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Trump Rages At Netanyahu & Big Tech Is Buying California Politics

Anthropic's IPO Ambitions & A Parasite Threatens American Beef

Author

Marcus Gee-Lim
June 02, 2026

Hi readers, happy Tuesday! Today we’re covering the Iran-U.S. conflict restarting, big tech’s political ambitions in California, the Israel-Hezbollah problem, Britain and France vs. Russia, Trump’s Anti-Weaponization Fund, the parasites threatening American beef, and Anthropic’s IPO ambitions.

“Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.” ― Edgar Allan Poe

Sliding Strait Back To War

To the surprise of no one, the fragile peace between the U.S. and Iran has collapsed, and there’s no end to the conflict in sight. Yesterday, Tehran announced that it would be suspending all negotiations with the U.S. in response to Israel’s decision to expand its offensive in Lebanon (more on that later). Alongside that statement, Iran vowed “to completely block the Strait of Hormuz and activate other fronts including the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, in order to punish the Zionists and their supporters.”

The news followed up on yet another tense weekend — the U.S. carried out more so-called “self defense” airstrikes on targets in Iran, and Iran’s military claimed that it had responded by striking a U.S. airbase. Rumors that Iran’s president (largely a figurehead, even during peacetime) had resigned from his post on Sunday night, but no reputable source has verified those claims.

Soon after Tehran stated that it was pulling out of peace talks, Trump commented on negotiations during an interview with CNBC. The president said the talks had started “to get very boring,” adding, “I don’t care if they’re over, honestly. I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less. If they’re over, they’re over.” Just a few hours before that blow-up, Trump had posted on social media that talks were “continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Oil prices jumped more than 4% yesterday in response to all the bad news.

A Political Gold Rush

Today, voters in California will cast their ballots in the state’s primary elections. Tech billionaires have chosen this year to spend big on politics, burning hundreds of millions of dollars in order to lock in their influence over the state. That effort comes in the form of bankrolling individual candidates, as well as pushing for ballot measures that will help protect their wallets over the next few years.

Sergey Brin, the billionaire co-founder of Google with a net worth of more than $290 billion, has spent over $66 million fighting a one-time 5% tax on billionaires in California, which would use the revenue to fund health care programs, food assistance, and public education. He also spent $500,000 fighting an “overpaid CEO” tax ballot measure in San Francisco, going as far as funding a “poison pill” ballot measure which appears similar to the original referendum but would cancel out its effects. The irony here is that the billionaire has already fled to another state – last year, he purchased a $42 million property on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe in order to escape California’s taxes.

Tech executives from Google, Amazon, Palantir, and many more firms have also coalesced behind centrist Democrat Matt Mahan, burning more than $50 million in support of his primary run. Unfortunately for them, they seem to have chosen the wrong candidate – Mahan has been criticized for being blatantly “handpicked” by the tech industry, and is projected to receive just 4% of the vote today. While $500,000 is a drop in the bucket for most billionaires and tech first, it’s a “huge sum of money” in local elections, said one policy advocate. “This money is flowing in the direction of politicians that can be influential in defining the regulatory agenda for the next five years,” said one public policy professor. “Reinforcing the cycle of economic power produces political power, and political power further establishes economic power. So, this cycle is ongoing.” 

Trump Tames Tel Aviv

“LNG Carrier Fuji” by Ken Hodge via Flickr. CC BY 2.0.

  • As the U.S. and Iran resumed their conflict yesterday, Israel’s campaign against Lebanon picked up again. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the IDF to launch strikes on the areas surrounding Beirut, Lebanon’s capital. The attacks are centered around “terror targets” in the alleged Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh, a densely populated suburb south of Beirut – thousands of families were forced to flee the area ahead of Israel’s missile and drone strikes. 

  • Later in the day, Trump announced that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to another ceasefire. Sources within the White House told the press that Trump forced Israel to back down from its attack plans during a heated phone call with Netanyahu. “You're f***ing crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your a**. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,” Trump told his Israeli counterpart, according to one official. The ceasefire terms state that Hezbollah will no longer fire on Israeli targets, and Israel will call off its plans to escalate its Lebanon offensive.

They’re Called Yarr-opeans Now

  • On Sunday morning, France and the U.K. took to the high seas, intercepting an oil tanker that was allegedly carrying a boatload of Russian oil in violation of international sanctions. The ship, named the Tagor, is apparently part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers that Moscow has been using to circumvent Western sanctions – it was detained while sailing just off the coast of Brittany, a northwestern region of France located just across the English Channel from the U.K.

