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⚡ It's "alive"?? University of Minnesota researchers have achieved a breakthrough in biological engineering: the first synthetic cell that replicates a biological cell's life cycle, built entirely from non-living chemical components. Gift link.

🌐 A new UN-backed commission will gather top tech executives and heads of state to forge global AI solutions. The AI for Good Global Commission will hold its first meeting on July 8 in Geneva, Axios' Ashley Gold first reported.

1 big thing: AI layoff leap Data: Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Chart: Ben Berkowitz/Axios Layoffs are falling. But where companies are cutting, AI is driving a greater share of the downsizing, Axios' Ben Berkowitz and Avery Lotz write from a Challenger, Gray & Christmas report out today. 🤖 Stunning stat: Just this year, AI has been blamed for nearly 102,000 job cuts. Since 2023, when AI was first tracked as a distinct reason, it's been cited in more than 173,000 job cut announcements, per the report. "AI is the dominant force as companies are restructuring around it, automating roles, and reallocating budgets toward new capabilities," the firm's Andy Challenger wrote. By the numbers: U.S.-based employers announced 45,849 job cuts in June, down 53% from the 97,006 cuts announced in May. Through June, employers have announced 443,604 job cuts, down 40% from the 744,308 announced in the first half of 2025, when the Trump administration oversaw a massive federal firing spree. 🔎 Tech again led all sectors, now accounting for nearly a third of all job cuts announced this year. 💡 "The sector is being reshaped in real time," Challenger said. Read the report.

Climber couple arrested after scaling Empire State Building antenna for apparent marriage proposal NEW YORK (AP) — A daredevil couple scaled the Empire State Building’s antenna Wednesday and unfurled a banner about “the power of love” and peace, apparently as part of an audacious, high-altitude marriage proposal — soon followed by their arrest. https://apnews.com/article/empire-state-building-antenna-stunt-banner-68f02bde462ee033662f3e5939142559?

Ex-CIA Director John Brennan seeks court order requiring records from investigations be preserved WASHINGTON (AP) — Former CIA Director John Brennan sued the Trump administration Wednesday, demanding a court order that would require officials to preserve records from investigations that he says are targeting him for “what amounts to phantom criminal conduct.” https://apnews.com/article/brennan-cia-russia-justice-department-investigation-0953e358307a391d6f1c0da14b18bf4e? ✈️ President Trump took flight today on his new Air Force One: a Boeing 747-8 given to the U.S. by the Qatari government. He told reporters ahead of takeoff: "This was a gift from a country that's treated us very well." How Trump got a "palace in the sky." 🇺🇸 The White House will not renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The administration is setting up years of annual reviews that bring fresh uncertainty for businesses that depend on trade with two of America's largest trading partners. Go deeper.

Microsoft Won't Let Windows 10 Die Just Yet Microsoft quietly extended free security updates for Windows 10 through 2027, giving millions of aging PCs another lease on life—and possibly setting the stage for an even longer reprieve. https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsoft-wont-let-windows-10-die-just-yet?

First-Term Trump Lawyer Torches President’s ‘Onslaught of Corruption’ The president’s staggering fortune was revealed in financial disclosures. Donald Trump’s former White House lawyer Ty Cobb accused the president of squeezing an historic amount of “corruption” into just 18 months. Trump’s staggering personal fortune got a public airing this week when the U.S. Office of Government Ethics released a 927-page financial disclosure revealing just how lucrative his second presidency has proved. The document shows Trump raked in at least $2.2 billion in 2025 alone—from cryptocurrency, real estate, legal settlements, and an array of other income streams. More than $1 billion of that came from crypto, including profits from World Liberty Financial, the venture he founded with his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, that sells “governance tokens,” and the $TRUMP meme coin he launched three days before his inauguration. This, Cobb surmised, amounts to an “onslaught of corruption.” “I don’t think it was contemplated by the founders when they created the Emoluments Clauses,” he said on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront on Monday, referencing the provisions in the Constitution designed to prevent corruption. He said crypto is a “slimy industry,” and added that the way Trump is “going around it, where he creates policies that can only enrich himself and his family, is something that I think the average American should be staggered by.” Getting straight to the point, Cobb, who served as a White House lawyer during Trump’s first term, said, “There’s no question. I mean, we are seeing the greatest onslaught of corruption in the history of mankind in the last 18 months.” He said Trump, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $6 billion, has a daily “devotion” to accumulating wealth and power and added that the “grift” is at a “stunning” scale. Cobb left the first Trump administration in 2018 after managing the White House’s internal legal team on matters related to Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation into Russian election interference in 2016. In response to Cobb’s comments, White House Spokesperson Anna Kelly told the Daily Beast: “This is the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed against President Trump, his family, and his administration for a decade. “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public—which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media. There are no conflicts of interest.” In a previous statement, shared on Tuesday, Kelly said: “Neither the president nor his family has ever engaged—or will ever engage—in conflicts of interest. “President Trump proudly made the United States the crypto capital of the world through executive actions, supporting legislation like the GENIUS Act, and other commonsense policies to drive innovation and economic opportunity for all Americans. All actions by President Trump and his administration are taken in the best interest of the American people—and any so-called ‘reporters’ pushing otherwise are recycling the same, tired, false narrative that Democrats and the legacy media have been pushing for a decade.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/first-term-trump-lawyer-torches-presidents-onslaught-of-corruption/?

