Independent News Drop

KELI From Inkwell, this is the Independent News Drop. It's Saturday, May ninth. The time is seven p.m. Central. I'm Keli, with Hast.

HAST Good evening. We're tracking the EEOC's case against the New York Times, updates from Indonesia and Gaza, and a few moves in courts overseas. Let's go.

KELI The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's discrimination lawsuit against the New York Times has been making rounds for a few days now. A lawyer on the EEOC's team has a particular track record in these cases—he's spent years arguing discrimination cases against men in the workplace. A former EEOC commissioner told the Intercept, and I'm quoting here, "They're putting out their best facts in this complaint, and the facts are pathetic." Here's the counter-read: other outlets will frame this as the EEOC taking on a major newspaper over gender equity. What's actually happening is smaller. The legal standard for discrimination is high, and filing a complaint doesn't mean the case has merit. The former commissioner's comment points to a straightforward reality—the EEOC chose the strongest evidence available, and even that evidence isn't compelling by law. Watch the next few weeks. If the Times doesn't settle, we'll see whether any federal judge takes the case seriously enough to let it move forward. Settlement pressure often moves cases past their actual legal strength.

HAST Staying overseas now. Indonesian authorities have found the missing Singaporeans. They were located near the crater rim of Mount Dukono after the volcano erupted earlier this week. The group had been hiking when the eruption happened. There's no word yet on their condition, but the search operation that's been underway since the eruption appears to have succeeded.

KELI Different scale, but also involving something found in water: Greek authorities conducted a controlled blast of explosives Saturday after fishermen discovered an unmanned vessel in a cave off the coast. The drone is suspected to be of Ukrainian origin, according to the BBC. It's unclear how it got there or what its intended purpose was. The Greek military detonated the explosives as a precaution, and investigation into the vessel is ongoing.

HAST The World Health Organization's director-general made a point this weekend worth flagging. He said the Hantavirus outbreak emerging in parts of Asia is not another COVID scenario. He was pushing back against comparisons that some outlets have started making. Hantavirus is spread through contact with infected rodent droppings and urine, not person-to-person like COVID. The WHO is monitoring the situation, but the transmission pattern is fundamentally different.

KELI In Gaza, one person was killed Saturday in ongoing violence. Meanwhile, Turkey's foreign minister is in talks with a Hamas official about potential peace efforts. Those talks come against the backdrop of what aid organizations describe as a continued violation of the ceasefire agreement that was supposed to hold since October. Hundreds more Palestinians have been killed in the Strip in recent months, according to monitoring groups. The diplomatic track and the ground situation remain disconnected.

HAST Brazil's Supreme Court made a decision that blocks Jair Bolsonaro's path to a shortened sentence. Justice Alexandre de Moraes suspended the use of a law that could have reduced Bolsonaro's twenty-seven-year prison sentence for his alleged role in the January eighth, twenty-twenty-three events. The justice is still reviewing the law on its merits, but it's frozen for now, meaning Bolsonaro will remain under his full sentence pending that review.

KELI Before we close, a history note. On this day in nineteen seventy-five, Sony introduced the Betamax videocassette recorder, which eventually lost the format war to VHS but fundamentally changed how people watched television at home.

HAST That's the Independent News Drop. We'll be back next hour. From Inkwell.