Good Morning! Today’s edition is 837 words, a 4-minute read.

What’s on tap: 

• Alan Jackson hangs up his touring boots

• Sickle cell cure

• Most embarrassing tourist habits

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Big Stories

Iran Strikes Gulf States

• Iran launched drones and missiles at Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday in retaliation for US airstrikes, expanding the conflict beyond Israel and threatening a fragile ceasefire reached earlier this month. Kuwait intercepted two ballistic missiles, while a strike in Bahrain damaged a residential building near the country's international airport.

• The attacks came as the United States and Iran continue negotiating a broader peace agreement. Iran warned it would halt talks if US strikes continue, while President Trump threatened further military action after accusing Tehran of violating the ceasefire by attacking commercial shipping.

• The Strait of Hormuz remains the biggest obstacle to a lasting deal. Iran insists it alone should control shipping through the waterway, while the US and its allies are pushing to reopen international transit routes without Iranian oversight.

Jackson’s Last Call

• Country music legend Alan Jackson performed the final concert of his touring career Saturday night in Nashville, closing a four-decade run that produced more than 60 million records sold and dozens of country music standards.

• Some of country music's biggest stars, including Carrie Underwood, Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Eric Church, and George Strait, honored Jackson by performing his songs before he took the stage. Jackson, 67, announced in 2021 that he has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a degenerative nerve disorder that has increasingly affected his balance and mobility.

• Jackson assured fans that retirement from touring does not mean the end of his music career, releasing a new recording just days before the concert. NBC will air the farewell performance later this year.

Saharan Dust Returns

• Massive plumes of Saharan dust are drifting across the Atlantic toward the United States, with some of the first haze expected to reach South Florida this weekend and South Texas early next week. The largest dust concentrations are currently stretching across the Caribbean, where air quality has deteriorated in some areas.

• Most of the dust is expected to remain high in the atmosphere, limiting health impacts but creating hazy skies and more vivid sunrises and sunsets. The annual dust outbreaks occur when strong winds carry fine sand and dust thousands of miles westward from Africa's Sahara Desert.

• The dust can also suppress hurricane development by bringing much drier air and stronger upper-level winds into the Atlantic. Even so, forecasters are monitoring an area near the US coastline for possible tropical development next week.

The S&P 500 Has Become One Big Bet. It’s Only Getting Bigger.

The index's top ten stocks make up nearly 40% of its total value as of Q226. All have some connection to AI.

Now SpaceX is filing its IPO. Priced at 92x sales. Lost $5 billion last year. 

Robert Arnott, chairman of Research Affiliates, called it "ludicrous" in the WSJ this month but said he'd gladly buy SpaceX anyway. His reason? Index funds have to buy it to avoid trailing the benchmark.

It’s becoming a very crowded boat, and moreso with Anthropic and OpenAI IPOs around the corner.

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Thanks to the world's premier art investing platform, now anyone can invest in works featuring Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso.

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Quick Stories

US News

• Rep. Julia Letlow won Louisiana's Republican Senate primary runoff with President Donald Trump's endorsement, defeating state Treasurer John Fleming after Sen. Bill Cassidy failed to reach the runoff. (More)

• Flash flooding killed at least three people in Kentucky after severe storms dumped up to seven inches of rain. (More)

• President Trump nominated former Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer to lead ICE, replacing Todd Lyons, with the nomination pending Senate confirmation. (More)

World

• Israel officially recognized the 1915-1923 Armenian genocide, acknowledging the Ottoman Empire's mass killings of more than 1.5 million Armenians and joining more than 30 countries using the term. (More)

• A German court sentenced Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen to life in prison for killing six people and injuring more than 300 in the 2024 Magdeburg Christmas market attack. (More)

• France's record-breaking heat wave caused around 1,000 excess deaths as temperatures shattered records across Europe. (More)

Business & Economy

• US stock markets closed lower on Friday (S&P -0.05%, Nasdaq -0.24%, Dow -0.09%) as the Nasdaq posted its fifth consecutive losing session. (More)

• Average new vehicle prices rose more than $11,000 since 2019 to $48,402, while vehicles priced at $25,000 or less became increasingly rare. (More)

• Saks Global emerged from bankruptcy as Exemplar Luxury Group, cutting debt by nearly 75%, closing stores, and repositioning Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bergdorf Goodman around luxury shoppers. (More)

Sports & Entertainment

• Haeran Ryu captured her first major title by winning the Women's PGA Championship, overcoming a 10-shot opening-round deficit to finish two strokes ahead of Ina Yoon. (More)

• Michael became the highest-grossing biopic ever with $977.4 million worldwide, surpassing Oppenheimer and moving within reach of becoming 2026's second billion-dollar film. (More)

• Gretchen Walsh broke the women's 50-meter freestyle world record with a 23.55-second swim, reclaiming the mark less than two weeks after teammate Kate Douglass set it. (More)

Science, Health, & Tech

• Researchers identified distinct patterns of cortical thinning in adults with depression, creating the largest brain map yet of structural changes linked to the disorder. (More)

• A Louisiana man became the Gulf Coast's first person functionally cured of sickle cell disease through gene-editing therapy. (More)

• A comprehensive review found that screen time before age two is linked to poorer health and development. (More)

Extra Credit

Why do pizza boxes have those tiny plastic tables?

The combined age of the three Brazilian sisters is 316.

Watch: The difference between cheap and pricey olive oil.

Every country’s most embarrassing tourist habit.