保障国内供应 印度禁食糖出口至9月底

2026年5月15日 10:53 / 联合早报

印度是全球第二大食糖生产国。图为印度马哈拉施特拉邦的农民割收甘蔗。 （路透社档案照片）

印度禁止食糖出口超过四个月，以便保障国内供应。

彭博社星期五（5月15日）引述印度官方公告报告这一消息。这份公告日期为星期三（13日）。政府曾在4月排除限制食糖外销的可能。

根据公告，印度禁止食糖出口至9月30日，有限例外情况除外，例如已开始装货的船舶。

印度是全球第二大食糖生产国，但国内一家主要制糖商协会早前下调产量预期。

印度糖业与生物能源制造商协会4月表明，截至9月30日的印度食糖本季总产量预计为3200万公吨，略低于此前预测的3240万公吨。

印度将在10月左右开始下一季收成，但可能受到低于平均水平的季风天气影响。随着厄尔尼诺现象来临，预计下月开始的年度降雨也会有所减少。与此同时，依赖化肥进口的印度也面临伊朗战争导致的价格飙升压力。

近年来，印度糖出口一直是全球市场的主要波动因素。受2022至2023年度收成不佳影响，印度开始限制出口，并实行年度出口配额。本季，政府于去年11月批准150万公吨的初始出口配额，并于2月将额度扩大50万公吨。

分析师称，尽管市场部分参与者此前已基于印度将实施限制的预期进行操作，但出口禁令的正式出台，可能会强化市场对全球糖供应短期趋紧的预期。

保障国内供应 印度禁食糖出口至9月底

2026年5月15日 10:53 / 联合早报

保障国内供应 印度禁食糖出口至9月底

印度是全球第二大食糖生产国。图为印度马哈拉施特拉邦的农民割收甘蔗。 （路透社档案照片）

印度禁止食糖出口超过四个月，以便保障国内供应。

彭博社星期五（5月15日）引述印度官方公告报告这一消息。这份公告日期为星期三（13日）。政府曾在4月排除限制食糖外销的可能。

根据公告，印度禁止食糖出口至9月30日，有限例外情况除外，例如已开始装货的船舶。

印度是全球第二大食糖生产国，但国内一家主要制糖商协会早前下调产量预期。

印度糖业与生物能源制造商协会4月表明，截至9月30日的印度食糖本季总产量预计为3200万公吨，略低于此前预测的3240万公吨。

印度将在10月左右开始下一季收成，但可能受到低于平均水平的季风天气影响。随着厄尔尼诺现象来临，预计下月开始的年度降雨也会有所减少。与此同时，依赖化肥进口的印度也面临伊朗战争导致的价格飙升压力。

近年来，印度糖出口一直是全球市场的主要波动因素。受2022至2023年度收成不佳影响，印度开始限制出口，并实行年度出口配额。本季，政府于去年11月批准150万公吨的初始出口配额，并于2月将额度扩大50万公吨。

分析师称，尽管市场部分参与者此前已基于印度将实施限制的预期进行操作，但出口禁令的正式出台，可能会强化市场对全球糖供应短期趋紧的预期。

习近平与特朗普在中南海小范围会晤

2026年5月15日 11:01 / 联合早报

中国国家主席习近平星期五（5月15日）与美国总统特朗普在中南海举行小范围会晤。

央视新闻当天报道上述消息。

IMF：中美开展建设性对话有利于稳定全球经济

2026年5月15日 11:01 / 联合早报

4月15日，IMF总裁格奥尔基耶娃（右）和IMF通讯部主任科扎克（左）在华盛顿IMF/世界银行春季会议的简报会上发言。 （路透社）

国际货币基金组织（IMF）对美国总统特朗普和中国国家主席习近平初步积极对话表示欢迎，称缓解全球两大经济体之间的紧张局势和不确定性，对全世界有利。

路透社报道，IMF发言人科扎克在星期四（5月14日）的新闻发布会被问及特朗普与习近平在北京峰会的初步成果，她说：“当然，世界两大经济体能进行最高级别的接触，这非常重要。”

她进一步说：“我们当然乐见中美展开建设性的对话。任何有助于缓解贸易紧张局势、减少不确定性的举措，都对这两个大型经济体有利。当然，对全球经济也同样有利。”