How Secrets of Trump’s First Rally Show He Was Always Fake Donald Trump held his first rally in 1990. This is the true story of its brazen fakery. On Saturday night, Donald Trump will take over the National Mall to turn the nation’s 250th birthday party into a celebration of himself. “We are going to host the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a ‘TRIBUTE TO AMERICA,’” he announced on Truth Social. The event—which is to end with what Trump is hyping as the “largest fireworks show in history”—will be the most grandiose of the 80-year-old’s self-celebrating rallies, whose history now stretches back nearly four decades. But its tacky, tawdry essence will be the same as the very first Trump rally. It will be all about one man. It is certain to include attacks on the press. It may even be just as fake as that very first one. That event was a public-relations stunt touted as “a grassroots show of support” by employees at his four Atlantic City, New Jersey, casinos, two days after his 44th birthday on June 16, 1990. That was also one day after he missed $42.65 million in payments on $1.3 billion in debt. The need for counter-publicity was made clear by newspaper headlines such as “Donald Duck$” and “Uh-Owe.” The $1 billion-plus Taj Mahal casino that towered 44 stories above the boardwalk where the rally was held had been hyped by Trump at its opening as “the eighth wonder of the world.” It was now being called “the eighth blunder.” What was supposedly a spontaneous show of support had been orchestrated by a Trump advertising executive. Trump management estimated to journalists that 3,000 employees attended the rally. The Associated Press counted around 800—a pattern of numerical inflation that has become very familiar. More importantly, New York Newsday reported that one of the employees said supervisors had ordered them the day before to attend the rally. A reporter who was at the scene, but who has since left the news business and asked not to be identified, told the Daily Beast that the rally “was definitely organized” and that he got the impression “from the few people I talked to… it was a company-mandated activity they had to attend.” As Trump arrived, moving through the crowds and shaking hands, mid-level management called out, “Happy Birthday, Donald!… We Love You, Donald!” A five-piece band, booked by the ad executive, played Happy Birthday as Trump mounted a stage that had been erected for what his people called a grassroots expression of solidarity. A banner hung overhead: “We’re behind you 400 percent… P.S. Happy Birthday.” The show continued, and Trump was presented with an outsized birthday card signed by hundreds of well-wishers. He was also given a 6-by-4 rug with a woven portrait of his favorite person, himself. “Trump’s portrait on a rug,” the former reporter recalled. “I thought it was kind of tacky… like a portrait of Elvis in a motel room or something.” Trump seemed delighted by the portrait and by the rest of the rally, dedicated entirely to his favorite person. “This is unbelievable,” he told the crowd. “Nobody’s going to believe that this had nothing to do with me.” All the themes of a Trump rally were there to see. There was defiance of authorities, in this case, the banks, and attacks on the press, who had been invited to the event. Trump was reported to have been given 10 days to work out an arrangement with the banks for a bailout loan or face bankruptcy, but he dismissed reports of his financial difficulties and insisted the Taj Mahal was “setting records.” He launched into an attack against what was even then his favorite target. “I know there are reporters here, but you don’t see them writing this story,” he said. “Nobody wants to write the positives.” He then said, “Well, over the years, I’ve surprised a lot of people. And the biggest surprise is yet to come.” He repeated his remarks at the rally almost verbatim at a birthday party that night in the ballroom of the Trump Castle casino. “Just remember one thing…” he said, then repeating, “I’ve surprised you before, and the biggest is yet to come.” Among the B-list celebrities and entertainers in attendance was comedian Fred Travalena, who had been flown in to deliver an impersonation of President George H.W. Bush. “I keep hearing Donald Trump would make a great president,” Travalena’s President Bush joked. Exactly a quarter century later and two days after his 69th birthday, Trump descended the escalator at Trump Tower with his latest wife, Melania, to announce what had seemed just a jest in 1990. He had survived a prolonged financial crisis involving more than $2 billion in debt by giving up actual building and simply licensing his name. The power of the Trump brand had grown exponentially as The Apprentice demonstrated reality TV’s ability to create an illusion. He announced he was running for president, and many rallies followed, some with almost as many supporters in attendance as he claimed. But even Trump was surprised by the outcome. “Do you believe this s---?” he told a longtime New York politician who called him the morning after he was elected. As we came to his 80th birthday on June 14, Trump was in his second term. He has been doing all he can to conflate his birthday with America’s 250th anniversary. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.) Thirty-six years after the publicity stunt outside the Eighth Blunder of the World, Trump and the equivalents of his ad executive have been weaving another show—Freedom 250—that is often proving as tacky as a portrait on a motel-room rug. He acts as if it were an expression of support for him, as if all of America were out on a continent-sized boardwalk, chanting, “We Love Donald” along with, “USA! USA!” On the Fourth of July, Trump will hold another rally. This one will be on a much grander scale, but it is sure to be much like his first in all its damning pretense and denial. We can only hope that we are not in for an even bigger surprise in the days ahead. https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-trumps-very-first-rally-eerily-foreshadowed-his-july-4-takeover/?

