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NEW YORK (AP) — Six weeks before UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel in December, suspect Luigi Mangione mused about rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel” and said killing the executive “conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming,” prosecutors revealed Wednesday.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office quoted extensively from Mangione’s handwritten diary — highlighting his desire to kill an insurance honcho and praise for Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber — as they fight to uphold his state murder charges. They also cited a confession they say he penned “To the feds,” in which he wrote that “it had to be done.”

Mangione’s lawyers want the state case thrown out, arguing in court papers that those charges and a parallel federal death penalty case amount to double jeopardy.

They also want state terrorism charges dismissed, have asked for the federal case to go first and say prosecutors should be barred from using evidence collected during Mangione’s arrest, including a 9mm handgun, statements to police and the diary.

Manhattan prosecutors contend that there are no double jeopardy issues because neither case has gone to trial and because the state and federal prosecutions involve different legal theories.

His lawyers say that has created a “legal quagmire” that makes it “legally and logistically impossible to defend against them simultaneously.”

The state charges, which carry a maximum of life in prison, allege that Mangione wanted to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population,” that is, insurance employees and investors. The federal charges allege that Mangione stalked an individual, Thompson, and do not involve terror allegations.

Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty in both cases. No trial dates have been set.

Mangione’s “intentions were obvious from his acts, but his writings serve to make those intentions explicit,” prosecutors said in Wednesday’s filing. The writings, which they sometimes described as a manifesto, “convey one clear message: that the murder of Brian Thompson was intended to bring about revolutionary change to the healthcare industry.”

They quoted excerpts in which Mangione discussed options for the attack, such as bombing UnitedHealthcare’s headquarters, before deciding to target the company’s investor conference in Manhattan. He wrote about plans to “wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention” because it was “targeted, precise and doesn’t risk innocents.”

UnitedHealthcare, the largest U.S. health insurer, “literally extracts human life force for money,” Mangione wrote, envisioning the news headline, “Insurance CEO killed at annual investors conference.”

The company has said he was never a client.

Mangione is due back in state court June 26, when Judge Gregory Carro is expected to rule on his request for dismissal.

His lawyers asked Tuesday for his handcuffs and bulletproof vest to be removed during the hearing. They called him a “a model prisoner, a model defendant” and said the security measures would suggest to potential jurors that he is dangerous. Carro has not ruled on that.

Mangione’s next federal court date is Dec. 5, a day after the one-year anniversary of Thompson’s death.

Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind as he arrived for the conference Dec. 4 at the New York Hilton Midtown. Police say “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase commonly used to describe how insurers avoid paying claims.

Mangione was arrested Dec. 9 at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, 230 miles (about 370 kilometers) to the west, and he is being held in a federal jail in Brooklyn.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has called the ambush “a killing that was intended to evoke terror.”

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in April that she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for “an act of political violence” and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

The killing and ensuing search for Mangione rattled the business community while galvanizing health insurance critics who rallied around him as a stand-in for frustrations over coverage denials and hefty bills. Supporters have flocked to his court appearances and flooded him with mail.

Mangione “demonstrated in his manifesto that he was a revolutionary anarchist who would usher in a better healthcare system by killing the CEO” of one of the biggest U.S. companies, prosecutors wrote. “This brutal, cowardly murder was the mechanism that defendant chose to bring on that revolution.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson once clashed on the court in the 2001 NBA Finals, but now the basketball legends are joining forces to revive the Reebok brand they helped make iconic.

In the Netflix docuseries, “Power Moves,” which premiered this week, the Hall of Famers swap jerseys for executive titles, with O’Neal stepping in as president of Reebok Basketball while Iverson takes on the role as vice president. The six-episode series offers a behind-the-scenes look at their mission to spark a cultural resurgence for the classic sneaker company.

O’Neal, standing 7-foot-1, sees himself as a voice for today’s big men. But when it comes to reaching the quick, gritty guards of this generation, he knows there’s no better ambassador than the 6-foot Iverson, whose ’90s signature shoes are still a staple in sneakerhead circles.

“I didn’t build Reebok all by myself,” said O’Neal, who won three straight NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers and another with the Miami Heat. He signed with Reebok in 1992 and made the brand popular with his first signature shoe, called the Shaq Attaq.

Iverson’s signature shoes, The Question and The Answer, were some of the top sellers in the industry. He signed a lifetime endorsement and marketing contract with Reebok in 2001.

