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June 18 2025

Trump Weighs Iran Strike; Big Companies Shed White Collar Workers; Senate Passes Stablecoin Bill; US-MX Self-Driving Shuttles; Panthers Go Back-to-Back

Greg Loving

18 Jun 2025 • 6 min read

Tel Aviv, Israel (not AI)

Trump Weighs Strike as Ayatollah Vows Retaliation

Corporate America's New Creed: Fewer Employees, Faster Growth

Senate Passes Bipartisan Stablecoin Bill in Major Win for Crypto, Trump

Self-Driving Shuttles to Speed Up U.S.-Mexico Trade Under New Plan

Panthers Go Back-to-Back, Rout Oilers to Clinch Stanley Cup

1. Trump Weighs Strike as Ayatollah Vows Retaliation

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that his country won’t surrender and warned that any U.S. military intervention would bring irreparable consequences. His comments come after President Trump, who administration officials said is considering a range of options—including a potential U.S. strike against Iran—said on social media that the U.S. knew the location of Iran’s leader but was choosing not to take any action, and then said, “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by telephone on Tuesday, a White House official said. The White House has said the U.S. isn’t joining Israel’s attacks on Iran, amid speculation fueled by recent military buildup in the region. A third U.S. Navy destroyer entered the eastern Mediterranean Sea to help defend Israel, and a second U.S. carrier strike group is heading toward the Arabian Sea. While the Pentagon says the military buildup is purely defensive, it puts the U.S. on a firmer footing to join Israeli attacks on Iran should Trump decide to do that. Alternatively, it could be a tactic to pressure Iran to capitulate or make concessions. Israel and Iran have continued to exchange fire, and the death toll in Iran rose above 450, according to a human-rights group. In Israel, 24 people have died as a result of Iranian strikes.

WSJ

2. Corporate America's New Creed: Fewer Employees, Faster Growth

Corporate America is convinced: Fewer employees means faster growth. U.S. public companies have reduced their white-collar workforces by a collective 3.5% over the past three years, according to employment data-provider Live Data Technologies. Over the past decade, one in five companies in the S&P 500 have shrunk. The cuts go beyond typical cost-trimming and speak to a broader shift in philosophy. Adding talent, once a sign of surging sales and confidence in the future, now means leaders must be doing something wrong. New technologies like generative artificial intelligence are allowing companies to do more with less. But there’s more to this movement. From Amazon AMZN -0.59% decrease; red down pointing triangle in Seattle to Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C., and at companies big and small everywhere in between, there’s a growing belief that having too many employees is itself an impediment. The message from many bosses: Anyone still on the payroll could be working harder. In a note to employees on Tuesday, Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy wrote that the “once-in-a-lifetime” rise of AI will eliminate the need for certain jobs in the next few years.

WSJ

3. Senate Passes Bipartisan Stablecoin Bill in Major Win for Crypto, Trump

The US Senate passed stablecoin legislation setting up regulatory rules for cryptocurrencies pegged to the dollar, in a landmark win for the ascendant crypto industry and President Donald Trump. The 68-30 vote on Tuesday evening marked a rare moment of bipartisanship in the deeply divided Senate, despite Republicans blocking Democratic efforts to bar Trump from profiting from his many crypto ventures while in office. A Trump-affiliated stablecoin already has a $2 billion market value. The House has been pursuing its own legislation, including a more sweeping measure to regulate the broader crypto market. House lawmakers must now decide whether to take up the Senate bill or negotiate a compromise measure. The stablecoin vote, years in the making, is the crypto industry’s most tangible return yet on the hundreds of millions of dollars it poured into electing a crypto-friendly Congress. Crypto titans who flooded money into last year’s election with the best-funded alliance of corporate political action committees in US history have similar plans for the 2026 midterm elections.

Bloomberg

4. Self-Driving Shuttles to Speed Up U.S.-Mexico Trade Under New Plan

President Trump is breathing life into a $10 billion project to alleviate congestion at the country’s busiest border crossing for trade between the U.S. and Mexico. Trump this month issued a presidential permit to Austin, Texas-based Green Corridors to build an 165-mile elevated “guideway” for self-driving shuttles to haul freight between Laredo, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico. Chief Executive Mitch Carlson said Green Corridors plans to build four cross-border terminals of about 100 acres each, two in Laredo and two in Monterrey, which would be connected via the extended corridor. Truck drivers hauling freight would come into the terminals and drop their 53-foot dry van trailers, which would then be loaded onto autonomous diesel-electric hybrid shuttles that travel along a designated path, much like a monorail. When the shuttle arrives at the other end of the guideway, truckers would pick up a trailer and carry the goods farther into the U.S. or Mexico.

A rendering of the proposed Green Corridors elevated ‘guideway’ between Laredo, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico. PHOTO: GREEN CORRIDORS

WSJ

5. Panthers Go Back-to-Back, Rout Oilers to Clinch Stanley Cup

June 17 (Reuters) - The Florida Panthers completed their Stanley Cup repeat in style with a 5-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 on Tuesday as four goals from Sam Reinhart helped them clinch back-to-back championships in front of an ecstatic home crowd in Sunrise. In a rematch of last year’s Finals, the Panthers became the first team to repeat as champions since the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020-2021.