Ecuador Using US Private Military Contractors to Battle Cocaine Cartels, Harvard's $2B Spat with Trump Administration, Ethiopia's "Slow Genocide" of Ethnic Minority (The Five for 04/15/25)
Welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter, but don’t always make the front page.
One quick note. The Five will have an extra edition this week, with The Best of 2025 (So Far) Dropping tomorrow at noon. A quarter of 2025 is gone, so we’ll check out the best of pop culture that’s been released to date.
With that being said, let’s dive into the news.
[one]
Well, this is a major manufacturing shift.
CNBC reports:
Nvidia, the chipmaker that powers much of today’s artificial intelligence boom, on Monday announced a push to produce NVIDIA AI supercomputers entirely in the U.S. for the first time.
The company said it plans to produce up to $500 billion of AI infrastructure in the U.S. via its manufacturing partnerships over the next four years.
“Adding American manufacturing helps us better meet the incredible and growing demand for AI chips and supercomputers, strengthens our supply chain and boosts our resiliency,” CEO Jensen Huang said.
The news comes after President Donald Trump, in a push to take on trade deficits and pressure companies to on-shore more manufacturing to the U.S., imposed high “reciprocal” tariffs on a long list of countries. Trump placed a 32% tariff on products from Taiwan, where Nvidia largely manufactures its graphics processing units, or GPUs, and 145% tariffs on products from China, a move that threatened to take a toll on tech giants like Apple, which makes iPhones and most of its other products in China.
But things changed quickly: On Friday evening, Trump exempted chips, as well as smartphones, computers, and other tech devices and components, from the tariffs. On Sunday, he reportedly said he would announce tariffs on imported semiconductors within the week.
Nvidia wrote in a blog post that it has commissioned more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing space. Its Blackwell AI chips have started production in Phoenix at Taiwan Semiconductor plants. In Arizona, Nvidia will also partner with Amkor and Siliconware Precision Industries, which provide chip packaging and testing services.
The company designs its GPUs, but outsources its chip production to contract manufacturers like TSMC.
Nvidia is also building manufacturing plants for its supercomputers in Texas, partnering with Foxconn in Houston and with Wistron in Dallas, the company wrote. It expects to reach mass production at both facilities within 12 to 15 months.
I haven’t written about Trump’s shifting tariff policies yet because…I’m not a macroeconomist, and the rules here are shifting so quickly…I wouldn’t recommend diving headfirst into this via yelling opinions on the internet unless you have some actual working knowledge.
I did complete a thesis in grad school on rural economic rejuvenation, but that had nothing to do with international trade, so I’ve stayed silent.
What happens next…a major recession? Age of prosperity? Is for more experienced voices in this space to speak to the predictions.
It’s also possible that neither extreme comes about…but reshoring computer parts and tech manufacturing strengthens the position of the U.S. against agression by the Chinese Communist Party.
[two]
At this point, I’m assuming you know about the Texas high school stabbing, so let’s just jump straight into the bail reduction, which allowed Karmelo Anthony to return home until trial, with an ankle monitor attached.
Frisco murder suspect, 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony, appeared in court Monday morning as his attorneys asked for a reduction in his $1 million bond.
Anthony, 17, was charged with murder after the stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a track meet last week.
The bond reduction hearing began at 9 a.m. with Karmelo Anthony entering the courtroom in a gold jumpsuit, handcuffed and chained.
His father and mother both testified at the hearing.
During the hearing, we learned Karmelo is the oldest child and has three siblings. The family moved to the DFW area in 2021.
He was the captain of the football and track teams, and he had never been arrested before this incident. He has worked at Foot Locker for two years and worked a second job at H-E-B.
This case has quickly divided the internet along somewhat predictable lines…but let me point out a few facts of this case:
A). There is video of the incident that has not been released. So, that will tell us a lot, one way or another.
B). Multiple outlets are reporting that Anthony confessed to the killing, claiming self defense. Right now, we only have a police report of an officer stating that Anthony confessed…which isn’t the same thing.
C). Anthony’s original legal team has already resigned.
D). The prosecution is charging Anthony as a minor, which means the death penalty and life in prison are off the table.
Detractors are calling this an open-and-shut case, since Anthony escalated the level of force by pulling a weapon. Supporters of the teenager are branding this a “Rittenhouse” situation, and claiming clear self defense.
The nuanced read from this former crime reporter…there are a LOT of variables in a murder trial.
[three]
The government in Ethiopia is engaged in a slow genocide against the local Tigray tribe in the north of the country, who fought back against persecution in a civil conflict from 2020-2022.
The Associated Press reports:
Chandera Weldesenbet is worried about dying before he receives the help he needs.
