Antifa Leader Sentenced To 100 Years In Prison For Attack On ICE Facility
The Antifa attack on the Texas ICE facility in Alvarado was a highly coordinated plan, using fireworks and a fake vandalism call to lure out ICE agents and police so that they could be shot in a hail of gunfire. Responding Alvarado Police Department Lieutenant Thomas Gross was shot in the shoulder and the rifle round exited his neck during the crossfire, but he managed to survive.
Members of the group tried to escape the scene, pretending to be harmless pedestrians, but were apprehended anyway. The common excuse among those detained: “We’re just peaceful protesters…”
Eight of the activists who were found guilty by a federal jury of terrorism-related charges earlier this year learned the details of their punishments this week. The group’s leader, Benjamin Song, was sentenced to a century in prison.
Song was hit with the longest prison sentence: 100 years behind bars. Maricela Rueda was sentenced to 70 years in prison. Autumn Hill was sentenced to 50 years, along with Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten, Meagan Morris, and Elizabeth Soto. Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Critics of the conviction and sentencing claim the decision is purely “political”; designed to make examples out of leftist protesters who committed “minor crimes”.
NEW: Families of the 8 convicted protestors at the Texas immigration center shooting that wounded a police officer speak out after they are sentenced to decades in prison.
Benjamin Song was convicted to 100 years in federal prison for attempted murder after opening fire and… pic.twitter.com/aC90IttcXo
The obvious counter-argument is yes, they are being made into an example, and that’s a good thing.
Over 600 conservatives present at the January 6th protests were sentenced to prison for far less – Merely breaking a window or walking peacefully into the Capitol Building earned them a conviction and years of incarceration. This action was a true case of targeted government prosecution for the sake of making a political example. Meanwhile, Antifa and BLM protesters were given special protection.
Billions in property damage and numerous deaths later, BLM and Antifa members who were arrested used NGO funded legal resources to get out of jail quickly. Democrat run cities never pursued charges against the majority of them. This set a dangerous precedent; Antifa is now emboldened under the assumption that they can do anything they want and the consequences will be slim to none.
The recent federal court decision changes all that. At least when if come to federal facilities, they can no longer count on a two-tiered justice system to keep them safe.
The primary enablers of far left violence (which has grown exponentially over the past decade) are global NGOs and their spinoff organizations, Democrat politicians, the progressive media and a lack of prominent symbols of punishment. When you’re dealing with mentally unhinged zealots, the only way to make them stop is to make them afraid.
Until recently, Antifa has had little reason to be afraid. The system they claim to be fighting against has actually been supporting them and their insurgency from behind the curtain. The Trump Administration is set on changing this dynamic and the Alvarado, TX group is the first in line to face a reckoning.
Several vessels have already navigated the Strait of Hormuz utilizing a fresh evacuation framework established by the United Nations’ shipping agency, an official confirmed on Wednesday. More via newswires:
US Energy Secretary Wright says roughly 72 ships have exited Strait of Hormuz in last 24 hours.
“Ships have already begun to pass under the plan,”stated a spokesperson for the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO), though they opted not to disclose specific details regarding the transiting vessels.
According to the latest LSEG ship-tracking data Wednesday, at least two dry bulk carriers and one cargo vessel successfully crossed the strait under the new program within a 12-hour window.
An additional analysis of ship movements by Reuters, utilizing data from LSEG and MarineTraffic, indicated that at least 35 other commercial vessels – primarily dry bulk, cargo, and container ships – are gearing up to make the passage.
On Tuesday, the IMO noted that the framework is designed to clear the way for hundreds of vessels and roughly 11,000 seafarers who have been stranded in the Gulf to finally sail through Hormuz.
“This large-scale operation will be carried out in close cooperation with Iran, Oman, all other coastal States in the region, the United States and the maritime industry,” IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez stated Tuesday.
“We have secured the necessary safety guarantees and have thoroughly verified the conditions for safe navigation to support these operations,” he described
Notably, by and large captains and crew members have all along not abandoned their tens of millions or hundreds of millions in precious commodities/cargo – especially after already enduring the blockade for this long.
Oil tanker rates have soared since the U.S. and Iran announced the memorandum of understanding as oil importers scramble to charter vessels to pick up Persian Gulf cargoes in the hope these can transit the tentatively reopening Strait of Hormuz.
One tanker has been provisionally booked to ship crude from the Persian Gulf to India at a rate that’s nine times the benchmark for the route, shipbrokers told Bloomberg on Wednesday.