“I needed A.I. to be vice president because if you’re a guard, you want to see a legendary guard,” he said. “I wanted to do a show that’s not scripted. Not polished. I wanted it to be real work.”

Iverson called documenting his role in helping revitalize Reebok a “full circle moment” while working alongside O’Neal, who he calls “big bro.”

“I get the honor of doing this with (Shaq), having a relationship with him,” said Iverson, the former Philadelphia 76ers guard, who was an 11-time All-Star and won the league’s MVP in 2001 — the same year O’Neal and Iverson faced off in the NBA Finals. Iverson was known for being an undersized guard who played with a supersized heart.

“The type of things I learn from him — on and off the court. He’s just a beautiful guy," Iverson said about O’Neal. “He stands up to his faults. The things that he felt he did wrong in life. The way he treats his mom. All that resembles who I am. That makes this special.”

Reebok, founded in 1895, became a household name in the early 1990s, thanks to Boston Celtics guard Dee Brown and his iconic Pump sneakers. The brand took off from there inking major deals with O’Neal and Iverson, partnering with the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB, and even stepping into hip-hop with signature lines for Jay-Z and 50 Cent’s G-Unit.

But Reebok’s cultural momentum began to fade after Nike doubled down on star power with Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. Adidas bought the company for $3.8 billion in 2006, aiming to better compete with Nike on a global scale.

Instead, Reebok struggled to find its footing, gradually losing its identity in both sports and style.

“Now it’s time for us to get Reebok back to prominence,” said O’Neal, who played a key role in Reebok’s acquisition in 2021 by Authentic Brands Group, where he is a shareholder. “There’s all these competitive brands, which is fine. It makes the job harder. But for me, it’s all about motivation and trying to build.”

“Power Moves” dives into Reebok’s strategy for staying relevant, including signing rising stars like WNBA phenom Angel Reese to the brand’s first name, image and likeness (NIL) deal. The series also shows how O’Neal leans on a surprising source for insight into today’s athletes through his son, Shareef.

Shaq was initially set on creating high-top sneakers, until a visit to a massive Amateur Athletic Union tournament — with nearly 70 courts — sparked a shift. Shareef pulled his dad aside and explained that low tops are the go-to for this generation. It was a lightbulb moment that helped Shaq better understand and connect with modern players.

“I had to realize that my way is not always the right way,” Shaq said. “Sometimes, the best way to be an effective leader is listening to the ones who are really in the trenches.”

Iverson believes he and Shaq can help Reebok bounce back by paying forward the same support and opportunity the brand once gave them.

“We’re going to show our love to the brand that showed us love,” he said. “We’re putting our efforts into what they did in my life. Reebok took care of my family, my friends, me. It was a power move. We’re here to bring it back.”

Midea is voluntarily recalling about 1.7 million of its popular U and U+ Smart air conditioners because pooled water in the units may not drain fast enough, leading to mold growth.

The news comes as temperatures are rising across the U.S. and the official start of summer rapidly approaches.

The Midea air conditioners fit in windows and resonated with consumers because of their unique design, which allows consumers to close their window ‘through’ the unit.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said that the recall also includes approximately 45,900 units sold in Canada.

There’s been at least 152 reports of mold in the air conditioners. This includes 17 reports of consumers experiencing symptoms such as respiratory infections, allergic reactions, coughing, sneezing and sore throats from mold exposure.

The white air conditioners have brand names including Midea, Comfort Aire, Danby, Frigidaire, Insignia, Keystone, LBG Products, Mr. Cool, Perfect Aire and Sea Breeze. They were sold in three sizes of cooling power: 8,000, 10,000 and 12,000 BTU.

The air conditioners were sold from March 2020 through May 2025 for between $280 and $500 at Costco, Menards, Home Depot, Best Buy and other stores across the country. They were also sold online through various websites including those of Midea, Amazon, Costco and Home Depot.

Consumers can contact Midea for a repair or a refund that will be based on the purchase date or manufacture date. Individuals who want a refund will need to send the unit back to Midea with a free shipping label or submit a photograph showing that they cut the unit’s unplugged power cord.

Those who want a repair should contact Midea to have a technician install a new drain plug or be sent a repair kit that includes a new drain plug and bubble level, depending on the model.

Consumers who want to continue using their air conditioners while waiting for a repair should visit www.MideaUrecall.expertinquiry.com to find out how to inspect their unit before continuing to use it.

Individuals can visit www.midea.com/us and click on “Recall Information” for more information or call 888-345-0256 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose on Wall Street Friday following a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market.

