The performers for the Obama Presidential Library opening on June 18 have been announced: Stevie Wonder John Legend Jennifer Hudson The Roots Bruce Springsteen Christina Aguilera Marsai Martin Common U2’s Bono and The Edge Eddie Vedder Marc Anthony Tems

itep.org/trump-meta-tesla-al… Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla collectively reported $315 billion in U.S. profits for 2025, and collectively paid just 4.9% of that amount in federal corporate income taxes—with Tesla paying exactly zero.

France taxes Google, Meta, Amazon, and Apple 3 percent on their French revenue. Brought in about $700 million last year. Trump's response: eliminate the tax or face 100 percent tariffs on all French wine exports to the United States. All four Silicon Valley companies being protected here publicly backed Trump's return to the White House. Musk just became the world's first trillionaire off the SpaceX IPO the same week BLS reported energy prices wiped out 18 months of American wage gains. A 100 percent wine tariff doesn't hurt Zuckerberg. It hits the American importer, the American distributor, the American restaurant owner trying to hold their margins, and eventually the customer staring at a menu in Fort Wayne wondering why the house Bordeaux costs what it costs now. The G7 is supposed to be a summit of industrialized democracies coordinating on trade and security. Trump arrived threatening the host country's flagship export to defend the domestic tax obligations of his biggest campaign donors. That's the trip. That's the agenda.

Donald Trump is kicking off a summit of major industrialized nations in France by threatening a new trade war with the hosts over its tax on his billionaire backers in Silicon Valley. thedailybeast.com/trump-80-s…

Hasn’t he heard? The Supreme Court said he cannot put on tariffs - it’s the job of Congress.

A hot mic at the G7 summit captured the French president revealing he had a “difficult” meeting with Trump. thedailybeast.com/hot-mic-ca…

Pope Leo: “…despite the naysayers or cynics, hope can be a powerful driving force. In this regard, it is not merely desirable but also genuinely possible that the progress at COP30 can be followed up with a just transition toward societies where the common good takes precedence over profit, and economic models are rooted in solidarity and human dignity.”press.vatican.va/content/sal…

Just in time for hurricane season, the Trump administration is defunding the Ocean Observatories Initiative - a $368 million real-time monitoring system with 900 instruments across the Pacific and Atlantic tracking wave patterns, currents, salinity, carbon dioxide levels, and ocean temperatures at depth. The depth piece matters. Rampell's piece explains it precisely: we've gotten better at forecasting hurricane paths, but we're still poor at predicting intensity. Intensity forecasting requires temperature measurements at various ocean depths, because hurricanes can be slowed or strengthened by upwelling of cooler deep water. That's exactly what the Pioneer Array - part of the OOI located fifteen miles off the coast of Nags Head, North Carolina - collects. It's being pulled out of the water. Thirty-two houses in Buxton, North Carolina have fallen into the ocean since 2020. The most recent was last week - a blue house gone in under thirty minutes during a minor coastal storm. The OOI instruments help predict coastal erosion and identify which properties need to be condemned before they become dangerous seashore debris. The system also has military applications. The underwater soundscape off the North Carolina coast is critical for naval defense - German U-boats hid in that deep water during World War II and to this day you can scuba around sunken submarines off the continental shelf. The OOI tracks that soundscape. The military also uses current data to power surveillance vessels. The National Science Foundation's stated rationale: bringing the system into alignment with "a nimbler approach to prioritizing support for evolving scientific priorities." The instruments are being pulled. The data stops. Hurricane season started June 1.

