Flagship

Iran fires first missiles at Israel since truce

Tehran on Sunday fired missiles at Israel for the first time since the ceasefire in the Iran war took effect in April, threatening to trigger a new wave of escalation. The attack came after Israel struck the outskirts of Beirut in its campaign against Hezbollah, days after Washington announced a new truce in Lebanon; Tehran has said any peace deal with the US and Israel would require a ceasefire in Lebanon. Israel said it intercepted the missiles — which led Iraq and Syria to close their airspace — and threatened to strike back “with force.” US President Donald Trump told Axios he would tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate, though Israel’s hard-right national security minister said: “Tehran must burn tonight.”

US eyes plan for Iranian assets

Washington is reportedly looking to redirect Iranian assets to Gulf countries to help them rebuild following strikes from Tehran. A recent wave of attacks against Kuwait and Bahrain has damaged infrastructure including energy facilities, military sites, and airports. The initiative from the Trump administration comes as the $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets grows more central to peace talks: Tehran is insisting on their release, and Washington’s plan “risks further chilling negotiations,” Bloomberg wrote. But it could win favor with Gulf allies that have come under bombardment in a war they didn’t start and are wary of US policy unpredictability — concerns that were heightened last week when President Donald Trump lambasted longtime regional mediator Oman.

Saudi’s NEOM faces massive penalty fees

Saudi Arabia’s authorities expect to spend more money paying penalty fees from canceled projects at NEOM, a futuristic new city, than building over the next five years, Semafor’s Matthew Martin reported, in the latest sign of retrenchment in one of the world’s most ambitious development projects. Despite robust war-driven oil revenues, authorities have had to make sweeping cuts to the kingdom’s Vision 2030 diversification efforts after years of budget deficits and missed foreign investment targets, and as Saudi increases its defense spending amid war. Riyadh’s sovereign wealth fund recently froze spending on foreign consultants and has begun replacing pricier foreign executives with Saudi ones — a move “more about cuts and strategic reorientation” than developing domestic talent, an expert told the Financial Times.

US-European immigration rift grows

The US Defense secretary attacked European immigration policies in a speech commemorating the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, reflecting the growing rift between Washington and its transatlantic allies. Speaking in France on Saturday, Pete Hegseth decried a modern “invasion” of “boats and men,” one day after the US vice president blamed a British teenager’s murder on “mass migration.” Both sets of remarks drew pushback and rekindled broader European anxieties over the stability of the continent’s US-led security arrangements. Europe is “now spending real money on defense,” Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer told Ezra Klein, but “they’re not spending on the American military-industrial complex.” Instead, countries like Poland are plowing funds into their own defense firms.

India ‘cockroach’ party energizes youth

An Indian political movement that began as satire attracted thousands of supporters in a protest Saturday, reflecting real frustration among the country’s youth. The Cockroach Janta Party was started by a recent Boston University graduate after India’s chief justice compared young unemployed Indians to cockroaches. Anger swelled last month after a medical school entrance exam was voided over a leak, setting millions back in their careers. The protesters in New Delhi were “disillusioned with the institutions of the republic itself” amid a tough job market and rising costs, Scroll wrote. The party is demanding India’s education minister resign, and investors are watching to see whether the protest widens to the level of other mass youth-led protest movements in Asia.

Chinese blue-collar wages rise

Wage growth for blue-collar workers in China has outpaced that of their white-collar peers for six consecutive years, in a sign of the country’s booming gig economy. More than 300 million Chinese people are now in “flexible” employment setups, according to a new think tank report. Food delivery drivers were among the highest-paid blue-collar workers, with annual income growth exceeding 10% from 2023 to 2025. The country’s tech-driven delivery sector has mushroomed in recent years, and many drivers work grueling schedules. Stagnating white-collar wages, meanwhile, could compound anxieties in China around AI’s impact on the workforce. Hundreds of people — 10% of whom were recent college graduates — applied to a job listing for shepherds in Inner Mongolia, reflecting China’s labor market strains.

Consumer industries struggle; tech booms

The US economy is reliant on tech and rich people, while consumer industries and poorer people are falling behind. The data center boom is driving economic growth, but traditional consumer goods companies are struggling, the Financial Times reported, hobbled by insurgent rivals and flat population growth. Rich people’s wealth has been boosted by the surging stock market, Moody’s chief economist told Bloomberg, and their spending has driven the economy’s resurgence but leaves it vulnerable if the market falters. At the same time, the lower half of earners have barely seen wage growth for a year, and 37% of Americans could not cover an unexpected $400 expense from cash or savings, data showed, up from 32% in 2021.