The 41-year-old veteran of the recent war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has metal shrapnel in his body that is yet to be removed, more than two years after the fighting ended.
Unable to get specialized medical care, Chandera is bedridden most of the time because of the pain. He is one of many casualties whose untreated or poorly treated injuries are a reminder of the war’s toll.
“When I think about my future prospect and my ability to raise a child in such hardship and circumstances, I feel hopeless,” he said, with a toddler at home.
Chandera, a former hotel worker in the town of Shire, found that health facilities across the region had been largely destroyed in the fighting.
The head of the Ethiopian National Rehabilitation Commission, Temesgen Tilahun, told The Associated Press there are more than 43,000 Tigrayan former combatants.
Thousands of people were killed in the war that pitted local fighters against federal troops who were allied with fighters from other regions, and ended in 2022. No one knows how many were wounded.
Some former combatants in Tigray returned to their homes to find there was no way to receive medical support for permanent disabilities.
Local Tigray forces battled Ethiopian government troops from 2020-2022, due to persecution of government forces, who labeled the Ethnic group as terrorists. The Tigray people are predominantly Orthodox Christians…and one of the first people groups in the world to be Christianized after the crucifixion of Jesus, and have no history of terrorism.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UN all labeled the conflict as “ethnic cleansing” against the Tigrays, which helped bring the 24 month conflict to an uneasy peace.
Now, the Ethiopian government appears to be getting slow revenge on veterans of that war by letting wounded Tigrays die from their battle injuries.
[four]
The Trump administration just yanked $2 billion from Harvard, citing antisemitism issues on campus.
The federal government on Monday night said it was freezing more than $2 billion in grants to Harvard University after the school said it would not accept Trump administration demands that included auditing viewpoints of the student body.
The administration's Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced the cuts in a statement that called out "the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges."
It said that $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million "in multi-year contract value" would be frozen to the Ivy League university.
Earlier Monday Harvard rejected the administration's demands.
"The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights," the university's X account said in a statement posted Monday. "Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government."
In an email to the Harvard community, President Alan M. Garber said the university received "an updated and expanded list of demands" from the White House administration, warning it to comply if it would like to "maintain financial relationship with the federal government."
The 10 demands, which the administration says are aimed at addressing antisemitism on campus, include restricting the acceptance of international students who are "hostile to the American values and institutions." The administration also wants a third party to audit programs that it says "fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture."
The administration also demanded the immediate shuttering of all diversity, equity and inclusion programs and initiatives, including in hiring and admissions. It asked Harvard to exchange them for "merit-based" policies.
Garber called the demands "unprecedented," denouncing them as an attempt "to control the Harvard community" by policing the viewpoints of students, faculty and staff members.
The university informed the Trump administration through legal counsel that it would not accept the terms.
Harvard’s total endowment is $53 billion, so the the loss of the funds is…pretty doable. Critics of the university have decried for years the fact that Harvard is essentially a tax-sheltered hedge fund.
[five]
The trend of politics swinging right on a global scale continues with the latest election in Ecuador.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa won the country’s presidential election on Sunday based on preliminary results, an electoral official said, as his main rival demanded a recount of the vote following a race overshadowed by drug-fueled violence that has consumed the once-peaceful South American country.
Noboa, a conservative, has made fighting crime and economic revitalization two of his main goals — summed up in the slogan “New Ecuador”— as he faces, among other challenges, violence by criminal groups and an energy crisis that has caused constant blackouts in the country.
With 90% of the ballots counted, the trend in favor of Noboa is irreversible and he is considered the winner, National Electoral Council president Diana Atamaint told a press conference Sunday.
But Noboa’s closest challenger, leftist lawyer Luisa González, said she rejected the results and demanded a recount.
“In the name of the people we represent, we do not recognize the results presented by the (National Electoral Council),” González said in front of supporters.
“I refuse to believe that a people would prefer lies instead of truth, violence instead of peace and unity,” González said in Quito, according to Reuters. “We are going to demand a recount and for them to open ballot boxes.”
Ecuador has gone from a peaceful country (I’ve been there twice, and can attest to this) to the most violent nation in Latin America, with homicides increasing 20% each year.
President Noboa declared a national emergency last year, allowing the military to conduct operations against 22 different drug cartels, treating them as terrorist groups. Last month, Noboa contracted the private military organization Blackwater. In 2007, four Blackwater security agents killed 14 civilians in Iraq, including two children. All of the offenders were pardoned by President Trump at the end of his first term.
While the majority of Ecuadorans supported President Noboa, there has also been significant criticism that the 2nd term President is going past the point of being tough on crime, and tipping into authoritarianism.
Until the next one,
-sth