Welcome back!

Here’s your must-read news this morning:

• Trump says Musk wants to speak

• Tesla sheds record $152 billion in market value

• OpenAI dismantles Chinese state-linked propaganda operations

• Supreme Court rules for straight woman in discrimination case

I’ve got all the details for you, so let’s dive in.

MARKETS

💔 Trump: Musk Wants To Talk—But I’m Not Interested

The Scoop: President Donald Trump brushed off his feud with Elon Musk over the "Big, Beautiful Bill" in an ABC News interview.

The Details:

• In a Friday morning call with ABC News’s Jonathan Karl, Trump called Musk “the man who has lost his mind” and said he’s “not particularly” interested in talking to Musk, though the Tesla CEO wants to, according to the president.

• Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, told NBC that no call was scheduled, contradicting POLITICO’s report of White House aides arranging a Friday call to broker peace.

• The feud ignited when Musk, angered by the bill’s EV credit cuts, resurfaced Trump’s old posts criticizing GOP debt ceiling hikes.

• Trump pointed to axed EV credits as the motive for Musk’s criticism, labeling him “CRAZY” on Truth Social.

• Musk claimed his support secured Trump’s 2024 victory and alleged, without evidence, that Trump appears in “Epstein Files.”

• Trump threatened to cancel billions in government contracts with Musk’s companies.

• Musk vowed to cancel SpaceX’s Dragon deal with the U.S. government, but later retracted it.

• Tesla’s stock dropped 14%, losing $152 billion in market cap—its worst single-day decline.

What’s Next: The Trump-Musk feud might not wrap up soon, but there’s hope they’ll patch things up. An administration official told NBC, “There could be anything — I’d like to de-escalate a very unfortunate situation.” Last night, Musk gave a nod to Bill Ackman’s post pushing for unity, saying, “You’re not wrong,” as the hedge fund manager argued they should team up for the country’s sake. TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk believes the two men will eventually make peace, telling Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, “Deep down, I’d like to believe they both want the same thing.”

Top Stories

🏦 Economy & Public Policy

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick: In a Thursday call, Trump and Xi committed to scheduling more U.S.-China trade talks and exchanging state visit invitations. (FOX)

• U.S. trade deficit plummeted by over 50% to $61 billion in April from $140 billion in March, propelled by a 16% import decline due to new tariffs. (MW)

• European Central Bank reduced its benchmark interest rate for the eighth time by 0.25 points to 2%, down from a high of 4% in 2023-24. (BBG)

• NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte proposed that member nations increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, a significant jump from the current 2% target and a goal championed by Trump. (BBC)

• China's central bank injected $139 billion in three-month funds into markets on Friday, a surprise move likely to prevent a seasonal cash shortage. (BBG)

• At the White House with Trump on Thursday, Merz said Germany is ready to boost cooperation on trade agreements as the U.S. and EU seek to meet the July 9 deal deadline. (CNBC)

📈 Stock Market

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick: Circle shares soared 168% to $83.23 on their debut, peaking at 200% above the $31 IPO price, valuing the stablecoin issuer at over $16 billion by market close. (IBD)

• Broadcom beat Wall Street's Q2 expectations with $1.58 per share and $15 billion in revenue, projecting $15.8 billion for Q3—a 20% annual increase—with net income rising to $4.97 billion from $2.12 billion, following a 10-for-1 stock split. (CNBC)

• Lululemon shares plunged 23% after the company beat Wall Street's fiscal Q1 expectations with $2.60 per share and $2.37 billion in revenue, but cut its full-year earnings guidance, citing a “dynamic macroenvironment.” (YF)

• Omada Health, a virtual chronic care provider, priced its IPO at $19 per share, offering 7.9 million shares to raise $150 million, with trading set to begin tomorrow.