The S&P 500 index rose 1.2% in afternoon trading. The benchmark index remains on track to notch a second consecutive winning week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 448 points, or 1.1% as of 3:03 p.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.4%

The gains were broad, with every sector in the benchmark S&P 500 rising. Technology stocks, with their outsized values, gave the market its biggest boost. Chipmaker Nvidia jumped 1.6% and iPhone maker Apple rose 2.3%.

Tesla rose 5.7%, regaining some the big losses it suffered on Thursday when Trump and Musk sparred feverishly on social media.

Circle Internet Group, the U.S.-based issuer of one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, rose 38%. That adds to its 168% gain from Thursday when it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange.

U.S. employers slowed their hiring last month, but still added a solid 139,000 jobs amid uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s trade war. The closely-watched monthly update reaffirmed that the job market remains resilient, despite worries from businesses and consumers about the impact of tariffs on goods going to and coming from the U.S. and its most important trading partners.

“It looks like, for now, everything is kind of running smoothly,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management. “Investors see that as a positive, but we also haven’t seen the full effect of tariffs yet.”

President Donald Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs continue to weigh on companies. Lululemon Athletica plunged 19.6% after the maker of yoga clothing cut its profit expectations late Thursday as it tries to offset the impact of tariffs while being buffeted by competition from start-up brands.

Lululemon joins a wide range of companies, from retailers to airlines, who have warned investors about the potential hit to their revenue and profits because of tariffs raising costs and consumers potentially tightening their spending.

Hopes that Trump will lower his tariffs after reaching trade deals with other countries have been among the main reasons the S&P 500 has rallied back so furiously since dropping roughly 20% from its record two months ago. It’s now back within 2.2% of its all-time high.

The economy is already absorbing the impact from tariffs on a wide range of goods from key trading partners, along with raw materials such as steel. Heavier tariffs could hit businesses and consumers in the coming months.

The U.S. economy contracted during the first quarter. Recent surveys by the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, found that both American manufacturing and services businesses contracted last month. On Tuesday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast 1.6% growth for the U.S. economy this year, down from 2.8% last year.

The uncertainty over tariffs and their economic impact has put the Federal Reserve in a delicate position.

“All things being equal, you can clearly see they are on hold,” Zaccarelli said.

The central bank is holding its benchmark interest rate steady as it worries about tariffs reigniting inflation. It fought hard, using interest rate increases, to ease inflation rates back toward its target of 2% and rates have been hovering just above that level.

The Fed has been hesitant to cut interest rates in 2025 after trimming rates three times late last year. While lower interest rates can give the economy a boost, they can also push inflation higher. That could be especially damaging if import taxes are also raising costs for businesses and consumers.

Wall Street expects the central bank to hold rates steady at its June meeting, but traders are forecasting that it will have to cut interest rates later this year in an effort to prop up the economy.

In the bond market, Treasury yields made significant gains. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.51% from 4.39% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks traders’ expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with overnight interest rates, rose to 4.04% from 3.92% late Thursday.

Markets in Asia were mixed and markets in Europe were mostly higher.

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AP writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

As President Donald Trump and Elon Musk argued on social media on Thursday, the world’s richest man threatened to decommission a space capsule used to take astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station.

A few hours later, Musk said he wouldn’t follow through on the threat.

After Trump threatened to cut government contracts given to Musk’s SpaceX rocket company and his Starlink internet satellite services, Musk responded via X that SpaceX “will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.”

It was unclear how serious Musk’s threat was, but several hours later — in a reply to another X user — he said he wouldn’t do it.

The capsule, developed with the help of government contracts, is an important part of keeping the space station running. NASA also relies heavily on SpaceX for other programs including launching science missions and, later this decade, returning astronauts to the surface of the moon.

SpaceX is the only U.S. company capable right now of transporting crews to and from the space station, using its four-person Dragon capsules.

Boeing’s Starliner capsule has flown astronauts only once; last year’s test flight went so badly that the two NASA astronauts had to hitch a ride back to Earth via SpaceX in March, more than nine months after launching last June.

Starliner remains grounded as NASA decides whether to go with another test flight with cargo, rather than a crew.

SpaceX also uses a Dragon capsule for its own privately run missions. The next one of those is due to fly next week on a trip chartered by Axiom Space, a Houston company.

Cargo versions of the Dragon capsule are also used to ferry food and other supplies to the orbiting lab.

Russia’s Soyuz capsules are the only other means of getting crews to the space station right now.

