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Wembanyama has seemingly quieted any talk about who’s the next face of the league. Or has he?

A North Carolina-bound flight was forced into a U-turn just 30 minutes into its journey after multiple lightning bolts blasted the plane in UK airspace, according to a report.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup officially began in Los Angeles with a star-studded opening ceremony featuring Future, Tyla, LISA, Anitta, Rema, Katy Perry and Jason Sudeikis before the United States faced Paraguay in the tournament opener.

The championship match of the global soccer tournament is scheduled for July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. 

"Flying Beer Cooler": Pentagon's Next Kamikaze Drone Ushers In Era Of Cheap Mass-Produced Airpower

Our focus on the rise of the "war unicorn" theme over the last four months, shaped by technological innovation seen in the war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, has allowed us, in countless notes, to inform readers very early that 2030s warfare has already arrived. In fact, hyperinnovation in Ukraine, now the world's AI weapons laboratory, is what pulled forward these extremely advanced, low-cost weaponry.

Modern battlefields are now defined by low-cost robotics, whether on the ground, at sea, or in the air, as well as drones, other autonomous systems, and AI-enabled kill chains. Meanwhile, the Department of War's shift toward funding and procuring from defense startups, rather than solely from big defense primes, thanks to DOGE, has accelerated the U.S.'s ability to spur a boom in the defense universe as President Trump's broader war economy ramps up, mainly for stockpiling reasons. 

Let's not forget our view in late January, when nearly all of Wall Street was misguided on alleged water and climate threats from data centers, completely missed that with hundreds of billions of dollars in data center buildouts by hyperscalers, now around $800 billion this fiscal year, these facilities had, and still have, a missing layer of air defense against FPVs and fiber-optic one-way attack drones.

We warned at the time:

• Explosion In AI Data Center Buildouts Will Demand Next-Gen Counter-Drone Security

Then noted:

• "Detect, Track, Neutralize": Autonomous Turrets With Low-Cost Firepower To Counter Kamikaze Drones

In fact, it only took two Iranian attacks targeting Gulf-area data centers with Shahed drones to become a major wake-up call to Wall Street and private equity about the urgency of understanding this threat and how to capitalize.

More importantly, it triggered the urgent need for private equity to begin raising capital for war unicorns that will eventually become major suppliers of interceptors, counter-UAS products, and much more, because much of America's critical infrastructure, data centers, and the list goes on and on, remains entirely exposed to FPVs.

We understand that multiple private equity funds, each with billions of dollars in AUM, have sent personnel to Ukraine to assess the investment landscape across FPV drone, counter-drone, passive acoustic threat detection, and battlefield AI companies. That alone underscores how quickly the "war unicorn" theme is being adopted on Wall Street, one set to surge in the coming quarters.

Going mainstream on Wall Street: 

• JPM Call With Axon Reveals Race To Fortify U.S. Data Centers Against Kamikaze Drone Swarms

• Goldman Sits Down With Anduril As 'War Unicorns' Reshape Defense Tech

This leaves us with the innovation question: the "evolve or die" moment now confronting America's military-industrial complex. The focus must shift away from high-cost weapon systems built around titanium, carbon fiber, and decade-long procurement cycles, and back toward what made the U.S. an industrial powerhouse during World War II: the ability to mass-produce low-cost weapons at scale, rapidly, repeatedly, and in volumes that overwhelm foreign adversaries.

Answering the innovation question above, deep inside America's drone industry is California-based DZYNE Technologies, a company building one-way attack drones from the same material used in beer coolers.

The wings are formed by steam chest molding. That's the process behind beer coolers, bike helmets, and the packaging your TV arrived in. Hot steam, expanded foam, a mold, done. No autoclaves. No exotic supply chain. No aerospace machinists charging aerospace rates.

"We joke that it's a flying beer cooler, and honestly, we lean into it," said CEO Matt McCue. "If your airframe costs almost nothing and pours out of a mold by the thousands, you've solved the problem Ukraine has been screaming about for three years."

That problem is mass: cheap, expendable, attritable mass. Every report from the Black Sea to the Red Sea to the Hormuz chokepoint points to the same conclusion: the side that can afford to lose drones wins. Firing a $2 million missile at a $1,000 drone is a losing trade.

DZYNE's Blitz drone fits in the standard-issue rucksack. It assembles in under two minutes. A new operator is mission-ready in a couple of hours. Range runs 80 to 150 kilometers, with swappable payloads for surveillance or jamming, or it can be easily converted into a one-way attack drone.

Notice what Blitz is not. It's not one of those quadcopters filling your X feed from Ukraine. Those are real and they work, and nobody will say otherwise. But they're one layer of a bigger stack. Multi-rotors burn through batteries just to stay airborne, which makes them deadly in a close fight and spend a lot of energy before the fight gets deep.

A fixed wing gets its lift for free, so Blitz extends the same expendable logic out to 150 kilometers, loiters for hours instead of minutes, hauls heavier payloads, and keeps flying in wind that grounds FPVs. Picture the FPVs owning the last mile while waves of cheap fixed wings seek targets, jam radars, and strike staging areas far behind it. That's not a rivalry. That's a kill chain.

Blitzing is a bet that pressure is cheaper than coverage. NFL football fans understand that, and so does every air-defense crew that has watched a million-dollar interceptor chase a cheap Iranian or Russian drone. That brings us to DZYNE's BlitzBox, a nondescript shipping-container system designed to autonomously launch up to 100 Blitz drones into the air for a coordinated swarming raid.