👋 Good morning! How is it already July? Wheeling and dealing: There was a flurry of moves on Tuesday as NBA free agency officially got underway. Follow along with all the action on our live tracker. In today's edition: LeBron's leaving L.A., Kawhi's returning to Toronto, the USMNT's knockout round journey begins, Mbappé and Haaland strike again, Serena's comeback falls short, the Liberty win the Cup, and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   🚨 ICYMI HEADLINES 🏀 Kawhi returns to Canada: The Raptors are bringing Kawhi Leonard back for a second stint in Toronto, sending Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, four draft picks and a pick-swap to the Clippers for the player who led them to their first and only title back in 2019. 🎾 Shelton stunned: No. 4 Ben Shelton, the top-ranked American man at Wimbledon, is out after his first match, losing Tuesday's five-set marathon to Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen. ⚾️ Caminero joins Derby: Rays 3B Junior Caminero is the first player to confirm his participation in the eight-player Home Run Derby, coming July 13 in Philadelphia. The young star is historically hot right now, hitting eight homers in his last seven games. ⚖️ Trans ban upheld: The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld state laws in West Virginia and Idaho that ban transgender individuals from competing in women's sports. SCOTUS also unanimously ruled that transgender bans in sports are not a violation of Title IX. ⚾️ Benches clear in Boston: The Red Sox and Nationals brawled on Tuesday at Fenway Park after some post-strikeout chirping in the fourth inning between Sox 1B Willson Contreras and Nats pitcher Cade Cavalli led to the benches clearing. Contreras was ejected, while Cavalli remained in the game and had the last laugh with a career-high 13 Ks in an 8-1 win.   🏀 KING JAMES THE END OF AN ERA (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) LeBron James will indeed return for a 24th NBA season. But for the first time since 2018 he won't be playing for the Lakers, informing the team on Tuesday that his next — and, let's be honest, final — chapter will not be with the Purple and Gold. Thanks, but no thanks: The Lakers, who already have Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves signed to max deals, reportedly told James they wanted him back. Instead, the 41-year-old has opted for unrestricted free agency, where he'll be making a "happiness-led decision," according to ESPN's Shams Charania. "Wherever he lands … it will not be driven by money." Closing the book on Hollywood: The King had already cemented his legacy as one of the greatest to ever play the game even before joining the Lakers in 2018. Then he put together an eight-year run in L.A. — from his age-34 to age-41 seasons — that would have been Hall of Fame worthy on its own merits. He averaged 25.9 points, 7.7 rebounds and 7.9 assists before closing out his time in Los Angeles with a 23-7-7 across 10 postseason games as the best player and first option on a team that won a playoff series. And again, he did that at 41. He won the 2020 NBA Championship and Finals MVP, broke the league's all-time scoring record, made seven All-NBA teams and had three top-10 MVP finishes. He had more triple-doubles as a Laker (52) than all but 11 other players in NBA history have had, period. Oh yea, and he stuck around long enough to play alongside his son Bronny, making them the first father-son duo ever to play in the NBA together. What a treat it's been watching him these last eight years; what a treat it will be to keep watching him at least one more. Where will he land? Not since 2010's "Decision" has LeBron's future been so uncertain. We had an inkling in 2014 that he'd return to Cleveland, and all signs pointed to the Lakers in 2018. How about now? The Warriors appear to be the favorites to land his services (-500 at DraftKings), and though their combined age might limit their success, I can think of worse things than watching a reunion of Steph and LeBron's romp through the 2024 Olympics. The Cavaliers, of course, would make a ton of sense, and trail only Golden State among his most likely landing spots (+300). A retirement tour back where it all began on a team that's already a serious title contender? Why not. A return to Miami (+1000) alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo? A trip to San Antonio (+2000) alongside Victor Wembanyama? A box-office-breaking journey to join the defending champions (+3000) in the Big Apple? All plausible enough. We'll just have to wait and see. Go deeper: The LeBron James era is over for the Lakers — and it'll be a tough act to follow (Ben Rohrbach, Yahoo Sports)   ⚽️ ROUND OF 32 CHARTING THE USMNT'S WORLD CUP PATH (Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports) The USMNT's knockout round journey begins tonight against Bosnia and Herzegovina (8pm ET, Fox). And though the Stars and Stripes have rarely succeeded in World Cup elimination games, American soccer has evolved beyond treating a group stage escape as a moral victory. So how far could they go? And what, exactly, might their path to the promised land look like? Jay Busbee, Yahoo Sports: The United States has won exactly one (1) knockout match in all of World Cup history. Think about that for a second. While Brazil and Argentina and Germany and France are stacking up titles, America spends every fourth year getting spanked the moment it ventures out of the warm confines of the group stage. Every World Cup, we tell ourselves it's going to be different, and every World Cup, we're sent off to bed hours before the big kids. This year, though, it's really going to be different. The USMNT is coming into the knockout stage riding two victories and a loss with a built-in excuse (we were resting our best, of course). With the apparently elusive combination of talented players and a manager who knows how to get the best out of them , the United States is as well-positioned as any in World Cup history to make a deep run. How deep? Well, now that's the real question, isn't it? Mbappé is unstoppable right now. (Al Bello/Getty Images) Tuesday scoreboard: France, Norway and Mexico advanced on Tuesday, joining Canada, Brazil, Paraguay, and Morocco in the Round of 16. France 3, Sweden 0: Kylian Mbappé lengthened his prolific goalscoring résumé, adding a brace in a decisive win over Sweden. He now owns the record for most knockout-round goals in World Cup history (nine), and though his six goals this tournament are level with Lionel Messi, Mbappé's two assists give him the Golden Boot advantage... for now. Norway 2, Ivory Coast 1: Erling Haaland (who else?) scored an 86th-minute winner — his fifth goal of the tournament — to send Norway through, while team captain Martin Ødegaard became the first player since 2010 to record an assist in three straight World Cup matches. Mexico 2, Ecuador 0: El Tri remained perfect, rattling off their fourth consecutive shutout win — and first knockout stage victory in 40 years — thanks to first-half goals from Julián Quiñones and Raul Jiménez. Next up is a date with the winner of today's England-DR Congo match at Estadio Azteca, which carries one of the best home-field advantages in the sport.   