South Korea’s Sinokor shipping group, which before the war went on a buying and chartering spree to control about 120 very large crude carriers (VLCCs), will provide one of these supertankers for the shipment of a cargo of up to 2 million barrels from the Persian Gulf to India. The rate at which the tanker has been provisionally booked is 897% of the MEG-India benchmark route, or nine times higher than the normal freight cost, shipbrokers told Bloomberg.
The IMO additionally said in a note on the scheme issued Wednesday, “Vessels should wait for instructions before proceeding,”
“Crowding the waiting area will only result in the need to pause further notifications for the safety of navigation,“ it said.
The Justice Department (DOJ) announced Tuesday that federal authorities have charged 455 defendants in a nationwide health care fraud operation involving an estimated $6.5 billion in false claims against government-funded health care programs.
The cases are part of the department’s annual National Health Care Fraud Takedown, which targeted alleged schemes involving Medicare, Medicaid and other taxpayer-funded health care programs.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said during a news conference at Justice Department headquarters that the operation uncovered the second-largest dollar amount ever charged in a single health care fraud enforcement action.
Federal officials alleged that defendants participated in a range of schemes, including fraudulent billing practices, kickback arrangements and the provision of unnecessary medical services in an effort to improperly obtain government health care funds.
The operation involved cooperation among multiple federal agencies, U.S. territories and 45 states.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the administration intends to aggressively pursue individuals accused of abusing public health care programs.
“If you exploit patients for profit, if you steal Medicaid or Medicare dollars, if you treat taxpayer dollars as your personal bank account, we will investigate you. We will build the case, and we will bring you to justice,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy also noted that participating jurisdictions included 18 states led by Democratic governors.
Among the cases highlighted by federal officials was an alleged fraudulent EKG testing scheme connected to the death of University of Mobile basketball player Kaiden Francis.
According to officials, Francis’ EKG was allegedly reviewed incorrectly. Authorities said the test was examined in 11 seconds despite indications that his heart was significantly enlarged.
Francis later collapsed during a team workout in 2024.
His mother, speaking at the event, condemned the physician involved in the case.
“The doctor is as bad as any greedy criminal who is killing people in the streets. I hope he rots in jail so no one else is hurt, but my son will never come back to me. That’s the real human cost that we were speaking of on the stage,” she said.
A spokesperson for the University of Mobile said Francis had undergone multiple medical evaluations, including heart and lung screenings, before his death, and that “none of these tests indicated health concerns.”
Federal officials described the takedown as one of the largest coordinated anti-fraud operations in the nation, emphasizing what they said is the administration’s commitment to protecting taxpayer dollars and rooting out abuse within government-funded health care programs.
Google Loses Another Two High Profile AI Researchers To Anthropic
A duo of leading artificial intelligence researchers at Alphabet’s Google are planning to leave for rival Anthropic, adding to a series of high-profile departures that risk undercutting the search giant’s position in AI.
Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel, both viewed internally as key contributors to Google’s Gemini AI model, are set to move to the Claude maker, Bloomberg first reported citing unnamed sources. Adler worked on the company’s AI coding effort and Pritzel was involved in the process of training artificial intelligence systems.
The two are only the latest to take part in what is becoming a brain drain out of the search giant: the company had already lost two prominent staffers, with Nobel laureate John Jumper heading to Anthropic and star researcher Noam Shazeer going to OpenAI. Their moves rattled investors and cast new doubt on Google’s ability to compete in the fierce race to build better models.
Another researcher, Arthur Conmy, wrote on X Wednesday that he was set to join Anthropic to work on AI safety. During his time at DeepMind, Conmy was a senior research engineer who contributed to the Gemini 2.5 model as well as AI coding, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Bloomberg reported that two more Google AI employees are leaving Google for Anthropic, Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel.
Not to mention these two individuals who recently left as well.
Typically this is always a sign when a company is about to release a sub-par model. This… pic.twitter.com/Gj3fHeiRYP
Google, an early AI pioneer, spent much of the current AI boom playing catch-up with the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic before hitting its stride late last year with more capable models and chips. However, the latest defections suggest that there is internal pushback against the company’s upcoming models.
The exits highlight the rising pressure Google faces from two startups that are on the cusp of going public, offering even tenured employees at Big Tech firms the chance at a rare payday by signing on before an IPO. In at least one case, a Google departure also appeared to be preceded by shifting priorities over how to allocate precious computing resources, an issue that has prompted other employees to leave the company entirely.