IMF长期以来一直敦促美国和中国通过对话而非单边措施解决贸易分歧。

特朗普星期五在社媒平台Truth Social发文说，他希望美国和中国的关系“比以往任何时候都更加牢固、更上层楼”。

4月15日，IMF总裁格奥尔基耶娃（右）和IMF通讯部主任科扎克（左）在华盛顿IMF/世界银行春季会议的简报会上发言。 （路透社）

国际货币基金组织（IMF）对美国总统特朗普和中国国家主席习近平初步积极对话表示欢迎，称缓解全球两大经济体之间的紧张局势和不确定性，对全世界有利。

路透社报道，IMF发言人科扎克在星期四（5月14日）的新闻发布会被问及特朗普与习近平在北京峰会的初步成果，她说：“当然，世界两大经济体能进行最高级别的接触，这非常重要。”

她进一步说：“我们当然乐见中美展开建设性的对话。任何有助于缓解贸易紧张局势、减少不确定性的举措，都对这两个大型经济体有利。当然，对全球经济也同样有利。”

IMF长期以来一直敦促美国和中国通过对话而非单边措施解决贸易分歧。

特朗普星期五在社媒平台Truth Social发文说，他希望美国和中国的关系“比以往任何时候都更加牢固、更上层楼”。

ICE releases wife of U.S. Army soldier and Afghanistan veteran, after a month-long detention

May 14, 2026 10:57 PM EDT / CBS News

By Camilo Montoya-Galvez

Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the Immigration Correspondent at CBS News, where his reporting is featured across multiple programs and platforms, including national broadcast shows, CBS News 24/7, CBSNews.com and the organization’s social media accounts.

Read Full Bio

Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday released the wife of an active-duty U.S. Army soldier and Afghanistan war veteran after a monthlong detention, her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Jose Serrano, told CBS News.

Serrano’s wife, El Salvador native Deisy Rivera Ortega, was detained by ICE on April 14 during an immigration appointment in El Paso, Texas. Serrano, who has served in the Army for 27 years, including three deployments to Afghanistan, first revealed to CBS News last month that his wife had been arrested by ICE after living in the U.S. for roughly a decade.

Deisy Rivera Ortega and Jose Serrano Jose Serrano

She attended that appointment as part of an application for a special immigration program known as Parole in Place, designed to protect military spouses and parents who are in the U.S. illegally or without permanent legal status from deportation.

Rivera Ortega’s arrest was one of several ICE detentions in recent months involving relatives of U.S. service members. While historically rare, those arrests have become more common under the second Trump administration, which has vowed to oversee the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history.

At the time, the Department of Homeland Security said ICE arrested Rivera Ortega because of a deportation order dating back to 2019. DHS also said she was convicted of entering the U.S. illegally, a federal misdemeanor.

Serrano said his wife had been working in the U.S. legally with a government permit stemming from a legal protection she received under the United Nations Convention Against Torture that shields her from being deported to her native El Salvador. If granted, her pending Parole in Place application could also allow Rivera Ortega to obtain a green card or permanent residency based on her marriage to a U.S. citizen.

Serrano said his wife was informed in ICE detention that she was facing deportation to a third country, such as Mexico, because her legal protection only bars officials from returning her to El Salvador. Serrano, who married Rivera Ortega in 2022, said his wife’s detention exacerbated his mental health challenges, noting he has been treated previously for a traumatic brain injury, PTSD and depression.

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During an interview with CBS News last week, White House border czar Tom Homan pledged to “look into” Rivera Ortega’s case after being asked about it.

While he argued that those who have received deportation orders have been afforded “due process,” Homan also acknowledged that it was a “difficult” case and noted ICE officers “have discretion” on who to target and who not to target.

American passenger from hantavirus-hit cruise ship speaks about life in quarantine

May 14, 2026 / 7:17 PM EDT / CBS News

The number of people being monitored for hantavirus in the United States has grown to 41, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, as new details emerge about potential flight exposures and the conditions of passengers in quarantine from the affected M/V Hondius cruise ship.

Eighteen repatriated passengers from the cruise are being monitored at facilities in Nebraska and Georgia – 16 at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s National Quarantine Unit and two at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, the CDC said. As of Thursday, seven others who had already returned home from the cruise before the outbreak was identified are also being monitored.