🎾 WIMBLEDON SERENA'S COMEBACK WAS BEAUTIFUL, AND PROBABLY IMPOSSIBLE (Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images) It isn't terribly surprising that Serena Williams' first singles match in four years ended in defeat, falling in three sets on Tuesday to 20-year-old Maya Joint. But it was thrilling to watch as she tried to beat the impossible; and because she's Serena, she nearly pulled it off. Dan Wolken, Yahoo Sports: After 2 hours, 22 minutes of tennis that both breathed life into Williams' comeback and exposed how much more limited she is four years after we last saw her on a singles court, it was hard to tell whether this was the beginning of a new chapter or an attempt to author a different end. Maya Joint, who is so young at age 20 that she wasn't even born for Williams' first two Wimbledon titles, seemed slightly shocked and significantly relieved when Williams' final groundstroke landed long of the baseline to finally give her a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 victory. But the reality of what unfolded Tuesday wasn't surprising at all. Williams, as expected, can still hit aces and can still trade shots from the middle of the court. What she can't do, at least not with the effectiveness necessary to compete consistently against the best players in the world, is make multiple direction changes within a point. She can't go for winners to shorten points without making a multitude of errors. She can't hold up physically deep into a third set against an opponent with younger legs. Such is Williams' aura on a tennis court, however, that the mind wonders: Would she have been able to do those things if she had a series of matches under her belt rather than jumping back into singles competition at Wimbledon? Is she really that far away from being able to win matches at the highest level? With a little more fitness, a little more competition, would she round back into the kind of form that carried her to Grand Slam semifinals in 2020 and 2021? It might be best for Serena to let the mystery be.   💯 DOLLARS AND CENTS BIG NUMBERS (Mike Lawrence/NBAE via Getty Images) Today's edition of Big Numbers features exclusively monetary values. What can I say, Yahoo Sports Biz has rubbed off on me. 🏀 $500,000 The Liberty won their second Commissioner's Cup on Tuesday, beating the Aces, 93-85, to claim the lion's share of the $500,000 prize pool awarded for the WNBA's sixth annual in-season tournament. New York is now the first two-time Cup winner, and they also get a small measure of revenge for Vegas' victory over them in the 2023 WNBA Finals. Payouts: Each member of the Liberty takes home $30,000 and each member of the Aces gets $10,000. New York's Breanna Stewart earned an additional $10,000 for winning MVP after dropping 25 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists, and the remaining $10,000 will be donated to a charity of the Liberty's choosing. ⚾️ $1.19M Happy Bobby Bonilla Day! Today, as with every July 1 from 2011 through 2035, former 16-year MLB veteran Bobby Bonilla will receive a check from the Mets for $1,193,248.20. It's part of a deferred payment plan the two sides agreed upon in 1999, transforming the $5.9 million left on his contract into a ~$30 million payout broken into 25 annual installments. And get this: It's not his only such payment! He also receives $500,000 annually (2004-28) from the Orioles. All jokes aside: It's easy to consider Bonilla as little more than a meme, but he was once a legitimately good player, making six All-Star teams while smacking 287 career home runs with an .829 lifetime OPS. His peak came with the Pirates from 1988-91, when he averaged 4.5 WAR per season, won three Silver Sluggers and twice finished in the top three for NL MVP. 🥍 $100M The Premier Lacrosse League announced on Tuesday that it has closed a $100 million Series E funding round led by Ares Management and Joe Tsai, owner of the Nets and Liberty. It's the largest capital raise in the history of professional lacrosse, and will help the sport prepare for what should be a major inflection point at the 2028 Summer Games, when it returns as an official Olympic event for the first time since 1908. What they're saying: "This is a critical window of opportunity for our company, and lacrosse," PLL co-founder and president Paul Rabil told Yahoo Sports. "This capital will help accelerate that run." Specifically, these funds will be used to expand media distribution and original storytelling while also growing sponsorship and commercial partnerships, with the goal of eventually cracking $100 million in annual revenue.   📺 VIEWING GUIDE WATCHLIST: WEDNESDAY, JULY 1 (Yahoo Sports) ⚽️ World Cup, Round of 32 The USMNT begins its knockout-round journey tonight in Santa Clara (8pm ET, Fox), where the Americans face Bosnia and Herzegovina with the daunting task of winning their first match against a European opponent in five years — a streak of 10 consecutive losses. Elsewhere: England take on DR Congo in Atlanta (12pm, Fox) hoping to avoid another devastating exit. Then it's Belgium vs. Senegal in Seattle (4pm, FS1), whose winner will advance to face the winner of USA-Bosnia. More to watch: 🎾 Wimbledon: Day 3 (6am, ESPN/ESPN+) … The second round gets underway with matches for No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka (8am), No. 1 Jannik Sinner (8:30am), No. 7 Coco Gauff (9:10am), No. 7 Novak Djokovic (11:20am), and more. ⚾️ MLB: Reds at Brewers (8pm, ESPN) … The first-place Brewers (52-31) host the last-place Reds (39-45). Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events in your city.   🏆 FILL IN THE BLANKS WORLD CUP TRIVIA (Yahoo Sports) Just eight nations have won the World Cup, including two who've one exactly once. Question: Can you name those two one-time winners missing from the graphic above? Hint: One this century, one last. Answer at the bottom.   🏟️ WORLD CUP VENUES HASTA LUEGO, MONTERREY (Hector Vivas/Getty Images) Monterrey Stadium hosted its fourth and final match of the World Cup on Monday, as fans bade farewell to the iconically picturesque venue in northeastern Mexico. The Steel Giant: Nicknamed El Gigante de Acero ("The Steel Giant"), the 11-year-old venue is famous for its stunning views of the Cerro de la Silla, a natural monument that is part of the foothills system of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range. Looking ahead: With Monterrey's slate now complete, and Guadalajara's ending last week, just three non-U.S. venues have any matches left in this World Cup. Toronto's BMO Field hosts one more (July 2), Vancouver's BC Place hosts two more (July 2, July 7), and Mexico City's Estadio Azteca hosts one more (July 5).   Trivia answer: England (1966) and Spain (2010)