Shortly before Shazeer announced his plans to join OpenAI, computing power dedicated to one of his projects was reassigned to a London-based team at Google DeepMind, Bloomberg reported. The move was made in an attempt to boost collaboration across teams and streamline Google’s work on pre-training, the initial phase of AI development in which models learn from massive datasets.
A spokesperson for Google told Bloomberg the company remains confident in its position in the market for AI talent and pointed to Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis’s remarks earlier this week.
“There’s a lot of talent movement between all the leading labs and we win our fair share of the top talent. We have by far the biggest and broadest research bench of any of the labs out there,” Hassabis said at an event in Cannes. “It’s a ferociously competitive market right now, the most ferociously competitive it’s ever been in the tech industry.”
Shares of Alphabet closed down slightly after falling as much as 1.2% during the trading day Wednesday following the news.
According to the Bloomberg report, Shazeer’s career trajectory is emblematic of the intense talent wars that have defined the AI landscape. After co-authoring a seminal paper that helped catalyze the AI boom, he left Google in 2021 to found Character.AI, a chatbot startup, only to rejoin the firm in 2024 as part of an unusual licensing deal that valued his company at $2.5 billion.
Once back at Google, Shazeer co-led development of the company’s flagship Gemini AI model. Prior to his departure, he had also been working on a new AI architecture, two people said. The architecture was still based on the transformer, a technique that Shazeer and his colleagues introduced in 2017 that has become a staple of AI development in the years since, but it had been achieving promising results. Shazeer was both an admired and divisive figure within Google: his comments within Google about transgender identity and the Gaza conflict stirred controversy among some employees, bloomberg sources said.
Jumper, meanwhile, had emerged as a face of Google’s most ambitious AI efforts after winning the Nobel Prize for landmark research using AI to predict protein folding. Adler and Pritzel, both of whom are set to join Jumper at Anthropic, worked with him on that research.
Key members of Jumper’s team on the protein-folding research have exited Google DeepMind in recent months. Some have shifted to Isomorphic Labs, an Alphabet spinout company working on AI-designed drugs.
Anthropic, which both partners with Google and also competes with it, has aggressively siphoned talent from the tech giant. DeepMind engineers are nearly 11 times more likely to leave for Anthropic than the reverse, according to a 2025 industry analysis from the venture capital firm SignalFire. That appears to no longer be the case.
Like Google, the Claude maker is exploring life sciences and healthcare applications in a bid to broaden the uses of its technology. Anthropic recently raised a new round of funding at a $965 billion valuation, overtaking OpenAI, and is considering going public as soon as this fall.
AI researchers in the UK, where DeepMind’s leadership is based, are often subject to lengthy non-compete agreements, which are enforceable under British law. Jumper would likely not begin work at Anthropic until next year, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Bill Gates told lawmakers in a recent interview that Jeffrey Epstein threatened him subtly over his affairs but did not overtly blackmail him, according to a transcript released on June 23.
Epstein in 2013 “made some veiled references that made me wonder whether he had become aware” of one of the affairs, Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, told the House of Representatives Oversight Committee on June 10.
Epstein later sent a reimbursement request to Gates, according to Gates. The request was for expenses that Epstein said he paid for one of the women with whom Gates had an affair.
“I viewed it as a tactic to reengage with me,” Gates said. “I’d never asked him to do anything with respect to the person we’re discussing, so I was rather surprised. That was the first time I knew explicitly that he’d become aware of that affair.”
Gates said he directed staff members not to pay Epstein.
Still, Gates maintained that Epstein did not blackmail him.
“He never blackmailed me, but looking at these emails, it raises a serious probability that he contemplated blackmailing me,” Gates said, referring to documents released by the Department of Justice in January.
Gates also said: “He never sent me anything that I would call blackmail. As I’ve said, he made veiled references to things like we should all want to be friends.
“Now that I see the January release of documents, it appears that in many cases he, at least in emails to himself, was sort of rehearsing how either he or he coaching someone else might choose to blackmail me, but none of those messages were ever sent to me.”
Gates had said through a spokesperson in 2023 that Epstein tried to “leverage a past relationship” to threaten him, without providing details.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died in federal prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking of minors.
Gates has said he met with Epstein multiple times from 2011 through 2014, and that he ended the relationship in 2014 after concluding that Epstein could not deliver on claims that he could raise billions for global health efforts.
