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New York City’s rental board has approved Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s two-year rent-freeze proposal for nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments.

On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states are constitutionally compelled to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

Reading and travel are intrinsically linked but book travel is on the up—where people choose destinations explicitly to read, with other people, in search of community.

Strategy’s paper loss exceeds the market caps of hundreds of tokens, highlighting the extreme concentration of risk in the crypto market right now.

Rome Rebukes Rutte: Italy Rejects Claim US Flew Iran War Missions From Its Bases

It’s no longer just a Trump-Meloni spat on the level of public rhetoric, but Italy is newly making clear that it is imposing real policy and limitations on the US, now clarifying that it had formally denied US use of its bases to strike Iran for past and future potential missions.

This has been a long time in coming, as Italy already clearly restricted at least some US use of its bases within the past months related to the Iran war, but now it is official.

On Thursday Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani reportedly told his Iranian counterpart by phone he firmly rejects NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s recent claims that US forces used Italian military bases in operations against Iran.

Tajani has insisted that Italian bases were never used for any kind of offensive strikes on the Islamic Republic. According to US military publication Stripes, “The Iranian foreign minister thanked Italy for the clarification and said a clear, formal denial was necessary.”
via US Navy

Italy of course remains a member of NATO, and so the fact that Rome was responding to recent remark’s of the organization’s leader is glaring, and reveals a serious inter-NATO rift.

The NATO chief had been interviewed on Fox earlier this week, wherein he claimed that some 500 American military flights had taken off from bases in Italy in support of Operation Epic Fury. Italy’s foreign ministry is firmly rejecting the claim.

In addition, the Italian Defense Ministry came out and said that Rutte “has nothing to do with Operation Epic Fury” – which might explain whey he’s making “completely misleading” remarks.

“Italy only authorizes flights that are provided for by the treaties and totally exclude kinetic activities,” said that Italian defense ministry statement.

It seems Italy is trying to appease both the Iranian and US sides at once, by trying to shroud its role in ambiguity and abstract definitions of terms: 

In a post analyzing how Italy’s bases were used to support the war, the site ItaMilRadar said this week that Navy MQ-4C Triton surveillance drones from Sigonella “conducted extensive intelligence and reconnaissance missions over the Persian Gulf area” before the Triton operations appeared to shift to Jordan in April. Navy P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft operated from the base before and during the war, and several deployed to Djibouti to support U.S. naval forces in the Indian Ocean, according to the site.

Back in late March, as US-Israeli bombs were still being unleashed on Iran, a statement from PM Meloni’s office had also alluded to matters of procedure, stating that Italy is “acting in full compliance with existing international agreements”  – while underscoring that each request must be “carefully examined on a case-by-case basis, as has always been the case in the past.”

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto had also at the time confirmed that “some US bombers” were denied landing at Sigonella – one of seven US navy bases in Italy. The complaint is that the US didn’t follow required permission protocol, and requested landing only while in the air and already en route to Sicily.

But the truth also is that American hegemonic action in the Middle East, and the Iran conflict in particular, remains deeply unpopular among the Italian population, which has long had a strongly anti-war bent especially among the youth.

In a display of obedience to the US, the NATO Secretary General bragged about NATO’s participation in the war of aggression against Iran:
– “If you take Italy for example, 500 U.S. planes took off from U.S. bases in Italy to support Operation Epic Fury.” pic.twitter.com/cuJWD6Uy7N
— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) June 25, 2026
The Guardian previously wrote, “The unpopularity of Trump in Italy has also started to erode the popularity of Meloni, who is ideologically in tune with the US president and has established good working relations with him.” However, she’s lately sought to distance her government from the war, having told parliament earlier this month there’s a growing dangerous trend of interventions “outside the scope of international law.”

Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/26/2026 – 02:45

CORTIS is coming for Singapore. The rising quintet have been confirmed as the only K-pop act on the opening night of the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix 2026.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw tests of new weapons as part of a plan to bolster inter-Korean border firepower, state-run media reported Friday.

Majority Of Poles Are Against Ukraine Joining The EU

Via Remix News,

Poles are divided in their assessment of Ukraine’s possible accession to the European Union.

However, according to the latest IBRiS poll conducted for Radio ZET, the voices of those opposed to accession dominate.

A total of 35.3 percent of those surveyed voted in favor of Ukraine’s admission to the European Union. Strong support for such a solution was expressed by 8.4 percent of respondents, while 26.9 percent replied “rather yes.”

There are definitely more opponents of Ukraine’s membership in the EU. A total of 59.7 percent of those questioned took a negative position. The answer “probably not” was given by 27.4 percent of respondents, and “definitely not” by as many as 32.3 percent.

Another 5 percent remain undecided — respondents who chose the answer “I don’t know” or “hard to say.”

Among supporters of the ruling coalition, 64 percent support Ukraine’s accession to the EU, while 73 percent of opposition voters say Ukraine should not join.

The study was conducted by the IBRiS Institute for Market and Social Research using computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) on June 12–13, 2026. The survey was conducted on a representative sample of 1,068 adult Poles.

Zelensky canceled his visit to Poland

The two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC), co-organized by Poland and Ukraine, will begin in Gdańsk on Thursday.

One of the highlights of the event will be a joint meeting of the Polish and Ukrainian parliaments.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will not come to Gdańsk; the Ukrainian delegation will instead be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko

. It is also known that the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, will not come to Poland.

The Gdańsk conference is being organized in the shadow of sharp tensions between Poland and Ukraine — all due to Zelensky’s decision to name one of the Ukrainian army units after “UPA heroes.”