Birthright citizenship ruling by U.S. Supreme Court splits Florida lawmakers Although it wasn’t considered a surprise, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship provoked strong reactions from Florida lawmakers on Tuesday. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/06/30/birthright-citizenship-ruling-by-u-s-supreme-court-splits-florida-lawmakers/? Miccosukee Tribe wants ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ — but Miami doesn’t have the land back The Miccosukee Tribe wants to be the new protector of the so-called ”Alligator Alcatraz” site, calling Friday on Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to give it the territory to conserve. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/06/30/miccosukee-tribe-wants-alligator-alcatraz-but-miami-doesnt-have-the-land-back/? DeSantis is waiting too long to name judges, ex-judge tells FL Supreme Court A former appellate judge has asked the Florida Supreme Court to order Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill the vacancy opened by his own resignation, which has lingered beyond the 60 days mandated by the Florida Constitution, pointing to a “pattern of inexplicable delays in filling judicial vacancies.” https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/06/30/desantis-is-waiting-too-long-to-name-judges-ex-judge-tells-fl-supreme-court/?

Job openings stayed at a surprisingly strong 7.6 million in May; US labor market proves resilient Consumer confidence ticks up as gas prices fall but Americans remain gloomy about the economy

Egg producers settle price fixing claims The Justice Department and 17 states reached settlement agreements with three major egg producers after accusing the companies of illegally colluding to raise prices between June 2022 and March 2025. Read more. What to know: None of the companies admitted wrongdoing under the settlements. But to settle the states’ claims, the producers will collectively be on the hook for $3.3 million and 53 million eggs, New York Attorney General Letitia James and others said. Those eggs would be donated by the companies and make their ways to food banks and nonprofits. The money will be distributed to the states. The settlements would still need court approval. Average U.S. egg prices soared to a record high of about $6.23 per dozen in March 2025, amid a bird flu epidemic that forced farmers to slaughter millions of egg-laying chickens. Egg producers blamed the outbreak, but critics accused big companies of taking advantage of their market dominance and the government began its investigation.

Why most Black Americans say they never fly the American flag, according to a new AP-NORC poll DETROIT (AP) — Jerry Esters proudly displays the American flag each day on his Detroit home. A few miles away, Yvonne Pistochini says there is no scenario under which she would allow the Stars and Stripes to cast its shadow where she lives. https://apnews.com/article/poll-american-flag-patriotism-black-b66ff2a116643523eab6c670cc94a95d?

Federal judge denies effort by Trump administration to get New Hampshire’s detailed voter data A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the Justice Department aimed at compelling New Hampshire to turn over its voter rolls, dealing the Trump administration another setback in its quest for detailed information about the nation’s voters. https://apnews.com/article/justice-department-voter-list-new-hampshire-trump-8d490c0f19b8658abe00f0b6b2cba408? Trump announces first-ever midterm convention for Republicans Republican Tom Kean Jr. reveals depression diagnosis after four-month absence from Congress House GOP deadlocks over Trump’s demands, sending lawmakers home early Trump’s actions signal a move toward institutionalizing people with disabilities, advocates warn Filing shows Trump took in about $1.2 billion from crypto businesses last year Trump administration suspends funding for New York’s Medicaid fraud unit Harvard professor with polarizing alien theories is picked to lead new White House UFO council

The divided Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship decision exposes sharp rifts among justices The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that children born in the U.S. are citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment, rejecting an order President Donald Trump issued at the start of his second term declaring children born to people who are in the country illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. Read more. Why this matters: The ruling highlights a significant rift between the justices, particularly between Justices Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The majority, which included Justice Jackson, determined that birth on U.S. soil plus being subject to U.S. law is enough for citizenship. Dissenters like Justice Thomas argued that the parents must have a deeper allegiance to the U.S. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Takeaways from Supreme Court term Supreme Court strikes down limits on party spending in federal elections, backing Republican appeal Writer E. Jean Carroll calls for Trump to pay $5.8M after high court appeal fails Supreme Court will consider whether laws known as assault weapons bans violate the Second Amendment NPR retracts article mistakenly reporting Justice Alito’s retirement, citing misunderstanding Judges strike down Trump administration’s overhaul of student loan forgiveness program Nursing gains ‘professional’ label for student loans after judge’s ruling, but theology now dropped