Gates said in his opening statement that he should have never met with Epstein in the first place but that he never witnessed any indication Epstein was involved in criminal conduct.
He told lawmakers that it was a mistake to engage with Epstein in part because of his prior conviction, according to the newly released transcript.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, during the June 10 interview noted that Epstein’s employees were among his victims.
“Yeah, that’s a very good point,” Gates said.
“I never spent time with any women who I was aware were victims, and so that’s why I’ve enumerated very carefully when I ever saw any of those admin assistants, because, tragically, as you say, it appears in the press now that some of those women were indeed victims.
“So, to that degree, for the photos, for sitting on the plane or standing there during the magic trick, I may have been in the presence of victims.“
GOP Civil War Erupts On Two Fronts: Luna Freezes The House Floor, Trump Gets “Brother’d” By Cassidy In Senate Over SAVE Act
The Republican Party’s long-simmering tensions over election integrity exploded into open warfare on Wednesday, with chaos breaking out simultaneously in the House and Senate – and President Trump caught in the middle of both.
It started, as these things often do, with a procedural knife fight.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and a band of House conservatives declared they wouldrefuse to support any rule votes this week unless Senate Republicans finally moved the SAVE America Act – the proof-of-citizenship and voter ID bill that has passed the House multiple times but remains stuck in the upper chamber. Without a rule, the House can’t conduct normal business. Leadership blinked. The scheduled rule vote was pulled. The floor froze.
The House GOP is attempting to move a Senate Bill with NO VOTER ID and NO SAVE AMERICA ACT. I will have to be a NO on rules for this week (and maybe even longer) if they don’t stop the games. I am not the only one. Other House Members are frustrated at the games being played. This is a problem. The President agrees that the Senate needs to move Voter ID. Other Frontline Members depend on Voter ID legislation getting passed. Stop catering to a Senate that doesn’t do their jobs.
Limited to suspension votes and with tomorrow already off the table, GOP leaders were left scrambling: send everyone home? Let a rule fail on the floor? Cut a deal? Try again next week? The options were all bad.
And of course, Trump then lit a match… Hours before a planned signing ceremony for the popular bipartisan housing bill (passed 358-32 in the House and 85-5 in the Senate), the president abruptly canceled it on Truth Social, declaring he would not sign the measure “until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency.”
The housing bill – a rare bipartisan win on affordability – was suddenly held hostage to a voting bill Democrats have no intention of supporting and that Senate Republicans still can’t get to 60 votes.
The Senate Meeting Turns Ugly
While the House was melting down, Trump headed to Capitol Hill for a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans. It did not go smoothly.
According to multiple senators in the room who spoke to Punchbowl’s Andrew Desiderio, Trump arrived in a sour mood and used much of the session to vent. He hammered the SAVE Act, the filibuster, and his decision to kill the housing signing. Nobody pushed back.
Then came the moment that will live in infamy.
Lame-duck Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) – whom Trump had effectively primaried earlier this cycle – came in “guns blazing.” At one point he stopped using “Mr. President” altogether and simply called Trump “brother.”
The temperature in the room reportedly dropped. Trump, already irritated over Iran war powers votes, was further agitated. One senator later described the entire session to Desiderio as “more of a venting session for the president.”
Cassidy, freed from re-election concerns, was apparently done pretending otherwise.
The SAVE America Act: The Prize Everyone’s Fighting Over
At the center of the storm sits the SAVE America Act – the bill requiring documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and photo ID at the polls. Supporters call it basic election security. Opponents call it a solution in search of a problem that will disenfranchise legitimate voters.
The House has passed it. The Senate has not. And with the filibuster still in place, it’s not clear how it gets to 60 without major concessions or rule changes – neither of which Senate leadership appears eager to deliver.
House conservatives have decided they’re done waiting politely. Luna and her allies are using the only leverage they have: the ability to make the House floor a dysfunctional mess.
I stand with @repluna and @potus. The Save America Act must pass.
Ilegal foreign voters are electing America-hating communists. Add me to the list, it’s that important. https://t.co/rIwgothPmZ
— Congressman Max Miller (@RepMaxMiller) June 24, 2026
Trump, frustrated with the Senate’s math problem, decided to take a popular bipartisan win off the table until they fix it.
And in the Senate lunch, one of the president’s former allies decided the deference phase of the relationship was over.