The CDC also said Thursday that additional people who were “flight contacts,” or those who were exposed during travel, were being monitored, but didn’t give an exact number. The travel routes and current locations of the individuals have not been released by the CDC.

Officials say the risk to the general public remains low, and the CDC said Thursday there are no confirmed U.S. cases at this time. None of the passengers currently in quarantine are symptomatic, the CDC said.

There have been at least 11 confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus linked to the outbreak on the ship, health officials say, including three fatalities: A Dutch couple and a German woman. Patients involved in the hantavirus outbreak have tested positive for the Andes strain, which can be transmitted from person to person. Hantavirus is typically transmitted by rodents.

“I feel terrible — but it’s the right decision”

Among those in quarantine is Jake Rosmarin, a New York native and travel influencer who spoke with CBS News about what was supposed to be a five-week trip and is now stretching into 12 weeks away from home. Those in quarantine face a 42-day isolation period.

Rosmarin became emotional when asked about what he will miss while in quarantine. “I was supposed to go to my cousin’s wedding in Italy and unfortunately I won’t be making that,” he said. “I feel terrible, but it’s the right decision.”

He described the darkest stretch aboard the ship — and that looking forward to his own wedding helped him hold on.

“When I was in my darkest place on that ship, we had a wedding planning call,” Rosmarin said. “It was so nice to have a moment of normalcy and to not feel like I was stuck in that little box on a ship with so much unknown.”

Rosmarin said he is trying to stay focused on what lies ahead.

A passenger-turned-caregiver moves to quarantine

Dr. Stephen Kornfeld, an Oregon oncologist who was aboard the cruise ship on vacation when the outbreak began, told CBS News on Wednesday that he tested negative and was moved from the biocontainment unit to the quarantine unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Dr. Angela Hewlett, who has overseen his care, told CBS News that Kornfeld tested negative by PCR on two separate occasions and also tested negative for antibodies, making it unlikely his earlier flu-like symptoms were hantavirus-related.

Hewlett called the vacationing doctor who chose to act “a hero.”

“He is a physician who stepped up when people needed him,” she said. “He did help provide care and assessment for individuals who were ill on the cruise ship.”

Cruise ship passenger on quarantine experience
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/jake-rosmarin-passenger-from-hantavirus-stricken-cruise-ship-on-quarantine-experience/

Jake Rosmarin, passenger from hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, on quarantine experience

(04:12)

Lawmakers raise alarm over Neville Roy Singham’s $278M network spreading CCP propaganda in the U.S.

May 14, 2026 5:35pm EDT / Fox News

Multiple lawmakers question why groups tied to the Shanghai-based mogul aren’t registered under FARA

By Preston Mizell Fox News

Published May 14, 2026 5:35pm EDT

Lawmakers sound alarm on China-linked influence campaigns inside the US

Members in the House and Senate pointed to activist groups, nonprofit channels, and

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Members of Congress are raising concerns about a surge in pro-Chinese Communist Party propaganda and rhetoric in the U.S., citing organizations tied to Shanghai-based Marxist mogul Neville Roy Singham.

During interviews with Fox News Digital, a number of House and Senate members warned that nonprofits funded by Singham may be sowing discord in the U.S. by promoting communist propaganda and anti-American rhetoric.

“When you talk about the non-profits, you have to look at how China adversely uses or how China uses our non-profit 501(c)(3) status organizations to work as. CCP influencers,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital.

Jodie Evans, co-founder of CodePink, and Neville Roy Singham, founder of Thoughtworks, attend V20: The Red Party, a 20th anniversary celebration of V-Day and The Vagina Monologues, featuring a performance by playwright Eve Ensler and an after-party at Carnegie Hall in New York City on Feb. 14, 2018.(Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images)

“Singham’s group is one of these, as they try to spread and influence other organizations and participate with other organizations in protests, in demonstrations that are going to create chaos in the streets of U.S. cities,” she said.

REVOLUTIONARY TOURISM:: INSIDE THE $600M MARRIAGE OF DARK MONEY AND FAR-LEFT AGITPROP

“When it comes to China specifically, they have used soft propaganda as a main point of entry with the United States,” she added.