July 1, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. It’s going to be another hot one for much of the United States today. Stay hydrated and out of the sun if you can. I’m going to start again with the Supreme Court, which ended its term yesterday with some big decisions. And then we’ll get to the rest of the news, including LeBron James’s decision to leave the Los Angeles Lakers. Allison Robbert for The New York Times A separation of powers In some of its biggest rulings this year, the Supreme Court pushed back against President Trump. Its justices struck down his executive order to revoke the birthright citizenship enshrined in the 14th Amendment yesterday, rejecting what was perhaps his most extreme assertion of executive authority. Trump wasn’t cowed. In a social media post he said that the court’s decision was “too bad for our Country” and asserted that he could “easily make it up in Congress through Legislation,” and that “no long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary.” He called on Congress to start that work immediately. Erica Green and Michael Gold, two of our reporters in Washington, said that Trump would likely need a constitutional amendment to reverse the decision, and that such a measure would face long-shot odds in both the House and the Senate. Legislation would require support from Democrats unlikely to provide it, and from Republicans perhaps unwilling to risk voters in battleground districts ahead of the midterm elections. Polls show that most Americans support the right to birthright citizenship, including 38 percent of Republicans. Allison Robbert for The New York Times But a reaffirmation that children born in the United States are Americans doesn’t mean the court hasn’t ruled in Trump’s favor on other occasions. They lifted limits on campaign spending, in a Republican victory, and continued Trump’s rollback of transgender rights by upholding West Virginia and Idaho laws that prohibit transgender athletes from playing on girls’ and women’s sports teams. “The headline might be: ‘Court checks Trump,’ but the through line is a concentration of power towards the presidency, towards the court itself and away from Congress, federal agencies and voters,” one lawyer who argues regularly before the court told my colleagues Ann Marimow and Abbie VanSickle. The decisions, he added, could “fundamentally change the relationship between citizens and their government.” It’s Roberts’s court Another takeaway from yesterday, and from the nearly 60 cases the court ruled on during this term that started in October? Ann and Abbie, joined by Adam Liptak, who has covered the court for decades, say it’s the lasting authority of the chief justice: Chief Justice Roberts showed once again that he was in control of the court he joined more than 20 years ago. He voted in the majority more often than any of his colleagues. And he wrote for the majority in nearly all of the most significant cases this term, including the court’s decisions to block the president’s birthright citizenship order and his attempt to impose sweeping tariffs. In those cases, the chief justice was able to assemble ideologically diverse coalitions with the liberal justices and one or more of the justices nominated by Mr. Trump in his first term. Read more takeaways here. (We’ve made this story free for you to read, along with some others in this newsletter.) Anger management Justice Amy Coney Barrett was part of a few of those ideologically diverse coalitions. That infuriated some on the right, both in Congress and on the internet, who assailed her after she ruled on Monday, in a 5-to-4 decision, that Mississippi could count mailed ballots after Election Day. “Remember Election Day? This disastrous SCOTUS decision, authored by Justice Barrett, guarantees we’ll keep drifting away from it — as our sacred elections get bogged down by endless mail-in ballots and never-ending counts,” Representative Abe Hamadeh of Arizona wrote on social media. The former Fox News host Megyn Kelly was of the same opinion. “Amy Coney Barrett is a turncoat,” she posted. “She’s constantly siding with the left.” According to a Times analysis, members of the court’s conservative bloc, including Barrett, have voted for a liberal-leaning result just 19 percent of the time. More on the Supreme Court Yesterday’s campaign finance decision, which rolled back restrictions on political party spending, is likely to benefit Republicans: Their committees are flush with cash, and they can start spending immediately on midterm battlegrounds. NPR published, and then quickly retracted, an article by the veteran reporter Nina Totenberg saying that Justice Samuel Alito was retiring. A Supreme Court spokesman said the article was “inaccurate.” In the video below, Adam Liptak explains how the Supreme Court rulings this week affected the power of the presidency. Click to watch. The New York Times SEEING GREEN Trump made at least $2.2 billion during his first year back in the White House, including about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses, according to a mandatory financial disclosure last night. Trump is a major crypto operator and the industry’s top policymaker, dual roles that seemed to pay off. One of the president’s biggest hauls came when an investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates bought nearly half his family’s main crypto company, World Liberty Financial. Trump collected hundreds of millions of dollars from sales of his $TRUMP memecoin and World Liberty’s digital tokens. His main family business, the Trump Organization, pulled in millions by licensing the Trump name to properties in places like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. COLORADO PRIMARIES Melat Kiros Chet Strange for The New York Times It was a good night for Democratic insurgents in Colorado. Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old lawyer and democratic socialist, took down a veteran congresswoman in a Denver-area district. And Phil Weiser, the state attorney general, upset Senator Michael Bennet in the Democratic primary for governor. In a third closely watched primary, Senator John Hickenlooper held off a progressive challenger, partly by moving to the left. THE LATEST NEWS Midterm Elections Democrats face an uphill battle to win control of the Senate but new Times/Siena polls show they are competitive in six Senate battleground states. The Republican Party is planning an unusual midterm convention in Dallas in September, Trump said. Politics Representative Tom Kean Alex Kent/The New York Times Representative Tom Kean, the New Jersey Republican who disappeared from Congress without explanation in March, returned to Washington yesterday and revealed he’d been hospitalized for depression. Far-right House Republicans blocked discussion of the annual defense policy bill in an attempt to force action on a voting restriction bill that Trump champions. The U.S. government lifted its restrictions on the A.I. company Anthropic, allowing it to bring its most powerful technologies back online. DOG DAYS Source: National Weather Service. Data is as of 5:24 a.m. Eastern on July 1. The New York Times Summer heat has taken over the Midwest and is spreading east. More than 160 million people in America are under extreme heat warnings. Heat index values — a measure of what the temperature feels like to the human body, when humidity is considered with the air temperature — could reach as high as 115 degrees. Explore maps and forecast data for your hometown. And here are tips for how to stay cool and safe (it’s a free link). OPINIONS The New York Times Ezra Klein talks to Chris Rufo about right-wing activism, D.E.I. and the future of the American republic. I’m gay, not queer, and that distinction matters, personally and politically, Matthew Vines writes. (This link is free.) Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS In Kyiv, Ukraine. Oksana Parafeniuk for The New York Times Last dance: Prom meant everything to Masha Polska, a ninth grader in Kyiv, Ukraine. But when the big day came, her date had to waltz alone. (This link is free.) Rivals: Two neighboring mountain towns in Mexico are fighting over which is the true birthplace of Mexican soccer. Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about whether American-style parenting has spoiled French children. Village person: Victor Willis, the Village People lead singer (and resident helmeted police officer), co-wrote hits including “Y.M.C.A” and “Macho Man.” He died at 74. TODAY’S NUMBER $2.77 trillion — That is the value of corporate deals announced worldwide during the first half of this year. It is the highest midyear total since 2002. And a lot of the deals were big. Forty-seven of them, collectively worth about $1.3 trillion, were valued at $10 billion or more, up an astounding 62 percent year on year. SPORTS World Cup France looked unstoppable in a 3-0 rout of Sweden. Kylian Mbappé scored twice, and now has the record for World Cup knockout-round goals. Mexico blew away Ecuador. The 2-0 victory was Mexico’s first knockout win in 40 years. Norway’s superstar, Erling Haaland, scored in the 86th minute to help his team past Ivory Coast, 2-1. Next up: Brazil. More Sports Serena Williams fell short in her first Wimbledon singles match since 2022. LeBron James plans to return for his 24th N.B.A. season — but not with the Los Angeles Lakers. Here are six teams he might join. RECIPE OF THE DAY Michael Kraus for The New York Times We’re at just about peak strawberries here on the East Coast, and I’m not cooking them for anyone. No need. Just wash and dry and slice, then top with a simplified Swedish cream — a combination of sour and heavy cream anointed with sugar or honey. Summer! SNUGGLE UP Robin Byrd HBO “The Robin Byrd Show” ran on Manhattan public access television from 1977 until 1998, a sex-positive, freewheeling late-night party conversation. “More kitschy than carnal, the shows were fueled by a goofy exhibitionism and a winning enthusiasm for a wide variety of sexual orientations,” our critic Jeannette Catsoulis writes. Now a new documentary, “Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story,” explores Byrd’s life as an entertainer and bikini-clad First Amendment warrior. The film’s “as saucy, warm and uninhibited as its subject,” Jeannette says, with “a ramshackle charm and a nostalgic heart.” Read her review. 👙 More on culture How to build a landscape in your yard: slowly. “You need to grow a garden, don’t you?” the English landscape designer Dan Pearson told us. “And even just the ideas — you need to grow those ideas. So there’s much to be said, I think, for taking the time to understand something.” His tips. What’s an “American” movie, anyway? Our staff compiled 10 wide-ranging examples, including “There Will Be Blood” and “Nashville.” THE MORNING RECOMMENDS The New York Times Relieve your “tech neck” with these simple exercises. Listen to the new Phoebe Bridgers single, “Lost Boys.” Our Jon Pareles is into it. Consider new sheets. The testing-obsessed sleepyheads at Wirecutter found the very best ones. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was womanhood. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