ACB scholarship recipient EmmaGrace Olech is a finalist in the 2026 Braille Challenge, taking place June 25–27 in L.A.! EmmaGrace earned top scores among more than 2,000 competitors who took part in this year’s Braille Challenge season. Learn more: brailleinstitute.org/braille…

Michelle Obama on the covers of Vogue. She was everything a First Lady should be. I stand with Michelle Obama! Who is with me? ✋

In 1999, a 16-year-old girl from Enugu, Nigeria won a green card lottery with her mother and moved to the United States. 27 years later, she painted the Obamas. The green card lottery. Think about that. Her name is Njideka Akunyili Crosby. Her mother, Dora Akunyili, was a professor of pharmacology who would later become one of Nigeria's most celebrated public servants, the woman who went to war against counterfeit drugs as NAFDAC Director General. But in the late 1990s, Dora was just a mother who wanted her children to have options. She entered the US Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. The lottery. She won. In 1999, 16-year-old Njideka packed her things. Said goodbye to Enugu, to Lagos, to the life she'd always known. She moved to America with her sister Ijeoma. She took a gap year. Studied for her SATs. Took American history classes. Then returned to Nigeria for National Youth Service. Then came back to the US to start again. She took her first oil painting class at a community college in Philadelphia. Her teacher Jeff Reed saw something. He pushed her to apply to Swarthmore College. She got in. She studied biology and art. She met a Texan named Justin Crosby and eventually married him. She went to Yale for her MFA. She built a career that redefined contemporary art. And on June 14, 2026, 27 years after that green card lottery win, she stood in Chicago and watched Barack and Michelle Obama see their faces in her painting for the very first time. A lottery ticket. A Philadelphia community college. The Obama Presidential Center. Nigeria does not produce ordinary people.

The great #Canada seduction youtube.com/shorts/SLk0w-UwY…

RT @IAmSophiaNelson: You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust…

RT @AuthorJoeNBrown: Michelle Obama is an awesome wife, mother, leader, and humanitarian. She is a very loving person. She gave us Hope, Le…

RT @AuthorJoeNBrown: “Strong men who are truly role models, don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful”, Michelle Obama.…

They were not just programs. They were promises. That’s what @MichelleObama says about the initiatives she focused on in her eight years as First Lady. Throughout the Obama Presidential Center Museum, visitors will encounter the four initiatives that she said served as pledges made to millions of people around the world. Recently, Mrs. Obama reflected on her White House initiatives, and explained why Let's Move!, Joining Forces, Reach Higher, and Let Girls Learn mattered: “There is so much hope, so much potential, inside every single one of us,” Mrs. Obama shared. “And I just hoped to use my platform to help more people reach theirs.” The Obama Presidential Center opens to the public on June 19 in Chicago's Jackson Park.

Barack and I were so honored to have @AkunyiliCrosby create our portrait for the Obama Presidential Center. Her artistic brilliance shines through — and the way she infused such life and joy into the piece is truly extraordinary. We love it, and we think everyone who visits the Center will too!

Sheryl Crow speaks out after Trump’s UFC 250 event: “To stay quiet means to turn a blind eye. And so I am saying this. What happened last night on the lawn of the White House was disgraceful and void of decency. Powerful, rich people filled the lawn to watch a violent sport that ended with a vile and racist comment. All while the average American cannot afford healthcare, gas, and cost of living. Do not be fooled. This administration is corrupt and does not give a damn about the American people. It only cares about making money hand over fist at the expense and in spite of our democracy. If we continue to support this kind of distraction from reality, we are no better than them. Let's be better, America.”

Army Major Amanda Feindt wrote a letter supporting Pete Hegseth and sat in the fourth row of his confirmation hearing. That same day, her 4-year-old son was being abused at his Army daycare on Fort Belvoir. For fifteen months, the military said it didn't meet the criteria for abuse. Then a civilian county agency looked at the same evidence and substantiated it in one pass. This is how the military's in-house abuse system is built to protect itself — and what it cost a whistleblower who already survived the Red Hill water poisoning. Watch: youtu.be/ekN-GtEr6YI

A woman whose impact extends far beyond any title she has ever held 🌹 From Chicago's South Side to Princeton and Harvard Law School, from attorney and hospital executive to First Lady, bestselling author, producer, and advocate, Michelle Obama has spent decades showing what leadership, excellence, and service can look like. Her legacy isn't just measured by accomplishments. It's reflected in the millions of people especially Black women and girls who saw new possibilities because she existed. Today and every day, we give Michelle Obama her flowers.