Top 5 US news stories
June 2 2026
Trump Restructures Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum and Copper
Justice Department Pauses Weaponization Fund as Trump Weighs Scrapping It
Pelley Accuses Weiss of 'Murdering' 60 Minutes in Staff Clash
Anthropic Files Confidentially for IPO as AI Race Intensifies
Iran Suspends U.S. Talks and Vows Hormuz Closure as Strikes Escalate
Trump Restructures Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum and Copper
President Trump signed a proclamation on June 1 modifying Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper imports, lowering rates on agricultural equipment and residential HVAC components from 25% to 15% and establishing a 10% rate for products containing at least 85% U.S.-melted steel or aluminum, down from the previous 95% threshold. Mobile industrial equipment such as bulldozers and forklifts will face 15% tariffs when imported from trade-deal countries, while Canada and Mexico under the USMCA will pay the 25% duty only on non-U.S. content, subject to a 15% minimum effective rate. The changes take effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on June 8 and run through December 31, 2027. The Section 232 program, first invoked on national-security grounds, governs metals that sit at the base of the U.S. industrial economy, where domestic mills supply much of national steel demand but the country remains heavily reliant on imported primary aluminum, a large share of it from Canada. Automakers are among the largest consumers of both metals, so the lowered 85% domestic-content threshold and the carve-outs for North American supply chains bear directly on the cost of producing vehicles assembled across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. By easing rates on agricultural and HVAC equipment while rewarding higher domestic melt content, the proclamation aims to shield downstream manufacturers from the full weight of the tariffs while pressing suppliers to source more metal from U.S. furnaces.
White House
Justice Department Pauses Weaponization Fund as Trump Weighs Scrapping It
President Trump is reconsidering his plan to establish a fund to compensate people who say they were unfairly prosecuted by the government, according to two people familiar with his thinking who said he had leaned toward scrapping it for days. Critics have characterized the fund as a scheme to reward the president's political allies with public money. The Justice Department signaled a retreat on June 1, saying it would abide by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema's temporary order not to activate the fund before a June 12 hearing, while stating it disagreed strongly with the ruling. The department did not make clear whether it intended to fight the matter further in court. Republicans had blocked related legislation over concerns about a lack of oversight and potential payouts to January 6 defendants, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the cleanest outcome would be for the administration to shut the fund down on its own. It remained unclear whether eliminating the fund, valued at roughly $1.8 billion, would affect a separate part of the legal settlement that grants Mr. Trump, his family and his businesses significant immunity from audits.
NYT / PBS NewsHour
Pelley Accuses Weiss of 'Murdering' 60 Minutes in Staff Clash
CBS News was thrown into fresh turmoil on June 1 after Scott Pelley, a correspondent for "60 Minutes," confronted the program's newly hired executive producer at a staff meeting and accused Bari Weiss, the network's editor in chief, of murdering the long-running Sunday broadcast, according to a recording obtained by The New York Times. Pelley told the new executive producer, Nick Bilton, a tech journalist and filmmaker, that his qualifications were slender and questioned the network's commitment to the program's future. The meeting at the show's Midtown Manhattan headquarters followed a shake-up in which CBS dismissed executive producer Tanya Simon, her deputy, and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, a purge Pelley called "Black Thursday." Tensions had built for months between veteran journalists and Weiss, an opinion writer who spent years criticizing legacy media institutions before being installed atop one last year by David Ellison, the tech scion who took control of CBS parent Paramount in a multibillion-dollar merger. Weiss had built her national profile after leaving The New York Times and founding The Free Press, a subscription publication on Substack, part of a broader migration of audiences and journalists away from traditional broadcast and print outlets toward independent, internet-native media. Her appointment placed a prominent critic of the old order in charge of one of its flagship institutions, and the clash at "60 Minutes" has become an early flashpoint in that collision.
NYT
Anthropic Files Confidentially for IPO as AI Race Intensifies
Anthropic, the artificial-intelligence company recently valued at close to $1 trillion, said on June 1 that it had confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering, a step that could take the maker of the Claude AI model public as soon as this fall. The filing lands amid a rush of large technology offerings, with Elon Musk's SpaceX preparing what is expected to be the largest IPO ever in the coming week. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Anthropic's chief rival, OpenAI, was preparing to submit its own IPO filing imminently. Bankers have told both companies that whichever reaches the market first will be positioned to define the emerging AI industry and to claim early access to the large pools of investor capital seeking exposure to the sector.
WSJ
Iran Suspends U.S. Talks and Vows Hormuz Closure as Strikes Escalate
Iran formally suspended Pakistan-mediated ceasefire talks with the United States on June 1, with its negotiating team citing Israel's expanding offensive in southern Lebanon as a breach of the existing framework, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. Tehran simultaneously vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz completely closed, prolonging a monthslong oil-price spike tied to a waterway that normally carries roughly one-fifth of global crude. Trump publicly contradicted the announcement, telling reporters that talks were continuing at a rapid pace and that a deal to reopen Hormuz could be reached within a week. The diplomatic rupture coincided with renewed fighting, as U.S. Central Command said American forces had struck Iranian radar installations, drone-control stations and two attack drones near Geruk and on Qeshm Island over the weekend in retaliation for Iran's downing of a U.S. MQ-1 Predator drone over international waters. Hours later, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missiles at U.S. troops in Kuwait late Sunday, which Kuwaiti and U.S. air defenses intercepted with no reported American casualties, marking the most serious escalation since U.S. and Israeli strikes began on February 28.
Separately, Iran's judiciary-affiliated Mizan news agency announced on June 1 that Mehrdad Mohammadi-Nia and Ashkan Maleki had been hanged at Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj after being convicted of setting fire to the Jafari Mosque in Tehran during the January 2026 protests that erupted over the collapse of the rial. The Supreme Court upheld the sentences, which also cited activities against national security, property destruction and clashing with security forces. Amnesty International says it has documented at least 39 political executions and more than 6,000 arrests since the conflict with the United States and Israel began in late February. The executions have intensified international concern over Tehran's accelerated use of capital punishment against defendants tied to the protests.
NPR / OPB / Euronews
JUNE 2, 1997: TIMOTHY MCVEIGH CONVICTED FOR OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING
A federal jury found Timothy McVeigh guilty on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The attack, which killed 168 people including 19 children, was the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history at the time.
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