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• Meta beats breakup lawsuit

• HIV prevention injection

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Big Stories

House Votes to Release Epstein Files

• The Senate unanimously approved the House bill requiring the Justice Department to release its Jeffrey Epstein files. With no amendments, the measure will be deemed passed when it arrives from the House and sent to President Trump’s desk. Trump said he will sign it, and a White House official confirmed it will be signed “whenever it gets to the White House.”

• The legislation requires the DOJ to release all unclassified records related to Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and other individuals named or referenced in connection with Epstein’s criminal activities, settlements, plea deals, or investigations, while still protecting victims’ identities and materials containing child abuse. It will also include details about his 2019 jailhouse death.

• Some files may remain withheld due to ongoing investigations or executive privilege claims, making it unlikely that the full Epstein file will be released to the public. The DOJ has 30 days to release the documents.

MBS Returns to the US

• Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited the US for the first time since 2018, drawing protests from 9/11 families and renewed scrutiny over the US intelligence finding that he approved the operation leading to journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. Trump defended MBS during their Oval Office meeting, insisting the prince “knew nothing about it.”

• Both leaders pushed major defense and business deals, including Trump's plan to sell advanced F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia, the first such sale to an Arab nation. During the meeting, MBS raised Saudi Arabia's investment pledge in the US from $600 billion to nearly $1 trillion, spanning energy, defense, and AI.

• The jet sale could unsettle Israel, since US law requires Washington to ensure Israel keeps the region’s most advanced weapons. Saudi Arabia is also seeking US security guarantees and says any future normalization with Israel hinges on a “credible pathway” toward Palestinian statehood, a position at odds with Israel’s current government.

Meta Avoids Breakup

• A federal judge ruled that Meta is not a current monopoly in social networking, dealing a major blow to the FTC’s attempt to force the company to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp. Judge James Boasberg said the agency failed to prove Meta still holds monopoly power in a market that has shifted dramatically since the case began.

• The FTC argued Meta preserved dominance by buying emerging threats — echoing Zuckerberg’s old “buy, don’t compete” strategy — and by adopting policies that boxed out smaller rivals. But Boasberg said the landscape has changed, noting that TikTok, which barely appeared in earlier filings, is now Meta’s fiercest rival.

• The ruling spares Meta from the possibility of being broken up and marks a sharp contrast to recent decisions branding Google an illegal monopoly. It also signals that defining “market power” in fast-moving tech sectors is increasingly difficult for regulators.

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Quick Stories

US News

• The ship that struck Baltimore's Key Bridge in March 2024, killing six workers, lost power from a loose wire, according to an NTSB investigation. (More)

• A federal court blocked Texas's redrawn map as racial gerrymandering, forcing the use of the 2021 map instead. The ruling threatens the Republican House majority and will likely go to the Supreme Court. (More)

• The Trump administration is moving Education Department programs to other agencies after cutting nearly half its staff. Experts say it's a workaround to shut down the agency since only Congress can eliminate it. (More)

World

• Poland says two Ukrainian men working for Russia planted the bombs that sabotaged rail lines on Sunday. The suspects crossed from Belarus and fled after the attack. (More)

• Chinese travelers cancelled 500,000 flights to Japan after Beijing issued travel warnings over Japan's PM saying the country might defend Taiwan militarily. (More)

• Eswatini received lenacapavir, becoming the first African country to get the twice-yearly HIV prevention injection. The drug shows near-total protection and will reach 2 million people in 10 countries by 2027. (More)

Business & Economy

• US stock markets closed lower on Tuesday (S&P -0.83%, Nasdaq -1.21%, Dow -1.07%). Declining big tech stocks pushed the market down. (More)

• Bitcoin dropped to $89,259 on Tuesday, its lowest since April. It peaked above $126,000 in October, but is still up 2% over the past year. (More)

• Microsoft and Nvidia invested $5 billion and $10 billion in AI startup Anthropic, pushing its valuation to $350 billion from $183 billion. (More)

Sports & Entertainment

• The WNBA proposed maximum salaries over $1.1 million and minimums above $220,000 in its new labor offer. The deal includes revenue sharing for 180+ players with salaries rising annually. (More)

• European qualifying for the 2026 World Cup ended Tuesday with Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Scotland, and Belgium clinching spots. Twelve European teams qualified directly, and 16 go to playoffs for the final spots. (More)

• Alice and Ellen Kessler, twin German dancers who performed with Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, and Harry Belafonte in the 1960s, died in a joint assisted suicide at age 89. (More)

Science, Health, & Tech

• El Salvador launched DoctorSV, an AI health app with video doctor visits and free medication delivery. (More)

• Archaeologists discovered a massive Bronze Age city in Kazakhstan from 1600 BC with industrial-scale bronze production. (More)

• Cloudflare fixed a problem on Tuesday that disrupted ChatGPT, X, League of Legends, and transit systems. The company delivers content for 20% of websites, so its failures create massive simultaneous outages. (More)

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