The Soyuz capsules hold three people at a time. For now, each Soyuz launch carries two Russians and one NASA astronaut, and each SpaceX launch has one Russian on board under a barter system. That way, in an emergency requiring a capsule to return, there is always someone from the U.S. and Russia on board.

With its first crew launch for NASA in 2020 — the first orbital flight of a crew by a private company — SpaceX enabled NASA to reduce its reliance on Russia for crew transport. The Russian flights had been costing the U.S. tens of millions of dollars per seat, for years.

NASA has also used Russian spacecraft for cargo, along with U.S. contractor Northrup Grumman.

The company has used its rockets to launch several science missions for NASA as well as military equipment.

Last year, SpaceX also won a NASA contract to help bring the space station out of orbit when it is no longer usable.

SpaceX’s Starship mega rocket is what NASA has picked to get astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the moon, at least for the first two landing missions. Starship made its ninth test flight last week from Texas, but tumbled out of control and broke apart.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Forget Brad and Angelina, Ben and Jenn, The Beatles, Brexit, or even Henry VIII and his wives. This is the biggest split in recent history. Donald Trump and Elon Musk have officially ended their bromance, and it looks like it will spell trouble for the house of government-subsidized cards that make up Elon’s business empire.

In a post on his Truth Social network Thursday afternoon, Trump said his administration could end the government contracts that are keeping Musk’s SpaceX alive.“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it!” Trump wrote.

Then he added that Musk “just went CRAZY” when Trump ordered the Feds to end the EV subsidies that were generating much of Tesla’s profits (see below). Musk was quick to fire back, hitting at what could be a major sore spot for the president: “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

It all started with Musk’s Tuesday tweet that called Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” a fiscal disaster. “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote. The next day the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the bill would add at least $2.7 trillion to the existing $36 trillion national debt over the next decade.

In the past 20 years, Musk’s companies have received more than $38 billion from the federal and local governments, the Washington Post reported, two-thirds of that in the past five years. Last year, Musk’s companies got $6.3 billion and they were expecting even more this year.

Besides EV subsidies, the money goes to SpaceX’s rocket programs, which also send and recover astronauts from the International Space Station, and launch Starlink satellites, which are used by the U.S. military, as well as by civilians.Musk has already shown with DOGE what he can do to Trump’s enemies. But what can he do to Trump’s friends? And what about his frenemies? And what about his enemies who once were his friends?

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Who says the government shouldn’t track your IRS and social security data through a contract with a for-profit company founded by one of Elon Musk’s best buddies?

Oh, that’s right! George Orwell intoned it was probably not ideal in his dystopic anti-Communist novel, “1984.” Since then, of course, Apple used Orwell’s novel title to sell computers in a commercial directed by Ridley Scott, and it turns out the people keenest on tracking every detail of your private life are now on the other end of the political spectrum from Big Brother. That’s right: The right wingers are now the ones making billions of dollars out of doing it.

As The New York Times points out, this story raises the question of whether President Donald Trump “might compile a master list of personal information on Americans that could give him untold surveillance power.” Big Brother would be proud as the company, called Palantir, has been quietly winning business from the Trump Administration to gather and assemble data on nearly every American, with the contracts totaling more than $1.1 billion since Trump took office. That’s what The New York Times found after digging through government contracting data. It includes a $795 million order from the Department of Defense.After a slight blip when its first quarter results failed to meet analysts’ expectations, Palantir stock has been rising fast — up 70% this year.

Powering the sales is a product called Foundry that’s already been adopted by Homeland Security to track immigrants, and by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services.Foundry is now looking at sucking up data from the IRS and Social Security, leaving even Palantir employees nervous.

Another key element in its success: Co-founder Peter Thiel’s close relationship with Donald Trump, who has donated tens of millions of dollars to Republican candidates. Thiel also bankrolled wrestler Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against New York gossip website Gawker which ultimately shut the website down forever. Ironically the main issue at hand in that case was whether Gawker had…infringed on Hulk Hogan’s privacy.

“The relationships that Palantir’s founders...have with senior members of the Trump administration are helpful for business,” one analyst told Reuters. Goes to show it’s not what you know, but who you know, as well as what you know about everyone without their consent.

The Palantir involvement also began with Elon Musk’s disgraced DOGE operation putting Palantir forward, before Musk left his government role last week, turning on Trump and calling his budget bill “an abomination.”