They have landed interviews with Taylor Swift, A$AP Rocky, Olivia Rodrigo, and Bad Bunny by offering what most celebrity media won’t: no question approval, no topic restrictions, and years of credibility. On this week’s episode of Mixed Signals, the hosts of The New York Times’ Popcast show join Max and Ben to talk about the evolution of their two-decade-old podcast, killing the written review, and whether literacy is over.

Amazon’s robot understands English

Amazon unveiled a warehouse robot that understands English, a sign both of embodied AI’s progress and the retail giant’s drive to automate its workflow. Progress in smart robotics has always lagged cognitive AI; even in the 1980s, AI pioneers noted that AI could easily do things humans found hard, like chess, but struggled at things humans found easy, like picking up a ball. That may be shifting: “Vision-language-action” models are improving fast, and more than $34 billion was poured into robotics last year. Amazon has long bet automation will be the cheap option: Leaked documents suggest robots could spare it from hiring 600,000 workers by 2033, even as sales double, saving 30 cents per item.

Study probes bias in academia

A new report on the state of scholarship in the humanities and social sciences rejected the notion that the field has been wholly corrupted by left-leaning political aims — but it found politicization has nevertheless damaged the quality of research across disciplines. The study, commissioned by the chancellors of Vanderbilt University and Washington University in St. Louis, argued there’s nothing wrong with academics having political beliefs. The problem, rather, is “distortion” — when “disciplinary norms” lead to results that serve a predetermined political project. Outside pressure from both sides also contributes: for example, a grant-giving pledge prioritizing social justice, or a Texas professor who was told to drop Plato from his syllabus under a rule barring courses that advocate “race and gender ideology.”

Human receives multiple pig organs

A patient received two kidneys and a whole liver from a pig, the first example of multi-organ xenotransplantation. The patient was brain-dead, and the procedure, which was performed in China, was a trial, but the organs — from a pig genetically modified to improve compatibility with human immune systems — were not immediately rejected. Kidneys and livers often need to be transplanted together as liver failure often damages kidneys. Small numbers of people have received single or partial pig organs. There is a huge shortage of organs available for transplantation — in the US, over 100,000 people are awaiting transplants, and over 4,700 die waiting every year — and researchers hope that pig organs can improve supply and save lives.

• Key US elections: The state of Maine holds primaries (Tuesday) in what has shaped up to be a tumultuous race: Incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins runs uncontested, while Democratic candidate Graham Platner has faced a series of scandals. President Donald Trump’s influence is tested with his endorsement of Republican Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in the South Carolina governor’s primary (Tuesday).
• Diplomatic visits: Chinese leader Xi Jinping makes a rare state visit to North Korea, marking his first trip to Pyongyang in seven years (Monday-Tuesday). Pope Leo XIV is making an official trip to Spain to address the immigration crisis and to inaugurate the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona (through Friday).
• Key reports: The US and China release May inflation data (Wednesday), followed by France, Germany, and India (Friday).
• Tech: Apple kicks off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (Monday), CEO Tim Cook’s final atop the company. SpaceX is expected to go public (Friday), in what is estimated to be the largest IPO in Wall Street history.
• Energy: The Asia Clean Energy Forum begins at the Asian Development Bank in Manila (Monday-Thursday). BloombergNEF holds its BNEF Summit in Amsterdam, convening policymakers, investors, and industry leaders to discuss the future of energy in Europe (Monday).
• Sports: The New York Knicks face the San Antonio Spurs in games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals (Monday and Wednesday). The FIFA World Cup kicks off in Mexico: South Korea takes on the Czech Republic, and Mexico faces off against South Africa (Thursday).

Rafa, directed by Zach Heinzerling. Following tennis star Rafael Nadal’s 2024 comeback after a yearlong medical absence, this four-part series explores the 22-time Grand Slam winner’s relationship with pain, which Nadal suffered throughout his decadeslong career. In addition to a degenerative foot syndrome, Nadal at various times suffered from knee tendinitis, recurring abdominal tears, and — the subject of this documentary — a chronic hip injury that led to his first retirement. For Nadal, “pain has always felt like weakness leaving the body,” The New Yorker wrote. “Rafa shows the boons of this ideology, as well as its undeniable costs.” Stream Rafa on Netflix.