WORD ON THE STREET 

• Jet Blue Ejects From American Airlines Partnership – The Department of Justice has successfully prevented Jet Blue from forming a partnership with American Airlines. A federal judge agreed with the DOJ that the agreement was anticompetitive. Now, Jet Blue is working on acquiring Spirit Airlines… but the DOJ has sued to block that too.

• Biden Laughs Off Coke In The White House – Cocaine was found in the White House and the Secret Service reports that “our investigation is ongoing.” President Joe Biden was asked about the incident and laughed it off. White House officials claim the Bidens were not on the premises when the cocaine was discovered, and it was found in an area frequently used for tours.

• No, I’m Not Tipping You For Something I Picked Up – A new survey from Bankrate found that two-thirds of Americans have negative views about tipping. About 30% say “tipping culture has gotten out of control.” Tipping has expanded rapidly over the last few years, with digital prompts often asking customers to tip for services that previously went without tips.

• Fed May Be Plotting More Rate Hikes – Minutes from the June 13-14 Federal Reserve meeting showed that some Federal Reserve officials were favoring another rate hike. They decided to leave rates alone – for now. However, a majority “judged that additional increases in the target federal funds rate during 2023 would be appropriate.”  Hoo-boy.

HOT SPOTS: What’s Going on in Geopolitics

• Navy Claims Iran Tried To Seize Tankers – The Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly tried to seize oil tankers in recent months. In the latest attempt, the U.S. Navy claims Iran tried to take two oil tankers operating in international waters near Oman. The Iranians fired on one vessel, but fled after the approach of American naval vessels.
  

• Navy Claims Iran Tried To Seize Tankers – The Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly tried to seize oil tankers in recent months. In the latest attempt, the U.S. Navy claims Iran tried to take two oil tankers operating in international waters near Oman. The Iranians fired on one vessel, but fled after the approach of American naval vessels.

• China Strikes Back On Sanctions – China set export restrictions on gallium and germanium, two minerals that are needed for solar energy, missile systems, and semiconductors. It’s almost certainly a direct response to America’s own export restrictions on semiconductors and (possibly) AI.

CUTTING EDGE: What‘s Happening In Tech

• Authors Say AI Stole Their Work – The problem with AIs is that they have to be trained on what actual human beings have produced. And if there is one thing we know about writers, it’s this – they demand to be paid. Two authors have filed suit against OpenAI. Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad allege that ChatGPT has been trained on their books, which would violate copyright law.

• Meta Launches Threads A Day Early – “Let’s do this,” posted Mark Zuckerberg. “Welcome to Threads.” The Instagram spinoff, which has been advertised as a Twitter-killer, launched a day early and prompted Meta Platforms stock to spike immediately after its debut.

• Musk Seems To Back Limiting Suffrage To Parents – In response to a tweet that said “democracy is probably unworkable long term without limiting suffrage to parents,” Elon Musk responded, “Yup.” Musk has also written that the “childless have little stake in the future.”

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