According to a Fox News Digital investigation, Singham has funneled $278 million into the broad network of nonprofits since 2017. Officials from the Justice, State and Treasury departments are investigating financial activity tied to the network, including $22.5 million in funding directed to a group called The People’s Forum.

Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans, is the co-founder of CodePink, a nonprofit that received $1.33 million from Singham, according to the Fox News Digital investigation. Over the years, CodePink has supported communist regimes, including the Chinese Communist Party and Cuba’s government.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6395553576112
TOP GOP SENATOR CALLS OUT CODE PINK, THE PEOPLE’S FORUM ALLEGEDLY PUSHING CCP PROPAGANDA IN US

While CodePink’s funding comes directly from Singham, not the government of China, critics allege that the difference is without a distinction.

“CodePink are AstroTurf weirdos bought and paid for by Communist China. They get their money from the most oppressive regime on the planet,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital. “They’re a joke.”

CodePink filed an ethics complaint against Hawley for what he said was simply “exposing that they take blood money from China.”

Members of Congress raised concerns about how CodePink and the Singham network are able to operate without registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires individuals doing public relations, engaging in political work or lobbying for any foreign government to disclose activities and finances to the Department of Justice.

TAX COMMITTEE REPUBLICANS PRESS FOR TREASURY CRACKDOWN ON NONPROFITS PROMOTING FRAUD, ‘ANTI-AMERICAN’ HATE

Members of People’s Forum, CodePink, Party for Socialism and Liberation and ANSWER Coalition rally to join the #NoKings protests.(Fox News)

“How they’re not registered under FARA is hard to understand because they’re very consistent. I mean, let’s at least give them credit for that,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital.

Even former members of Congress and Capitol Hill staffers are required to register under FARA if they lobby for a country or organization backed by a foreign country.

“It should be no surprise that, whether it’s folks associated with the Communist Party of China or, frankly, other anti-American groups, would be funding these groups in the United States. [These groups’] sole role is pretty evident, to protect, defend and support anti-Americans,” he added. “Whether it is terrorist groups [or] terrorist regimes like the one in Iran or the one in Cuba.”

SINGHAM-BACKED, PRO-CHINA GROUP DROPS HUGE SUM ON MANHATTAN HQ AS FEDS PROBE SHADOWY NETWORK

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6395551874112
Singham sold his technology consulting company, Thoughtworks, in 2017 for an estimated $785 million and moved to Shanghai. In 2023, The New York Times published an exposé that connected him to the CCP and chronicled his determination to spread his radical, anti-West ideology in the U.S. and across the globe.

In its investigation, Fox News Digital followed the money trail and network that Singham uses to promote communist and Marxist ideologies among Americans, finding that he established an organizing hub in the U.S. with actions against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and protests against Israel, the U.S. and the nation’s domestic and foreign policies.

“The real crux of the matter is the genesis of that money — is [Singham] really that rich,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., asked Fox News Digital. “Or is it a false rich that, yeah, he’s got a billion dollars, but the billion dollars came from China communist China that they are actually funneling him, and then making believe, ‘Oh, no, he made that on his own.’ We’ve got to find out exactly where that money came from.”

Neville Roy Singham smiles at his wedding to CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, in February 2017.(Osbourne Chin / Chinphotographic)

Gimenez also noted what other lawmakers are pointing out: Individual agitators and demonstrators, in addition to Singham himself, are not registered with the Justice Department’s FARA office.

While Singham’s dealings have been investigated by a number of Congressional committees in the past, his residence in Shanghai shields him from being subpoenaed to appear before Congress

House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., has described Singham as “an individual who lives in Shanghai, maintains business ties with companies and individuals linked to the CCP, works with and physically alongside a foreign propaganda company, and attends CCP forums on how to promote the party abroad.”

Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news.

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Supreme Court rules trucking broker can be held responsible for using dangerous haulers

May 14, 2026 / 4:26 PM EDT / CBS News

By Michael Kaplan Reporter and Producer

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that a man maimed in a tractor-trailer crash could sue the broker who arranged the load, a major win for highway safety advocates who have sounded alarms about unsafe trucking companies and the high number of deaths and injuries in truck crashes.

A CBS News investigation last month revealed the widespread scope — and deadly consequences — of the explosion in demand for overland shipping, in part because more people shop online, and the strain that demand has placed on America’s trucking fleet.