Where Things Stand
As of mid-afternoon Wednesday:
The House is in procedural limbo, limited to suspension votes.
The housing bill signing is canceled.
Senate Republicans just sat through a venting session from an unhappy president.
A lame-duck senator called the Commander-in-Chief “brother” to his face.
In short – this is a collision of three different Republican power centers – House hardliners, Senate institutionalists, and a president who wants results now – all using the same bill as a weapon against each other.
Earlier…
President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a planned Capitol Hill signing ceremony for a sweeping bipartisan housing affordability bill Wednesday, saying he would not move forward until Congress passes the SAVE America Act, an elections measure he has elevated as a top legislative priority.
In a Truth Social post shortly before the scheduled event, Trump said the housing news conference and signing were “cancelled” until passage of the SAVE America Act, which he described as a “National Emergency.”
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act cleared the Senate 85-5, with Republican leaders insisting the CBDC restriction ride along with one of the most bipartisan bills in years. The House passed the bill Tuesday 358-32, putting the measure on a direct path to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature.
And so – Trump’s cancellation upended what was expected to be a rare bipartisan victory lap for lawmakers, who had sent Trump the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act after months of negotiations. The bill, one of the most significant federal housing packages in decades, passed the House Tuesday evening by a wide margin after clearing the Senate 85-5 a day earlier.
The housing legislation had drawn support from both parties by targeting the nation’s housing affordability crisis from several angles. Its provisions seek to speed up construction, reduce regulatory barriers, streamline environmental reviews, expand support for factory-built and manufactured housing, and help local governments convert vacant commercial buildings into affordable homes.
Just hours before Trump comes to the Capitol for a celebratory bill signing for the housing bill, he says it is of “minor importance” and notes Elizabeth Warren’s involvement.
In case you missed it, Trump is pushing for SAVE America Act and to blow up the filibuster — neither… pic.twitter.com/6HxHFbFk0O
One of the most politically prominent pieces of the billwould limit large institutional investors from purchasing certain existing single-family homes. Supporters argue that such restrictions could help reduce competition for individual buyers in markets where corporate ownership is concentrated, while the final version preserves a carveout for new construction.
The measure also contains a major digital-currency provision: a temporary ban, running through the end of 2030, on the Federal Reserve issuing or circulating a central bank digital currency. The language includes protections for private dollar-denominated digital assets, a provision welcomed by crypto advocates who oppose a government-backed digital dollar.
The bill’s language is sweeping: the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or any Federal Reserve bank may not issue, create, or circulate a central bank digital currency – directly or through any intermediary – through December 31, 2030.
It explicitly shields private stablecoins, carving out any “open, permissionless, and private” dollar-denominated asset.
The bill’s broad coalition had made it a rare point of agreement in a divided Congress. Republicans emphasized deregulation, supply growth and limits on Wall Street homebuying. Democrats pointed to affordability, renter protections and housing access. Lawmakers from both parties had hoped the signing would mark a tangible response to high rents, elevated mortgage costs and a shortage of affordable homes.
Now, the bill in legislative limbo with Trump using the housing package as leverage to force Senate action on election rules. The SAVE America Act has been a priority for Trump and his allies, but it faces strong Democratic opposition and an uncertain path in the Senate.
That said, if Trump continues to withhold his signature – and does nothing, the bill is likely to become law regardless. Under the Constitution, a bill presented to the president becomes law automatically after 10 days if he neither signs nor vetoes it – provided Congress remains in session. With August recess still weeks away and both chambers having passed the measure by margins far exceeding the two-thirds threshold needed to override a veto, the CBDC ban appears headed into law with or without a ceremony.
72 Ships Transited Hormuz In A Day: US Energy Secretary Says ‘Taking Away’ Iran’s Key Leverage
WTI futures briefly fell below $70 a barrel for the first time since the US-Iran conflict erupted, as tanker flows through the Strait of Hormuz are showing further signs of normalization and physical market tightness continues to ease.
Bloomberg noted that option markets are positioning for ongoing normalization. Put volume is exceeding calls, with some of the heaviest trading in August and September expiries between $60 and $68. The September $60 strike put is one of the most active contracts, along with August $60, $65, and $68 strike puts. This only signals that traders are positioning for more downside as the war risk premium in crude oil evaporates.
Earlier today, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the audience at the Reuters Global Energy Forum that roughly 72 ships carrying about 20 million barrels of crude moved through the strait over the past 24 hours. That figure is roughly one-fifth of global daily consumption.