AI is getting absolutely spot on it seems, then I saw the links and it was to my posts in sites such as Club Adventist. Ouch...

⚽️ U.S. heads for the knockouts Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images The pressure ratchets up significantly for the U.S. men's soccer team tonight in its quest to make a historic World Cup run on American soil, Axios' Bob Gee writes. The U.S. faces Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara, Calif., in the round of 32 (8 p.m. ET, Fox). 🇧🇦 Bosnia is the lowest-ranked European team in the tournament. It's on par with Australia, a team the U.S. beat 2-0 during the group stage. 😱 Yes, but: The Americans have lost to the last 10 European opponents they've faced — a streak dating back to a 3-1 defeat to the Netherlands in the first knockout round of the last World Cup. One big plus: USMNT's star attacker Christian Pulisic, hobbled earlier with a calf injury, says he's good to go tonight. Go deeper.

📉 Mag 7? More like Lag 7 Data: FactSet. (Mag 7 is the "original" cohort: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla and Meta.) Chart: Matt Phillips/Axios The "Mag 7" tech giants that carried the stock market out of the COVID era are starting to look more like the Lag 7, Axios' Matt Phillips writes. Investors are rotating away from companies spending on AI to those supplying the equipment: Micron, Intel, etc. Why it matters: The AI boom is creating lots of uncertainty, even for tech behemoths that have long seemed invulnerable. 😨 By the numbers: The Mag 7 were down 3.1% on average this year through Monday's close. The S&P 500 was up about 8.7% over that period. The S&P 500 was up 14% in the quarter that ended yesterday. That was the best three months in six years — since Q2 of 2020, when markets rebounded after the COVID selloff. Go deeper.