The high court rejected arguments from the trucking industry that it would be unfair and burdensome to hold big logistics companies responsible for screening the safety backgrounds of the haulers they work with.

The court’s unanimous decision clears the way for the continuation of a lawsuit by Shawn Montgomery, who lost part of his leg when a speeding truck driver slammed into his parked vehicle in Illinois in 2017. Montgomery sued C.H. Robinson, the country’s largest freight broker and the one that contracted the load to a driver and trucking firm. The lawsuit claimed C.H. Robinson should have been aware of the firm’s questionable safety record.

The broker — along with the Trump administration and other large trucking interests — argued that allowing such lawsuits to go forward would expose them to liability under a convoluted mix of state laws. They also argued they should not be held responsible for safety screening that they say is the role of the federal government, which licenses haulers.

Michael Leizerman, an attorney who represented Montgomery and other crash victims, said the ruling could put pressure on brokers to weed out dangerous drivers.

“They don’t end up behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound vehicle unless someone hires them to do so,” Leizerman said. “And many times that’s the large brokers like C.H. Robinson.”

The CBS News investigation documented how thousands of trucking companies have evaded federal oversight by reincarnating under new names. The investigation found dozens of such companies that have hauled loads brokered by C.H. Robinson, some resulting in severe crashes.

One example: the 2022 Christmas Eve crash in Ohio that killed four members of a single family. The truck was operated by BLF Truck Transportation, a company that had previously operated under three other names each of which had been flagged by regulators for safety concerns.

The aftermath of a deadly 2022 Christmas Eve crash on I-75 in Ohio where a semi-truck (left) crossed the median and slammed into an SUV and a pickup. Ohio State Highway Patrol

Alexander Delgado, the operator of BLF, testified in a deposition obtained by CBS News that a representative from C.H. Robinson coached him to “open up another” trucking company after his previous company faced a government shutdown for safety problems.

In a statement, C.H. Robinson said BLF “deceived C.H. Robinson by double brokering a load, which is a violation of federal law and our carrier agreements” and said Delgado’s allegation “comes from a carrier owner whose credibility is in question.”

CBS News’ exclusive analysis of millions of Department of Transportation records found the government approved at least 10,000 of these reconstituted “chameleon carriers” just since 2021. The operators often use the same officers, facilities, or equipment as defunct companies with serious safety concerns on their records.

CBS’ data analysis revealed these kinds of carriers represent a profound danger on American highways; they are four times more likely to be involved in severe crashes than companies that are not reincarnated. Over the last five years, at least 141 people have died and 1,800 have been injured in crashes involving these operators.

Despite repeated promises of government crackdowns on chameleon carriers, federal regulators continue to miss blatant red flags in their own data. The CBS News investigation identified over 30,000 carriers using fake or undeliverable registration addresses, such as “NOMORE, GONE, GA”. While the number of trucking firms surged by 31% since 2015, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) workforce has decreased by 10%.

The Minnesota-based C.H. Robinson had gotten the lawsuit dismissed in a ruling affirmed by an appeals court in Chicago, but Montgomery appealed to the Supreme Court.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote that the federal transportation law exemptions that the broker said protected it from liability in state courts include an exemption for cases involving motor vehicle safety.

“Requiring C.H. Robinson to exercise ordinary care in selecting a carrier therefore concerns motor vehicles — most obviously, the trucks that will transport the goods. So Montgomery’s negligent-hiring claim falls with the (law)’s safety exception,” she wrote, determining that the lawsuit can move forward.

C.H. Robinson is the subject of similar lawsuits related to other loads it brokered, including two profiled in the CBS News investigation.

Dorothy Capers, chief legal officer at C.H. Robinson, said in a statement that the company was disappointed in the court’s ruling.

“Our hearts continue to go out to the victims of truck accidents. Safety is foundational to who we are — our employees and their families travel these same roads, and our business depends on safe freight delivery,” Capers’ statement said. “While we are disappointed in the Court’s decision, we will continue to operate responsibly, support stronger federal enforcement, and work constructively with regulators, carriers, and customers to strengthen the national safety system and support safe, reliable transportation across the country.”