“I could say roughly 72 ships in the last 24 hours, and 20 million barrels of oil,” Wright told the audience in New York. “We have normal flows today.”
He noted that even if the interim peace deal between the US and Iran fails, Tehran no longer has the ability to close Hormuz, saying the Trump administration has eroded one of Iran’s key points of leverage.
“Iran will not have the ability to close the Strait of Hormuz going forward. That’s a critical thing, that’s their key leverage, and we’re taking that leverage away from them,” he added.
Wright said some ships are choosing not to transit the narrow waterway due to naval mine risks, instead moving close to Iran’s coast or along the southern route near Oman with military escorts. He said that full navigation could take several more weeks.
“To return to complete normalcy takes a demining of the strait, probably a few weeks’ effort,” he said.
Tehran’s leverage will all but disappear in the coming years as Gulf producers and oil majors are set to expand a network of pipelines and export routes that bypass the Hormuz chokepoint entirely, building on existing infrastructure designed to neutralize the risk. Read the full report.
Grand Theft Auto VI Pre-Orders Begin Thursday; Wall Street Responds…
Take-Two Interactive said that its Rockstar Games studio will begin long-awaited pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto VI on Thursday. The action-packed game is priced at $79.99 and is scheduled to launch on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
“Launching November 19, 2026, for the PlayStation 5 computer entertainment systems and Xbox Series X|S games and entertainment systems for $79.99, Grand Theft Auto VI features a single-player experience set in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the series yet,” Take-Two wrote in a press release.
The last major GTA release was GTA V, which launched on September 17, 2013. Gamers have been waiting 13 years for a major GTA installment.
Last week, Rockstar Games gave gamers the best look yet inside the new GTA game, which has excited players worldwide. This comes after years of launch delays.
Rockstar just gave us the best look yet at non-enterable buildings in GTA VI
It’s not a straight up png like in GTA V and other open world games with skyscrapers but at the same time, it doesn’t have anywhere near the detail as the rest of the game. What I’m really curious about… https://t.co/Q5ko9Gpawzpic.twitter.com/kVQTiGZ4VR
Raymond James analyst Andrew Marok said the pricing for GTA VI and launch data is “broadly in line with expectations.”
Marok’s first take:
Rockstar announced pre-order and pricing details for Grand Theft Auto VI this morning. Preorders will begin at midnight local time on June 25, with two editions of the game available. The base game will retail for $80, with the Ultimate Edition (including an exclusive collection of ingame vehicles, weapons, and skins) priced at $100.
Base game pricing in line with our expectations. Based on commentary from management around pricing to value, and making the game as accessible as possible to the broadest player segment as they can, we did not expect aggressive pricing on the base game, and $80 feels like a fair trade in that department. It is slightly above the current industry norm of $70; some publishers including Nintendo have attempted to reset the bar at $80 with varying levels of success. However, if there is one game that can price at $80 without garnering significant player pushback, Grand Theft Auto VI is that game given its massive scale and anticipation.
Ultimate edition pricing also around expectations, but “high-end”/deluxe edition absent. Rockstar announced the Ultimate Edition for $100, which includes the base game plus a collection of exclusive in-game items including vehicles, weapons, character skins, and more. The Ultimate edition is priced at only a 25% premium to the base game, which would be the lowest percentage increase on an upsell edition in the post-GTA IV era for Rockstar (though given their convention of rounding to the nearest $10 for pricing, it is the closest figure they could have gotten to without “over-pricing” the SKU – $110 would have been a 38% increase).
We may not have heard the last word on premium editions. Interestingly, Rockstar announced only two editions of GTA VI in this morning’s release. That breaks with their pattern of three different launch SKUs per title, which was true for both Gen-7+ releases (GTA V and Red Dead 2). The key difference this time is that we have not yet heard any announcements about the GTA VI Online launch. Given that we would expect that virtual currency bundles and/or GTA Online exclusive in-game items to be part of any premium edition that exists when GTA Online is confirmed, we still see the possibility that there could be another deluxe SKU announced when the gaming public receives more detail on GTA Online.
Separately, BTIG analyst Clark Lampen initiated coverage of Take-Two earlier this morning with a Buy rating and a 12-month price target of $290, explaining:
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: We’re launching coverage of Take-Two Interactive with a Buy rating and a $290 PT. Later this year, Take-Two is scheduled to release the next installment of its most important and commercially relevant global gaming franchise – Grand Theft Auto VI (11/19 release date).