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• Apple gets bit by tariffs: Chalk up another one for tariff turmoil. Donald Trump’s effort to get Apple to build its iPhone in America is making progress, of sorts. The tariff uncertainty has pushed research firm Counterpoint Research to revise its 2025 global smartphone shipment growth forecast to 1.9% year-on-year from 4.2%, citing “renewed uncertainties surrounding U.S. tariffs.” Apple shipments are expected to grow 2.5% year-on-year in 2025, down from a previous forecast of 4%. Samsung will also see its growth slowed by tariffs. Who wins? China’s Huawei, with shipments expected to grow at 11% for 2025.
• Google wonders: WWAMD? After arguments on how best to enforce the Federal government’s victory over Google for illegally protecting its near monopoly in online search, Amit Mehta, the federal judge overseeing the case, has a dilemma: Should he force Google to share its search engine results and advertising data with rivals? Google collects nine times as much data as all its rivals combined, which creates a real barrier to competition. But now that AI is taking a chunk out of Google’s search revenue (it hasn’t yet said how big a chunk), that’s also weighing on Mehta. No word yet on when he will issue his order but expect pushback and lengthy appeals from Google.
• Zas enough: Warner Bros Discovery shareholders said “no way” to failing CEO David Zaslav, with 59% of those who voted vetoing a pay package for senior execs that included $51.9 million for the chief (80% of WBD shareholders cast ballots on the pay question). The vote is not legally binding, but it was a severe rebuke to Zaslav and his leadership team. Since Warner Media merged with Zaslav’s Discovery Communications in April 2022, shares are down about 60%, and S&P downgraded WBD’s debt to junk status, citing its money-losing cable-network business.
• Doomed to unionize: Videogame engineers who create the game Doom, for Microsoft-owned ZeniMax, have agreed on their first union contract with the tech giant. They’ll get a 13.5% wage hike and some job security. Game designers and coders have been angling to unionize for years, especially quality-control workers who work long hours testing games for bugs. No word on whether game players will now be able to unionize.
• Car talk: China’s decision in April to halt the export of rare earth metals like dysprosium and terbium has some U.S. car and parts makers thinking of opening factories in China. The Chinese decision, part of the spat over Trump tariffs, means car production could soon screech to a halt, as the rare earths prevent overheating in magnets used in electric motors that power everything from seats to brakes and fuel injectors. The Wall Street Journal reports that several carmakers and parts suppliers are examining moving some parts making to China to avoid factory shutdowns in the U.S. if there’s a motor shortage. China’s restrictions cover only the magnets, not the finished parts, so some ideas being considered include building electric motors in Chinese factories or shipping made-in-America motors to China to have magnets installed. Not exactly a U.S. manufacturing revival. Meanwhile, Tesla sales in Europe are in free fall, nosediving 49% year on year, with only 7,261 cars sold in Europe in April, even as overall battery electric car sales rose 34.1%, said the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

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• A week after appearing in the Oval Office with a black eye (he claimed his five-year-old son, X, hit him, but Steve Bannon suggested it might have been 63-year-old Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent), and announcing that he was leaving Washington to salvage the remains of Tesla (Up 45% since late Apriil, but still down 20% since Trump took office), Musk savaged the “One Big Beautiful Bill” with a blast on X. “I’m sorry but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk tweeted. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.”
• Is he upset because his DOGE project failed to deliver even 1 percent of his promised trillions of dollars in savings? Is he angry that Trump has effectively called off their bromance? Or is it all about the money? Tesla’s sales are in the dumps, the re-jigged Model Y is not going to pump sales, and the new tax bill takes aim at Tesla’s biggest source of profits: selling clean energy credits to other carmakers. Tesla’s carbon credit revenue for 2024 rose 54% from 2023 to $2.76 billion. Tesla’s net profit dropped 23% from 2023 to $8.4 billion.
• Who Benefits? A report on DOGE from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, noted more than 100 instances of Musk taking advantage of his position wielding the DOGE chainsaw to win government contracts. “Musk and individuals acting on his behalf have been involved in dozens of questionable actions that raise questions about corruption, ethics and conflicts of interest,” says the report, entitled “Special Interests Over the Public Interest.”

