Top 5 US news stories
June 25 2026
AI Build-Out Drives Prices Higher as Micron Posts Record Quarter
Trump Holds Up Housing Law to Force Voting Bill
Mamdani-Backed Socialists Oust Two House Democrats in New York
New Coalition Forms to Shield Workers From AI Disruption
Ukraine Hits Moscow-Area Refinery in Mass Drone Attack
AI Build-Out Drives Prices Higher as Micron Posts Record Quarter
Economists and analysts say the surging U.S. build-out of artificial-intelligence infrastructure is emerging as a fresh source of inflation, pushing up prices on goods ranging from smartphones to electricity. Capital spending at five major hyperscalers — Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle — is projected to reach $741 billion this year, up nearly 75% from 2025, according to FactSet, while Columbia University economist Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh estimates total build-out spending could approach $8 trillion through 2032. Rising demand for memory and storage chips has spilled into consumer electronics, with Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony raising device prices and Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook describing the cost increase as unlike anything he had seen in more than 40 years. Memory maker Micron Technology underscored the trend on June 24, reporting fiscal third-quarter revenue of $41.46 billion, up 346% from a year earlier and ahead of Wall Street estimates. The company said its data-center business is running at an annualized pace above $100 billion and disclosed about $100 billion in minimum contracted revenue across 16 customer agreements, sending shares up roughly 13% in after-hours trading as its market value topped $1 trillion. Some economists note that AI could eventually ease inflation if it raises worker productivity, as past technological revolutions have done.
WSJ / CNBC
Trump Holds Up Housing Law to Force Voting Bill
President Donald Trump on June 24 canceled a planned White House ceremony to sign the 21st Century Road to Housing Act and said he will withhold his signature until Congress also passes the SAVE America Act. The housing measure, the largest federal affordability bill in decades, cleared the House 358-32 and the Senate 85-5, and aims to lower costs largely by boosting supply while capping how many single-family homes large investors can purchase. The SAVE Act would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and tighten voter-identification rules; supporters say it guards against noncitizen voting, while opponents note that such voting is already illegal and exceedingly rare in federal elections. It was the second time in a week that Trump linked a Republican legislative priority to passage of the voting bill, leaving GOP leaders publicly puzzled and prompting Democrats to accuse him of holding popular legislation hostage. With cost-of-living concerns central to the 2026 midterm campaigns, both parties had hoped to claim credit for the housing law. The standoff stalls a rare bipartisan achievement and ties the housing-affordability debate to a contentious fight over voting rules.
PBS NewsHour
Mamdani-Backed Socialists Oust Two House Democrats in New York
Three congressional candidates endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won their races in New York's June 23 Democratic primaries, defeating two sitting House members and signaling the rising influence of the party's left wing. Former city comptroller Brad Lander unseated two-term Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th District by roughly 66% to 34%, community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier narrowly beat five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, about 49% to 46% in the 13th District, and state Assembly member Claire Valdez won an open Brooklyn-area 7th District seat over Borough President Antonio Reynoso. Avila Chevalier and Valdez, like Mamdani, belong to the Democratic Socialists of America, and the victories are poised to roughly double the group's bloc in Congress because these heavily Democratic districts almost always elect their primary winners. Much of the campaigning centered on Israel's war in Gaza, with several winners pledging to oppose U.S. military aid to Israel. The outcomes cast Mamdani as a national kingmaker and intensified a long-running fight between progressive and establishment Democrats. The results mark a measurable leftward shift in one of the country's largest Democratic strongholds heading into the 2026 midterms.
CNN
New Coalition Forms to Shield Workers From AI Disruption
A new bipartisan coalition called RAISE US launched this week to prepare the American workforce for the disruption that artificial intelligence is expected to bring to jobs across the economy. The group brings together state governments, philanthropic organizations and major employers including Amazon, Microsoft, Bank of America and Eli Lilly, and is led by former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who served under President Joe Biden, and former Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican. Organizers said its mandate extends beyond retraining programs to reconsidering decades-old policies such as unemployment insurance and serving as a working lab for testing the most effective ways to move workers into new fields. The coalition also plans to explore corporate incentives that would encourage employers to retain workers whose jobs are disrupted by AI and prepare them for new roles. Raimondo, the group's chief executive, said current attention is heavily focused on winning the AI technology race while too little goes toward securing the future for American workers. Backers argued that the fragmented nature of U.S. workforce-development efforts makes a more comprehensive approach necessary, particularly for white-collar roles most exposed to AI.
WSJ
Ukraine Hits Moscow-Area Refinery in Mass Drone Attack
Ukraine launched one of its largest long-range drone barrages of the war on June 24, striking more than a dozen Russian regions and again hitting an oil refinery in the Moscow area. Russian air defenses said they destroyed close to 200 drones approaching the capital but acknowledged the refinery had been struck for the second time in a week. Industry sources told Reuters the facility may not resume operations before 2027, adding to fuel shortages and price spikes across multiple Russian regions. President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was time for the war to end. The attack was among the largest aerial assaults Ukraine has directed at targets deep inside Russian territory.
CNBC
JUNE 25, 1996: KHOBAR TOWERS BOMBING IN SAUDI ARABIA KILLS 19 U.S. AIRMEN
Iran-backed Saudi Hezbollah operatives detonated a massive truck bomb outside the Khobar Towers U.S. Air Force housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American airmen and wounding nearly 500 people. U.S. investigators and federal courts later concluded that Iranian officials inspired, funded and directed the attack as part of a campaign to drive American forces out of Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. In subsequent civil cases, U.S. courts found Iran liable and ordered it to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to survivors and victims’ families.
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