  • “This operation was aimed ​at checking the nationality of a vessel suspected of flying a false flag. After the inspection team boarded the vessel, an examination ​of the documents confirmed suspicions regarding the irregularity of the ​flag flown. In accordance with international law and ​at the request of the public prosecutor, the vessel was diverted,” said France’s Maritime Prefecture ‌of the Atlantic. The Kremlin described the operation as an act of “piracy.”

Additional World News

Orbital Edge Accelerator Applications Extended to June 4

The Orbital Edge Accelerator program is now accepting applications through June 4, 11:59 PM ET.

Entering its second year, Orbital Edge is a unique accelerator designed to help startups developing market-changing, space-enabled technologies access capital, mentorship, strategic partnerships, and potential orbital flight opportunities through the ISS National Laboratory® ecosystem.

The program is supported by the ISS National Laboratory®, alongside investment and ecosystem partners including Context Ventures, Cook Inlet Region, Inc., Draper Associates, Draper University, E2MC, and Stellar Ventures.

If you are building technologies at the intersection of space, innovation, and commercialization, this is an opportunity worth exploring.

Anti-Weaponization Fund Shot Dead

  • Last Friday, a federal judge in Virginia placed a restraining order on Trump’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” blocking the federal government from making any payments from the fund until the battle around its legality is over. On Monday, top administration officials told congressional Republicans that the fund is essentially dead, according to Axios. “It's dead for now,” said one source, adding, “How dead it is is what’s being worked on.” 

  • The White House has apparently decided to kill the fund due to backlash from GOP lawmakers, who are trying to push an immigration enforcement bill through the Senate. Democrats have promised to hijack that bill to attack Trump’s slush fund by creating amendments to the bill related to the fund – votes in favor of the politically unpopular fund are not something that lawmakers want on their resumes, especially heading into the midterm elections. “We're planning to respect the courts,” said one administration official. “This has become a distraction,” said another. “The president believes government was weaponized against people — it wasn't just him. But this isn't the time and vehicle for it.”

These Flies Are Gonna Screw It All Up

  • Late last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it had detected a dangerous parasitic fly living just a few dozen miles away from the U.S.’s southern border. The fly, known as the New World Screwworm, was found living in a sheep herd ​in Mexico's Coahuila state within 31 miles of the U.S. That marks the closest the parasite has come to the country, and shows that joint U.S.-Mexico efforts aimed at containing the pest haven’t been successful.

  • If you’re eating right now, you might want to read something else. For those of you who’re still here, this is why Washington is so worried about this tiny little fly: screwworm flies plant hundreds of eggs in the open wounds of mammals like cattle or sheep. When the eggs hatch, the larvae use their sharp teeth to chew at the wound, slowly enlarging it until the host eventually dies. 

  • If the worms are allowed to make it into the U.S. and an outbreak occurs in cattle herds, the USDA estimates that they could cause $1.8 billion in damages to Texas’ economy alone. At a time when U.S. cattle herds are at historic lows, that could send beef prices sky-high while also wiping out farming businesses across the country.

Additional USA News

 

Anticipating Anthropic’s IPO

  • On Monday, leading AI firm Anthropic (which produces the chatbot Claude) filed to go public, beating rival OpenAI to the punch. Last week, Anthropic raised a $65 billion round of private investment, with investors valuing the company at a whopping $900 billion before the new capital was included. That puts Anthropic ahead of OpenAI in yet another category, as the ChatGPT maker’s last investment round valued the company at “just” $730 billion.

  • Anthropic’s IPO is one of three much-anticipated public offerings expected to take place this year. The other two are SpaceX (which we’ve written about here) and OpenAI. Anthropic, while less-known than the others, has actually outpaced them in terms of revenue (though probably none of them are profitable right now). In May, the company stated that its predicted revenue for 2026 is upwards of $47 billion, well above the roughly $12 billion and $14 billion that OpenAI and SpaceX are making, respectively. 

  • The IPO will allow Anthropic employees and investors to share their stock in the company for cash, and will also tie Americans’ wallets into the AI boom. That’s because retirement funds automatically invest in the biggest publicly-traded companies in the stock market, and these firms are entering the arena on the back of an AI wave that may or may not be sticking around. 

Additional Reads

Peanut For Your Thoughts

I guess that explains the never-ending stream of political ads we’ve been inundated with over the past few months.

Editor + Writer: Marcus Gee-Lim

Designer: Joe Stella