In response, Polish President Karol Nawrocki decided to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle.

Read more here…

Tyler Durden
Fri, 06/26/2026 – 02:00

Apple shoppers just got a clearer sign that the artificial intelligence boom may make some of the company’s devices more expensive.Since Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2026, analysts have been weighing whether the company’s latest AI push will make its devices more expensive,  especially as memory and storage chip costs rise.On Thursday, June 25, the company officially raised prices on some Macs and iPads as higher memory and storage chip costs ripple through the consumer-electronics market.But the next big question is about Apple’s most important product.Will iPhones be next?The iPhone remains Apple’s biggest business and its most important consumer device. A meaningful price increase would affect millions of shoppers who already face higher costs across groceries, housing, travel, subscriptions, and everyday services.According to Statista, there are over 150 million active iPhones in the U.S., making it a core part of American life.So any change will test how much more consumers are willing to pay for a new device, especially as many people hold on to their phones longer.More Apple:Goldman Sachs resets Apple stock forecast after WWDCApple answers Wall Street’s biggest AI concernMorgan Stanley revamps Apple stock target after key eventApple has spent years trying to make artificial intelligence a reason for customers to upgrade. Now, the same AI boom that could make the next iPhone more useful is also driving up demand for memory and storage chips used across phones, computers, servers, and data centers.That puts Apple in a difficult position.It needs to protect profit margins, but it also cannot push prices so high that shoppers delay upgrades or trade down to cheaper models.

Apple raises the prices of Mac and iPad.Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Apple raises Mac and iPad prices, spares iPhone for nowApple’s latest price increases are already being felt across its lineup, but the iPhone is excluded for now.The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple raised prices on several Mac and iPad models by $200 or more, with the base MacBook Air rising $200 to $1,299 and the base MacBook Pro rising $300 to $1,999.The iPad Air and iPad Pro also saw price increases, according to the report.The increases come after Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Wall Street Journal that price increases were becoming unavoidable due to higher costs for memory and storage chips.Those costs have surged as artificial-intelligence companies build more data centers and compete for the same types of chips used in consumer devices.For now, Apple has not raised iPhone prices.But that may only make shoppers more focused on what comes next, especially with the next iPhone cycle expected to be closely watched by Wall Street.JPMorgan sees smaller iPhone price increaseSome investors and consumers have worried that Apple could eventually need to raise iPhone prices by $200 or more to offset higher component costs.Bank of America recently raised its assumed price increase for some iPhone models, as covered by TheStreet.However, JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee reportedly sees a less dramatic outcome.According to Seeking Alpha, Chatterjee expects the iPhone 18 series to launch with a more modest price increase than some press estimates, closer to about $50 or a mid-single-digit percentage range.That would still make the next iPhone more expensive for shoppers, but it would be a smaller increase than the kind of price shock some investors have feared.Chatterjee, who has an Overweight rating on Apple shares, reportedly expects Apple to offset part of the memory-cost pressure in other ways.According to the Seeking Alpha report, JPMorgan expects memory-cost inflation to create a more than $100 year-over-year headwind. But the firm also expects Apple to offset part of that through savings across the broader component base and through vertical integration, including the shift toward using more in-house modems and less from Qualcomm.After those offsets, JPMorgan reportedly sees roughly $50 in additional costs to be covered through higher average selling prices.In simpler terms, JPMorgan’s view is that Apple may not need to pass the full memory-cost hit directly to iPhone buyers.That matters because iPhone pricing is a delicate issue.Apple can usually charge more than rivals because of its brand, ecosystem, services, and customer loyalty. But a larger price increase could still push some shoppers to keep older phones longer, buy lower-priced models, or wait for promotions from wireless carriers.Apple may find another revenue sourceThe iPhone price question is only one part of Apple’s AI strategy.JPMorgan also sees another potential way for Apple to make money from artificial intelligence: services.Chatterjee said Apple’s developer conference met expectations with a completely revamped Siri.The announcements also pointed to a possible AI monetization path tied to server-dependent features, including daily usage caps and higher limits for premium users that could be bundled into most iCloud tiers.That would give Apple another way to offset AI costs without relying only on hardware price increases.The idea is simple: some basic AI features could be included, while heavier or more frequent usage could become part of paid iCloud plans.That would fit Apple’s broader business model.The company has spent years building its services business through iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, AppleCare, payments, and App Store-related revenue. Adding premium AI capacity to iCloud could give Apple another reason to push customers deeper into paid services.Apple is trying to balance privacy, device performance, cloud costs, and consumer willingness to pay at a crucial business juncture.If more Siri requests run on devices, Apple may be able to keep costs lower. If more advanced requests require cloud servers, Apple may need to recover those costs by raising device prices, charging for paid AI features, or bundling service upgrades.Apple’s pricing challenge now cuts both ways.If the company raises iPhone prices too much, it risks slowing upgrades at a time when it wants AI to make new devices more compelling.If it absorbs too much of the memory-cost increase, it risks putting pressure on margins.JPMorgan’s view suggests Apple may try to take a middle path with modest iPhone price increases, greater component savings, more internal technology, and greater monetization of services around AI.That strategy could be easier for consumers to accept than a much larger iPhone price hike.But it still means Apple shoppers may need to prepare for higher prices in some form.Related: Bessent drops a bombshell on Iran oil, dollar

Bitcoin slipped near $58,000 before recovering, and CF Benchmarks says the $50,000 to $60,000 zone is where buyers have always stepped in.