• DocuSign shares plunged 12% after reporting a Q1 EPS of $0.90, beating analyst estimates of $0.81, and revenue of $763.7 million, surpassing the $749.19 million consensus. (INV)

🏭 Industry

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick: Procter & Gamble plans to eliminate up to 7,000 non-manufacturing positions over the next two years, representing about 15% of its non-manufacturing workforce. (BAR)

• Builder.ai filed for U.S. bankruptcy after creditors seized most of its cash, following a 300% overstatement of projected 2024 sales. (BBG)

• Temu's U.S. daily active users plunged 52% in May from March, hit by Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports and the closure of the de minimis loophole. (CNBC)

• Rippling accuses Deel of being a "criminal syndicate" and alleges that Deel spied on four other competitors in addition to Rippling. (TC)

💵 Currencies & Commodities

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick: Japan's 30-year government bond prices climbed after the weakest auction in over a year, with a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.921, pressured the Ministry of Finance to cut supply of super-long notes. (YF)

• U.S. aluminum premiums soared to a record 60 cents per pound, or $1,323 per metric ton following Trump’s imposition of steeper tariffs on metal imports. (RTS)

• Silver prices climbed over 4%, surpassing $36 per troy ounce, marking the highest level since early 2012. (CNBC)

• MIT engineers have developed a membrane-based crude oil fractionation method that could cut energy use in fuel production by up to 90%. (OP)

• Treasury Department criticized China for insufficient exchange-rate transparency in its semiannual foreign exchange report, refrains from labeling any nation as a currency manipulator. (TD)

🌕 Crypto

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick: Mastercard announced that nearly half of its European e-commerce transactions are now tokenized, aiming for 100% by 2030. (PYM)

• Tokenization platform Plume Network has launched its mainnet, bringing $150 million in real-world assets onto the blockchain. (TB)

• Uber is exploring the use of stablecoins for global money transfers. (BBG)

• Trump Media and Technology Group filed an S-1 registration statement with the SEC to launch a Bitcoin ETF that will directly hold the crypto with Crypto.com as custodian. (DJ)

• Trump-backed World Liberty Financial issued a cease-and-desist letter to Fight Fight Fight and Magic Eden, demanding they halt development of an unauthorized Trump-branded crypto wallet. (TB)

TECH

🇨🇳 OpenAI Dismantles Chinese State-Linked Propaganda Operations

The Scoop: OpenAI exposed and shut down a Chinese state-linked influence operation using its AI tools to spread propaganda and amplify U.S. political divisions, according to a report published by the company.

The Details:

• OpenAI detected accounts tied to Chinese state actors generating propaganda with its AI models to target U.S. audiences.

• The operation used OpenAI’s tech to create divisive social media content, including on X, to deepen political rifts.

• OpenAI’s report highlighted the campaign’s focus on spreading misleading narratives to manipulate public opinion.

• One Chinese operation, dubbed "Sneer Review," used ChatGPT to generate comments in English, Chinese, and Urdu, posted on TikTok, X, Reddit, and other platforms, both supporting and opposing the Trump administration’s USAID dismantling.

• Another Chinese operation posed as journalists and geopolitical analysts to gather intelligence using ChatGPT.

• The company swiftly terminated the accounts involved, citing violations of its policies against coordinated inauthentic behavior.

What’s Next: OpenAI pledged ongoing vigilance against tool misuse, with a spokesperson highlighting the 'striking range and variety' of tactics across platforms, though the thwarted Chinese operations gained little traction with real audiences.

Top Stories

🧠 AI

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick: Palantir CEO Alex Karp called AI "dangerous," warning in an interview that either the U.S. or China "will win." (CNBC)

• OpenAI is appealing a lawsuit from The New York Times that seeks to compel the ChatGPT developer to indefinitely retain consumer ChatGPT and API customer data. (SA)

• Anthropic launched "Claude Gov," a tailored set of AI models designed for U.S. national security clients. (AN)

• Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai dismissed fears that AI could halve the company's 180,000-strong workforce, emphasizing growth plans through at least 2026. (TC)

• ElevenLabs launches Eleven v3 (alpha), its most advanced text-to-speech model yet, supporting over 70 languages, multi-speaker conversations, and special commands to easily adjust voice tone, emotions, and pauses for lifelike speech. (X)

🤖 Hardware & Robotics

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick: Nintendo’s Switch 2 launched amid fan-driven shortages in markets like Japan, with the company projecting 15 million units sold by March 2026, a figure analysts call conservative. (CNBC)

• Walmart and Wing will expand drone delivery to over 100 stores in five new U.S. cities—Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa—while increasing delivery volume in Dallas-Fort Worth. (TV)

• Alef, a Bay Area aeronautics company, is taking pre-orders for the "first true flying car," a 100% electric vehicle with a 200-mile driving range and a 110-mile flight range. (KTVU)

