used to develop FSD software for near-autonomous driving.
I've been using FSD a lot this year in my Tesla Model 3 Performance. Here are the highs and lows.
Is this a fair assessment? Tesla plans to roll out a full robotaxi service in Austin in June. This will be fully autonomous, with no human supervision. It's a huge leap. My FSD software still requires me to be responsible and alert. But this FSD diary gives some pretty solid clues to how capable Tesla's current software is.
What AI tool should I use next week? Let me know.
I would love to hear from anyone who reads this newsletter. What am I doing wrong? What do you want to see more of?
Specifically, though: I want to know about your recent experiences with Amazon's online marketplace. Have you noticed an improvement in the quality of listings lately? Or have you sensed any change in product selection? Let Eugene Kim know at [email protected].
Ronda Churchill/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Wall Street's largest hedge fund just got a bit larger, adding two more marquee traders to its credit business.
Millennium, which manages $73 billion in assets and has more than 330 investment teams around the world, has hired Jonathan Grau, a partner at Laurion Capital, according to people familiar with the matter. Grau joined Laurion in 2016 and focused on corporate credit strategies, according to a company bio recently scrubbed from the firm's website.
Millennium has also hired Christopher Reich, a rising star credit index trader from Brevan Howard, the people said. Reich trades indices linked to credit-default swaps and commercial mortgage-backed securities, according to his LinkedIn profile, and worked at One William Street Capital and JPMorgan before joining Brevan.
Representatives for Millennium and Brevan declined to comment, and Laurion did not respond to requests for comment.
Credit has been the most in-demand strategy among hedge-fund allocators in recent years, though appetite dampened heading into 2025, according to a Goldman Sachs survey.
The hires of Grau and Reich come on the heels of another major credit hire. Bloomberg reported in March that Millennium poached LMR Partners' US head of credit, Thomas Malafronte. Malafronte is a former Goldman Sachs partner who burnished his reputation in the mid-2010s trading junk bonds.
Millennium, run by billionaire Izzy Englander, was down 1.4% through April after an unusually rocky start to the year that saw the firm lose money in back-to-back months in February and March. It gained 15% in 2024.
Ludo Studio
Disney has a new idea to keep customers from canceling Disney+: perks.
In recent months, the Mouse House has bolstered its streaming business by integrating content from Hulu and ESPN, as well as by forming a bundle with Max, Warner Bros. Discovery's rival streamer.
Now, its latest move to keep subscribers around is the introduction of a new program called Disney+ Perks. This program gives Disney+ subscribers deals on websites, free trials to memberships, and sweepstakes to win tickets for Disney Cruises or tickets to Disney movie premieres.
Disney first began testing limited-edition perks for its streaming customers in December 2023 and launched its permanent program this week. The company is also launching Hulu Perks in early June, though that program is currently only slated for the summer.
A Disney employee who worked on the Disney+ Perks program said the objective is to keep streaming subscribers engaged, happy, and paying.
This employee said preventing cancellations is a top priority.
"Churn is just top of mind β especially in the streaming industry," they said.
Disney's churn rate fell to 3% in April, according to the subscription data firm Antenna. That was its lowest level since last June and only slightly above industry leader Netflix's 2% rate. At the higher end of the scale are niche services like Apple TV+ and Starz at 7% and 8%, respectively.
A Disney spokesperson referred Business Insider to a video announcing the perks program when asked for comment.
In a streaming industry full of copycats, Disney's perks program is unique.
Other video subscription services have sweetened their offerings byΒ tying themselves to bundles. But the closest analog to Disney+ Perks or Hulu Perks is the long-standing T-Mobile Tuesdays program.
Disney has spent the past year and a half testing the "take rates" of various perks to see what resonates with consumers, the employee who worked on Disney+ Perks said.
This person said sweepstakes were especially popular, and discounts to websites like Adidas and Funko were popular enough to stick, as was DoorDash's DashPass delivery service. They said perks would change with feedback, potentially as often as every week or two.
"It's a great way to engage the subscribers and give them benefits that are unique to Disney," the employee said.
There are some notable omissions from Disney+ Perks. There aren't discounts to the Disney Store or in-park discounts. The employee who worked on the program said they wanted perks to appeal to the widest possible audience.
"You also balance that for someone who doesn't have the ability to maybe be that close to a Disney park," the employee said.
In the coming months, customers may be able to access Disney+ Perks through the Disney+ app instead of having to go through a separate website.
If this perks program is successful, competing streamers like Netflix could take note.
"I would expect other streamers to do it over time," the Disney employee said.