💰 Trump reaps $1.4 billion from crypto Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images President Trump pulled in more than $2.2 billion in his first year back in office, powered by roughly $1.4 billion from crypto ventures, new financial disclosures show, according to his 927-page disclosure, released yesterday. The filings offer the clearest picture yet of a president profiting from an industry he regulates. The disclosure pegs Trump's assets at a minimum of $2.4 billion, but ranges cap at more than $50 million per holding, so the real total could be higher, The New York Times reports. He also reported $86.5 million from settling five suits against ABC, CBS, YouTube, Meta and X. The White House told The Washington Post that Trump has never had a conflict of interest and any suggestion otherwise is a "tired, false narrative." Go deeper (gift link).

Top AI model Fable is back Obtained by Axios The Trump administration lifted export controls on Anthropic's powerful Claude Fable 5 model, which had been pulled offline 19 days ago because of security fears. Access should return today. Why it matters: Claude-pilled users had been going through Fable withdrawal. "Fanning my agents out now!!" one young user texted me when the news broke last night. The letter from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also covered Mythos 5, which is available to certain cybersecurity users. Last week, the Trump administration allowed Anthropic to restore access to Mythos 5 for a select group of government-approved organizations. Lutnick said in a post on X that his office had "worked closely with Anthropic to analyze and approve Fable 5 to ensure alignment across the US Government and strengthen America's leadership in AI." Screenshot: X 🛰️ The big picture: The U.S. government's role in regulating and evaluating frontier AI models before release is still up in the air — creating an ad hoc regulatory environment for AI companies. OpenAI rolled out GPT-5.6 to a small set of approved customers last week after a request from the U.S. government to stagger deployment. Read Anthropic's post, "Redeploying Fable 5."

Trump backs MAHA in "shocking" Oval Office fight Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Tensions over pesticide use erupted in a heated Oval Office meeting last week, Axios' Alex Isenstadt scoops. The confrontation exposed a sharp fault line in Trump's coalition: the push by RFK's MAHA movement to reduce conventional pesticides vs. farming interests determined to preserve them. 🥊 The long-running fight came to a head during a tense Oval Office meeting last Thursday. Trump, HHS Secretary RFK Jr., Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall met to discuss a pesticide-focused executive order. 🧑‍⚖️ Kennedy's team was already on edge over a Supreme Court ruling earlier that day that handed the pesticide industry a major legal win. Kennedy told Trump that his order to cut pesticides in the food supply and study their effects would help offset it, according to three people familiar with the meeting. 🧑‍🌾 Duvall, whose organization represents more than 5 million farming and ranching members, was adamant that Trump not sign the order — warning that doing so could cost him the support of farming interests. Jonathan Lundgren, a South Dakota farmer and former USDA official who attended the meeting, tells Axios that Duvall's decision to forcefully confront Trump was "shocking," and that the president appeared concerned and "wanted to understand why Zippy was so worried." 😡 Trump had been expected to sign the order that afternoon. Suddenly, that wasn't so certain. What followed was a clash between Kennedy's team and Duvall, according to three people familiar with the fight. The most heated exchange took place between Duvall and Kennedy deputy Calley Means, who told Duvall that it was clear that he hadn't read Trump's order. Trump eventually signed the order. Duvall then said he'd support it. Mike Tomko, an American Farm Bureau Federation spokesman, disputed the idea that Duvall was against exploring pesticide alternatives. Tomko said Duvall's concerns centered on the "insinuation that our food supply is not safe."

🗳️ Socialist momentum: 30-year incumbent ousted Colorado's progressive left won Democratic primaries for Congress and the statehouse last night, Axios Denver's John Frank, Esteban L. Hernandez and Alayna Alvarez write. A socialist toppled a House Democrat: Melat Kiros, 29, beat 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette in Denver's deep-blue 1st District, despite being badly outspent by an incumbent who first won the seat before Kiros was born. A senator went down: Attorney General Phil Weiser upset Sen. Michael Bennet, a one-time 2020 presidential hopeful, by 10 points in the governor's primary. Bennet had deeper pockets and higher name ID. But Weiser pitched himself as the tougher fighter against President Trump. The establishment couldn't stop the left: A progressive won the secretary of state nomination. Several statehouse incumbents lost their primaries to left-wing challengers. Why it matters: Colorado shows New York's Zohran Mamdani-fueled victories for the left weren't a fluke. The antiestablishment surge is real, and Democratic incumbents have good reason to sweat their own primaries. Even the establishment's biggest win came with a warning. Sen. John Hickenlooper won renomination, but progressive Julie Gonzales beat him in Denver and still took almost 45% statewide. Read on.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY July 1 1997 Hong Kong returned to China At midnight on July 1, 1997, Hong Kong reverts back from British rule to Chinese rule. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 19th Century 1867 Canada established as a self-governing state 1898 The Battle of San Juan Hill 1960s 1963 U.S. Post Office introduces zip codes Arts & Entertainment 1984 PG-13 rating debuts Civil War 1863 The Battle of Gettysburg begins Cold War 1947 “Mr. X” article on Soviet Union appears in Foreign Affairs Crime 2003 Kobe Bryant accuser goes to police Inventions & Science 1979 The first Sony Walkman goes on sale 2005 Last Ford Thunderbird produced Women’s History 1972 First standalone issue of “Ms.” Magazine is published World War I 1916 Battle of the Somme begins World War II 1942 The Battle of El Alamein begins