• Cornell scientists engineered a microbe that boosts rare earth extraction by 73% and speeds carbon capture 58-fold. (IE)

🚀 Defense & Space

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick Anduril raised $2.5 billion in a Series G funding round led by Founders Fund, more than doubling its valuation to $30.5 billion. (BBG)

• Japanese company ispace’s second lunar mission, Resilience, likely crashed during a moon landing attempt. (SN)

• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Senate Commerce Committee chairman, proposed adding $10 billion to a budget reconciliation bill to address proposed cuts to NASA’s human spaceflight and exploration programs in the administration’s budget. (AT)

• Kyiv-based Miltech startup M-Fly unveiled a laser-guided drone system that ensures precise targeting in electronic jamming zones. (DEV) 

• GE Aerospace is expanding its U.S. hypersonic test facility to develop weapons and drones capable of exceeding Mach 5 speeds. (IE)

💰 Venture Capital

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick: Anysphere, developer of the AI coding assistant Cursor, secured $900 million in a Thrive Capital-led funding round, valuing the startup at $9.9 billion. (TC)

• Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital raised $100 million for Shield Technology Partners, an AI-driven IT service platform that acquired four firms to bolster AI integration in managed IT services. (WSJ)

• Liam Fedus, a former OpenAI vice president of research, is raising over $100 million for Periodic Labs, an AI-driven material science startup backed by OpenAI. (BBG)

• Thread AI, a composable AI infrastructure firm founded by ex-Palantir executives, secured $20 million in Series A funding led by Greycroft. (FOR)

• Toma, an AI voice startup, has raised $17 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. (SUH)

• Allay Therapeutics, a biotech firm developing products for post-surgical pain, raised $57.5 million in a Series D round led by Lightstone Ventures and ClavystBio. (VCN)

FREEDOM

🏛️ Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Straight Woman in Discrimination Case

The Scoop: The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of an Ohio woman, Marlean Ames, who claimed she faced job discrimination due to her heterosexual orientation, striking down a rule that imposed a higher evidentiary standard on majority group plaintiffs, according to the court’s decision.

The Details:

• Marlean Ames, a heterosexual employee at the Ohio Department of Youth Services since 2004, alleged she was passed over for a promotion in 2019 in favor of a lesbian woman and later replaced by a gay man.

• The Sixth Circuit Court had required majority group plaintiffs, like Ames, to meet a heightened “background circumstances” standard to prove discrimination under Title VII.

• Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, writing for the 9-0 court, declared that Title VII does not impose a higher evidentiary burden on majority group plaintiffs.

• Title VII prohibits workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and the ruling ensures equal evidentiary standards for all plaintiffs.

• The decision vacates the Sixth Circuit’s judgment but does not fully resolve Ames’ case, as Ohio presented alternative arguments for its actions, which the Supreme Court did not address.

What’s Next: The case returns to lower courts to evaluate Ohio’s alternative justifications for Ames’ treatment, while the ruling sets a precedent that majority group plaintiffs face no heightened barrier to proving discrimination under Title VII.

Top Stories

🏛️ Economic Policy

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick: Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Catholic Charities Bureau is exempt from Wisconsin unemployment taxes, citing First Amendment religious freedom violations. (AP)

• A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, halting the Trump administration's plan to close Job Corps centers. (FBN)

• A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must reinstate hundreds of millions in AmeriCorps grant funding and restore thousands of service positions across roughly two dozen states. (AP)

💻 Business & Tech Policy

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick: Trump administration directed Energy Transfer to obtain a license for continued ethane exports to China. (OP)

• Sens. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and John Fetterman (D-PA) are jointly sponsoring a bipartisan bill to tighten restrictions on China and other foreign adversaries purchasing U.S. farmland. (FOX)

📚 Healthcare & Education Policy

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick: A federal judge, appointed by Obama, blocked Trump’s latest effort to bar international students from Harvard. (ABC)

• Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will warn medical schools to offer nutrition courses or risk losing federal funding. (ABC)

💬 Free Speech & Woke Overreach

• ⭐ Editor’s Pick: Apple's 2022-2024 transparency report shows it shared data on thousands of device push notifications with governments like the U.S., U.K., and Germany, potentially revealing unencrypted content. (404)

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