• Jamie Dimon and the debt crisis: That One Big Beautiful Bill Act could be the end of U.S. economic power unless the U.S. takes steps to address its spiraling national debt. “You are going to see a crack in the bond market, OK?” JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said last week. “It is going to happen.” Bond markets have been spooked by the prospect of the bill passing, leading to a selloff in benchmark 10-year Treasuries that sent yields up nearly a 0.25% to 4.418% this month. Moody’s stripped the U.S. of its triple-A credit rating, citing the government’s debt pile. Now the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has weighed in, noting the bill would add $2.4 trillion to the national debt and strip health care from 10.9 million more people by 2034. And it gets worse: If interest rates stay at their current rate, the bill would add $5 trillion to the existing $36 trillion debt. One major problem is that the bill cuts taxes ($3.7 trillion) by three times as much as it cuts spending ($1.2 trillion), just as tariffs are pushing up inflation and interest rates, making it more expensive to pay down the debt and leaving bondholders with dollars’ worth less than they had paid for them. On Wednesday, Dimon’s warnings got a boost from GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who said he’ll vote against the bill unless it cuts the debt. “This is immoral, what us old farts (are) doing to our young people,” Johnson said on CNBC.
• About those trade deals… The U.S. has still failed to reach a permanent trade deal with China, and Donald Trump thinks he may know why. Chinese president Xi Jun ping is “VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!,” Trump wrote on in a 2 a.m. tweet on Truth Social on Wednesday. Key sticking points: U.S. restrictions on advanced technology for China and Trump’s decision to revoke visas for Chinese students. The U.S. is angered by China’s recent restrictions on rare earths, which may prompt U.S. automakers to open operations in China just to get at the desperately needed minerals. Meanwhile, Trump also decided this week to block the export of some U.S. aerospace tech that is helping China build its first modern commercial jetliner, the C919. When planning began in 2008, U.S. firms rushed to sell avionics, engines, and other resources. But now the U.S. sees China as a rival, not a market for its own wares, and China is calling the plane one of the “pillars of a great power.” Some 40% of the plane is made by U.S. and other Western companies.
• Friends in high places: CZ Zhao, the Binance founder who spent four months in a U.S. prison on a federal money-laundering conviction, just got a break from the Securities and Exchange Commission: The enforcers have dropped a lawsuit against Zhao and Binance for allegedly lying to regulators about its operations in the United States and mishandling customer money. Coincidentally in May, Trump’s family business, World Liberty Financial, said it was facilitating a $2 billion deal between Binance and an Abu Dhabi-backed investment fund.

• The Joke’s on you: Byron Allen, the former comedian turned broadcast mogul and Weather Channel owner, is selling his 28 broadcast TV stations, which run across all four major networks, after failing to meet their debt payments on time. Allen made a $30 billion bid for Paramount $PARA last year and offered Disney $10 billion for ABC and other properties. The sale price has not been disclosed.
• Reddit blasts Anthropic: Endless rabbit hole platform Reddit has sued AI firm Anthropic, saying the bot maker continued to use its data even after the two failed to reach an agreement on data sharing. Reddit licenses your conversations to other AI firms to train bots, but it wants Anthropic, which calls itself the home of ethical AI, to stop. It cited an article that Anthropic engineers wrote on using Reddit to train AI models. Anthropic’s own “Constitution” tells its chatbot to choose the response that most respects property rights.
• Put that back: A nationwide police action targeting organized shoplifting gangs snared hundreds of alleged criminals in raids across 28 states last week. The blitz, led by Illinois’ Cook County regional organized crime task force, involved more than 100 jurisdictions and over 30 retailers including Home Depot, Macy’s, Target, Walgreens, and Kroger. Hard numbers on the scope of shoplifting are hard to come by, but the National Federation of Retailers says its members report shoplifting incidents were up 93% from 2019 to 2023.
• Painful labor: The employment market is weakening, according to payroll data from ADP: Private sector job creation nearly stopped in May, growing just 37,000, well below a Dow Jones forecast of 110,000. Trump found a target to blame for the poor showing: Fed Chair Jerome Powell. “‘Too Late’ Powell must now LOWER THE RATE. He is unbelievable!!! Europe has lowered NINE TIMES!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.* Buy now, pay…never? In a sign that economic gloom is increasing, defaults on lay-away plans are rising. Klarna , a leading buy-now, pay-later company, reported a 17% jump in defaults, losing $99 million across 99 million customers in the first quarter (that’s a massive jump from its $30 million loss a year earlier).
• Sick of that Peloton? Remember that pandemic-era Peloton ad with the lead actor who thought they’d never be fit enough for their partner? Well, if your Peloton isn’t bringing you the results you want, you can now sell it back to the company! Not for a profit, of course, but they’ll rehab it and resell it. Sellers will get 70% of the resale price, and a discount on the very thing they were trying to get rid of: another Peloton.