Netanyahu says Israel will sue The New York Times

May 14, 2026 / 4:43 PM EDT / CBS News

By Graham Kates Reporter
Graham Kates is an investigative reporter covering criminal justice, privacy issues and information security for CBS News Digital. Contact Graham at KatesG@cbsnews.com or grahamkates@protonmail.com
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government plans to file a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times in response to an opinion column alleging widespread sexual abuse targeting Palestinian prisoners.

The column, by journalist Nicholas Kristof, cites interviews with 14 men and women “who said they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces,” but notes Kristoff was unable to corroborate some accounts of abuse.

Israeli officials condemned the Times for publishing the report. Netanyahu’s office called it “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel.” In a statement Thursday, the office said Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar “have instructed the initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times.”

Netanyahu posted on X that his legal advisers will “consider the harshest legal action against The New York Times and Nicholas Kristof.”

The Times on Wednesday night defended Kristof’s piece, calling it a “deeply reported piece of opinion journalism.”

“The accounts of the 14 men and women he interviewed were corroborated with other witnesses, whenever possible, and with people the victims confided in — that includes family members and lawyers,” said Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Times. “Details were extensively fact-checked, with accounts further cross-referenced with news reporting, independent research from human-rights groups, surveys and in one case, with U.N. testimony. Independent experts were consulted on the assertions in the piece throughout reporting and fact-checking.”

It is unclear if litigation will be filed in the United States or Israel, or who the plaintiffs will be.

A government itself cannot sue for defamation in the United States, according to Rodney Smolla, a First Amendment scholar and former president of the Vermont Law and Graduate School. If Netanyahu or another government official were to bring the suit, Smolla said they’d likely have a tough hill to climb.

“I think at the end of the day, courts would say this [article] is insufficiently targeting Netanyahu, and to allow him to sue is just too perilously close to allowing a suit by the government itself,” Smolla said.

The New York Times can also count on a different landmark case in which it was involved. In New York Times v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court limited the ability of public officials to sue for defamation, according to Nadine Strossen, a former president of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Strossen said the plaintiff, whether Netanyahu or someone else, would have to show “that there was intentional or reckless falsity, that they knew or had great reason to know that what was being said was false.”

“It can’t be a matter of opinion or of analysis or of perspective. It has to be objectively falsifiable,” Strossen said.

Yale Law professor Jed Rubenfeld also noted the Sullivan case, saying “I think there is probably zero chance of the suit succeeding.”

“If you write your criticism of a government impersonally without naming particular individuals, who you’re saying are responsible for whatever the misconduct or crimes are….then you’re within your First Amendment rights,” Rubenfeld said.

Public figures in the U.S. have sued for millions over news coverage they considered unfair or defamatory, but at trial they’re required to show that the reporter or publisher acted with actual malice — the knowledge that statements were false, or reckless disregard for the truth.

President Trump has in recent years wielded lawsuits over coverage he hasn’t liked as leverage to extract millions in pretrial settlements from the parent companies of news outlets, including CBS News. Mr. Trump sued CBS News over a 2024 “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. The outlet said the lawsuit was “completely without merit” shortly after it was filed. Mr. Trump and CBS News’ parent company, Paramount, settled in 2025 for $16 million.

In 1983, Israel’s then-Minister of Defense Ariel Sharon sued Time Magazine over an article about a massacre in Lebanon. That case went to trial, and a federal jury found the reporting in question to be false, but concluded the magazine did not act with actual malice in publishing the story.

Smolla said Sharon — who decades later would serve as prime minister — had standing because the reporting that he claimed was defamatory was about him specifically. He noted that members of a small group can have legal standing — even when unnamed in the reporting — if they believe they’re implicated in the alleged defamation.

Kristof’s column includes a claim by a journalist from Gaza that he was stripped naked and mounted by a dog as Israeli guards laughed. Kristof wrote that “the Palestinian prisoners and human rights monitors have also cited reports of police dogs being coached to rape prisoners.”

Smolla said if individual police dog trainers brought claims they “might” be viable plaintiffs.

“There are only a small number of people with that expertise who have that assignment,” Smolla said.

Still, Strossen said even a case like that would have little chance under the Sullivan standard, since individuals were not named in the column.

“It seems to me that would be an imaginative effort,” Strossen said.