We expect the title to catalyze a sustainable, multi-year improvement in earnings power for the enterprise (BTIGe $10 in average earnings power over the FY27-29 timeframe) and based on other tentpole releases from the Rockstar label, there is precedent for multiple expansion throughout the prerelease marketing cycle. In tandem, we see a path to a higher share price over the balance of the year, which underpins our Buy rating and price target.
Google’s Dual Nuclear Tech Strategy Takes Shape With Kairos & GE Vernova
Google is placing its nuclear bets through more than one channel. Elementl Power, the independent developer that received early-stage capital from Google in 2025 to prepare three US sites, has now made its first clear technology choice on at least one of them.
Elementl signed an Early Works Agreement with GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH) to deploy BWRX-300 SMRs at a nearly 700-acre site in Meigs County, Ohio.
The project targets up to 1.5 GW of power production. Elementl has already filed a PJM interconnection request for the initial 600 MW. Construction remains targeted for 2030 with commercial operation eyed around 2034.
Elementl positions itself as technology agnostic. Its selection of the BWRX-300 therefore stands out, as the design draws on decades of GE boiling water reactor experience rather than the novel fluoride salt-cooled, TRISO-fueled path Kairos Power is advancing.
Google already holds a separate multi-plant agreement with Kairos targeting up to 500 MW of advanced reactor capacity by 2035, as we reported when that deal was first announced in October 2024.
Google now effectively supports two distinct reactor approaches through its capital and offtake commitments. One pushes the technological frontier with higher temperatures and new fuel forms via Kairos. The other, advanced through Elementl’s new Ohio project, favors a more conventional SMR that could encounter fewer first-of-a-kind regulatory and construction risks.
Both address the same core need: reliable, around-the-clock carbon-free power for AI data centers that intermittent sources and gas alone cannot satisfy.
Timelines remain distant. Even with hyperscaler development dollars flowing and policy momentum building, first steel in the ground is years away.
GE Vernova remains one of the most well-funded reactor developers, alongside Westinghouse, as their turbine business continues to see no end in sight for their backlog of data center related orders. The company now has multiple advanced stage projects underway including locations in Canada, Tennessee, and Europe.
Iran Calls MoU Deal A ‘US Defeat’ As Trump Touts Tehran Forced Into ‘Very Big Concessions’
Summary
Trump Hits Back, Seeks Narrative Control: “The war is going very well. As you know, we’re winning by a lot. Iran is making very big concessions.”
Iran Declares MoU A US Defeat: Tehran says the Islamabad agreement proves Washington abandoned its pressure campaign.
Hormuz Traffic Resumes under UN Auspices: About 72 ships carrying roughly 20 million barrels of oil transited the strait in the past 24 hours under a UN-backed framework.
Brent Falls Below $75, Iran war low: Oil prices dropped to their lowest level since the Iran conflict began, erasing much of the war risk premium.
Trump, Tehran still at Odds despite MoU Signing, Switzerland Summit with Vance: Trump claims Iran agreed to “NO TOLLS” or shipping fees in Hormuz, while Iranian officials continue disputing key US claims.
Despite these Contradictions, Fragile Calm Persists: Qatar is urging direct US-Iran communication as questions remain over inspections, sanctions relief, and the long-term durability of the deal.
Trump Hits Back: Iran Forced to Make ‘Very Big Concessions’
President Trump claimed Wednesday that Iran was offering significant concessions, stated within hours after Iran’s lead negotiator, Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf told a Baku audience that Iran had secured ‘US defeat’…
“The war is going very well. As you know, we’re winning by a lot. Iran is making very big concessions,” Trump told reporters at the Capitol.
“We’ll see what happens — but it has been very, very, very powerful,” the US President added. Tehran has remained insistent it never agreed to allow nuclear inspector access, and that the Strait of Hormuz is opening on its terms.
Meanwhile, the latest on the Lebanon tenuous ceasefire and crisis:
🇺🇸🇮🇱🇱🇧The first day of the round of talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington ended yesterday without any progress and in a certain sense there was even a retreat, according to two sources briefed on the negotiations
🇺🇸🇱🇧🇮🇱One of the sources said that in some parts of the…
Tehran Provokes Trump: Deal to End War a ‘Declaration of US Defeat’
The post-war narrative battle between Washington and Tehran intensified Wednesday after Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf claimed the recently signed Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) – and confirmed in Switzerland – amounted to nothing less than a US capitulation.
