Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia raises the prospect of U.S. nuclear cooperation with the kingdom

Saudi Arabia wants U.S. help developing its own civil nuclear program, and the Trump administration says it’s “very excited” at the prospect. U.S.-Saudi cooperation in building reactors for nuclear power plants could shut the Chinese and Russians out of what could be a high-dollar partnership for the American nuclear industry.

President Donald Trump is set to visit the kingdom this coming week.

There are fears that helping the Saudis enrich their own uranium would open new rounds of nuclear proliferation and competition. Also, Saudi Arabia’s pursuit of a nuclear agreement is likely to play into the bargaining on regional security issues involving the U.S., Iran and Israel.

Google will pay Texas $1.4B to settle claims the company collected users’ data without permission

Google will pay $1.4 billion to Texas to settle claims the company collected data on users without permission. The state’s attorney general announced the settlement Friday.

The agreement settles several claims Texas made against the search giant in 2022 related to geolocation, incognito searches and biometric data.

The state argued Google was “unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data.” Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the agreement settles an array of “old claims,” some of which relate to product policies the company has already changed.

Paxton said the $1.4 billion is the largest amount won by any state in a settlement with Google over this type of data-privacy violations.

— Boston Herald Wire Services