The Tuesday, June 30, 2026 Edition

›Grizzlies trade Ja Morant to Portland. Memphis sends two-time All-Star Morant to the Trail Blazers for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray, ending his contested tenure as NBA free agency opens.

ESPN

›Bill Maher wins Mark Twain Prize at Kennedy Center. Maher received American humor's top honor Sunday at a ceremony where a tarp still covers the spot where Trump's name was forcibly removed from the building.

NPR Culture

›Lauryn Hill honored with inaugural Living Legend Icon Award. SZA, Doechii, and Nas performed a tribute to Hill at the 2026 BET Awards, where she received the ceremony's first-ever Living Legend Icon Award.

Pitchfork

›Germany and Netherlands both eliminated in World Cup shootouts. Paraguay knocked out Germany on penalty kicks while Morocco beat the Netherlands 1-1 on pens Monday, the biggest upset day of the 2026 World Cup knockout round.

The Guardian World

›Cape Verde's World Cup run electrifies UK diaspora. Hard-fought draws against Spain and Uruguay have sparked unprecedented national pride among Cape Verdean communities in Britain, with fans describing the run as a once-in-a-generation moment.

ESPN

›Rocket Lab acquires Iridium in $8 billion deal. Rocket Lab announced it will acquire Iridium, the global satellite communications network, for $8 billion, creating a vertically integrated space company and a larger rival to SpaceX.

Ars Technica

›U.S. offers $10M for tips on Signal and WhatsApp hackers. The U.S. government posted a $10 million reward for information on two Russia-linked groups running an ongoing hacking campaign against Signal and WhatsApp users, active since at least March.

Ars Technica

›NASA launches robot to rescue the Swift space telescope. A Northrop Grumman rocket launched from an airplane carried a robotic spacecraft Tuesday on a first-of-its-kind mission to boost the aging Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory out of its decaying orbit.

Phys.org

›Samsung and SK Hynix pledge $550B to ease memory chip shortage. The South Korean chipmakers committed over $550 billion to new memory fabrication facilities, aiming to address a global RAM shortage that analysts have dubbed 'RAMageddon.'

TechCrunch

›Japanese yen hits 40-year low. The yen fell to its weakest level against the U.S. dollar since 1986 on Tuesday. Dollar strength pressured Asian currencies across the board at the close of Q2, and Japanese government intervention is now on the table.

CNBC Top News

›Magnificent 7 loses $2.3 trillion in market value. Investors grew jittery over massive AI spending by the seven largest U.S. tech companies and when those investments will generate returns, even as chipmakers advanced.

CNBC Top News

›San Francisco Archdiocese agrees to $395 million abuse settlement. The San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese will pay $395 million to resolve more than 500 child sexual abuse lawsuits, one of the largest such settlements in U.S. Catholic Church history.

AP News

›TPS ruling threatens all protected recipients. The Supreme Court unwound deportation protections for Haitians and Syrians -- and advocates warned the ruling hands the Trump administration a legal basis to accelerate removals across every Temporary Protected Status nationality.

The Hill

›25 states sue over Medicaid work rules. Democrats in 25 states and Washington, D.C., filed suit against the Trump administration, arguing its Medicaid work requirement exemptions for sick patients are too narrow and violate administrative law.

AP News

›Fujimori wins Peru's presidential runoff. Keiko Fujimori, daughter of late president Alberto Fujimori, won Peru's presidential runoff election after weeks of ballot review, becoming the country's president-elect at age 51.

The Guardian World

›Evangelicals split on Trump-Iran deal. Evangelical leaders expressed divided views on the Trump administration's memorandum of understanding with Iran, with some praising prior military action and others warning the agreement disadvantages Israel.

Fox News Politics