Speaking in Baku during a gathering of parliaments from member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ghalibaf argued that the agreement validated Iran’s long-held position that negotiations only succeed when foreign powers abandon coercion and recognize the Islamic Republic’s rights.
“The Islamabad memorandum of understanding became a declaration of the US defeat,” Ghalibaf said.
The remarks underscore the widening disconnect between how Washington and Tehran are portraying the agreement. While the Trump administration has presented the MoU as evidence that its pressure campaign forced concessions from Iran, Iranian officials continue to frame the deal as proof that the United States ultimately backed away from attempts to dictate terms.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Wednesday that the Islamabad memorandum of understanding with Washington turned into “a declaration of US defeat.”
“The Islamabad memorandum of understanding became a declaration of the US defeat,” Ghalibaf said in Baku,… pic.twitter.com/HRUltq012R
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) June 24, 2026
Ghalibaf further suggested that the agreement demonstrated dialogue can only produce results when the opposing side ceases efforts to impose its will and instead accepts Iran’s sovereign rights. Iran has lately stated that it asserted its red lines through ‘action’.
Energy Secretary: 72 Ships Have Exited Strait in Last Day
Several vessels have already navigated the Strait of Hormuz utilizing a fresh evacuation framework established by the United Nations’ shipping agency, an official confirmed on Wednesday. More via newswires:
US Energy Secretary Wright says roughly 72 ships have exited Strait of Hormuz in last 24 hours.
“Ships have already begun to pass under the plan,”stated a spokesperson for the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO), though they opted not to disclose specific details regarding the transiting vessels.
According to the latest LSEG ship-tracking data Wednesday, at least two dry bulk carriers and one cargo vessel successfully crossed the strait under the new program within a 12-hour window.
An additional analysis of ship movements by Reuters, utilizing data from LSEG and MarineTraffic, indicated that at least 35 other commercial vessels – primarily dry bulk, cargo, and container ships – are gearing up to make the passage.
Brent Falls To Pre-War Levels
Brent crude oil prices fell below $75 a barrel late yesterday, marking the first time the global benchmark has traded under that level since the outbreak of the Trump-initiated Iran conflict.
The drop in crude prices could provide relief for consumers and businesses by easing pressure on fuel costs and inflation, a desired Washington outcome of the MoU signing – for which Trump has come under severe criticism from hawks at home. Speaking of escalating, we have another early morning Trump Truth Social statement, openly contradicting the consistent stated position of Tehran leaders.
Another Bombshell Trump Post Contradicting Iran’s Public Stance
Since the Switzerland high level talks led by Vance, there’s been a series of issues where Tehran and Washington have issued clearly contradictory statements.
Trump says in the fresh statement that Iran informed the United States that there would be “NO TOLLS, NO INSURANCE COSTS, & NO OTHER CHARGES OF ANY KIND” imposed on vessels traveling through the strategic waterway.
Trump as is typical criticized media reports that had suggested Iran could seek payments from ships using the route, calling such coverage “Fake News.” He added that if the information provided by Iran proved inaccurate, ongoing negotiations between the two sides would end “immediately.”
The president also denied reports that the United States had provided funds directly to Iran or released Iranian assets without conditions. “No money has been given to Iran, or released from their money to them, by the U.S.,” he said.
However, Trump stated that Washington plans to make some Iranian funds available for agricultural purchases. According to the president, the money would be used to buy US farm products, including “Corn, Wheat, Soybeans, and more.” But Iranian leadership has vehemently rejected this narrative too.
“Food is desperately needed in Iran,” Trump said, adding that the purchases would be made “exclusively from the United States.”
Oil drops to Iran war lows on the Trump Truth social statement…
Qatar Pledges to Washington Will Hold a Firm Line on Hormuz
The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most important energy shipping routes, and any disruption or additional costs imposed on vessels passing through the channel could have significant implications for global trade and oil markets. It is officially ‘open’ in the wake of the MoU signing – but the next few days and weeks will be telling.
Meanwhile, some new developments on the Hormuz opening front, and Qatar LNG:
Qatar’s prime minister said establishing a hotline between the US and Iran is essential to prevent rogue actors impeding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, as he predicted that the Gulf state would resume normal liquefied natural gas production “within a few weeks”. –FT
Trump is also asserting that Iran will allow IEAE inspectors in, something the Islamic Republic is also vehemently rejecting.