The American company Dzyne has introduced the BlitzBox system, a container for covertly launching a swarm of attack drones. On the outside, it looks like an ordinary cargo box, but inside, it can hold up to 100 Blitz drones, ready to launch in minutes.#DroneWars #UAS #UAV pic.twitter.com/w9aRaZYrCZ

— Drone Wars (@Drone_Wars_) May 27, 2026

"Adversaries have spent twenty years planning around our big, fixed, easy-to-find bases. A hundred drones in a box that could be anywhere changes that math overnight...

... BlitzBox looks like every other container out there on any truck, ship, port, or railyard. That's a feature," said Ryan Holcomb, DZYNE's VP of Expendables.

That is exactly the logic Ukraine demonstrated last year when it launched a drone swarm deep inside Russia from a modified shipping container positioned near an airbase, targeting strategic bombers.

A drone made from cheap beer-cooler material directly answers the Trump administration and Pentagon's call for low-cost, scalable defense war tech. The question now is how many of these drones the Pentagon will stockpile and how quickly these drones can be produced.

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/12/2026 - 22:10

Most of the USA men's national team's starting 11 was set in stone heading into the team's June 12 World Cup debut match against Paraguay.

While Landon Donovan's days on the soccer pitch are far behind him, the former USA men's national star star is stealing the show before Team USA's 2026 World Cup match against Paraguay on June 12 because of the fresh hairstyle he's sporting.

Strongman Vladimir Putin was forced to halt his annual Russia Day showcase in Moscow’s Red Square Friday, after a Ukrainian attack battered key energy targets and sparked massive fires on Russian soil.

As farfetched as a trade to the Yankees might be, Aroldis Chapman created a stir this week when he told ESPN Deportes that he would want an apology from general manager Brian Cashman before potentially being dealt to The Bronx.

The general election is set. Xavier Becerra against Steve Hilton.

"Through a multi-year faculty review, it was determined that test scores, among other factors, were a useful indicator of potential student success," the school said.

Russian Governors Rush To Deny Fuel Crisis As Rationing Spreads

Submitted by Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

Russia's authorities and regional governors are racing to assure residents there are no fuel shortages amid an intensified Ukrainian drone campaign at Russian refineries and fuel supply roads.

Ukraine has stepped up attacks this month on key fuel supply routes in its territories occupied by Russia, including Crimea and Mariupol. Several Russian regions have been experiencing fuel shortages as Ukraine hits Russian oil refineries.

Last week, the Moscow Times reported that some gasoline stations in Moscow and regions in northern Russia have started to cap fuel purchases per driver, in a move to prevent panic buying.

Officials are playing down the fuel crisis.

Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the northwestern Leningrad region, said this week that "Supplies are being delivered according to plan, there are no shortages," as carried by Bloomberg.

Some isolated complaints about fuel shortages "do not reflect the overall situation," the regional official said.

Governors all across Russia are looking to play down the extent of the crisis.

Meanwhile, earlier this month Russia admitted for the first time that its crude oil production is falling.

Russia's crude oil production has declined since the beginning of the year as a number of local refineries are under unscheduled repairs and maintenance, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said, in the first public acknowledgement from Moscow that its output is flailing.

"We have a number of refineries under unscheduled repairs. However, we are maximizing the use of the export infrastructure," said Novak, who represents Russia at the OPEC+ meetings and at discussions about the alliance's output.

Russia is preparing to sharply reduce crude oil exports this month as mounting refinery disruptions, fuel shortages, and Ukraine's bombing campaign force Moscow to divert more barrels into the domestic market.

Exports from Russia's western ports of Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk are expected to fall to roughly 1.7 million barrels per day in June from 2.5 million bpd in May, according to Reuters calculations based on preliminary industry and trading data.

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/12/2026 - 21:45

Trent Grisham extended a red-hot run Friday night, but it came at a cost.

The pop star — whose outfit could be a nod to Tinseltown — performed her song "Wonder," off her 2024 album "143."

The pop star — whose outfit could be a nod to Tinseltown — performed her song "Wonder," off her 2024 album "143."

Almost four months since pitchers and catchers reported for spring training, there are still plenty of firsts for the Giants’ rookie manager. 

Despite it being prohibited, video shows homeless people sleeping at LAX – a sight that will greet World Cup 2026 visitors.

It’s right there. It’s right freakin’ there. The Knicks just have to reach out and grab it. 

America's Hiring Map Has Flipped Since 2020

America’s hiring recovery has split into sharply different regional stories since 2020.

Some states, including Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas, continue seeing elevated hiring demand years after the pandemic. Others, particularly across parts of the West Coast and Mountain West, have experienced steep declines in job openings.

The map below, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows how job openings changed in every state between February 2020 and January 2026, based on data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The contrast is especially striking in the Mountain West. Idaho leads the nation with hiring demand up over 20%, while neighboring Wyoming ranks last at -39%.

Where Job Openings Have Increased the Most

The rankings below show the change in job openings since 2020 by state.

Rank State Change in Job Openings
Feb 2020 vs Jan 2026 1 Idaho 20.5% 2 Mississippi 19.6% 3 Oklahoma 18.8% 4 Georgia 16.0% 5 Texas 14.2% 6 Ohio 9.9% 7 Missouri 9.7% 8 Minnesota 9.5% 9 District of Columbia 6.5% 10 Louisiana 4.4% 11 South Carolina 3.7% 12 Arkansas 1.6% 13 Connecticut 1.5% 14 Tennessee 0.7% 15 Delaware 0.0% 16 Kansas 0.0% 17 Alabama -1.0% 18 North Carolina -1.7% 19 Florida -1.8% 20 Rhode Island -4.2% 21 Virginia -4.5% 22 Michigan -5.5% 23 Kentucky -6.4% 24 North Dakota -8.7% 25 Utah -10.7% 26 West Virginia -12.0% 27 Maine -12.5% 28 South Dakota -13.0% 29 Pennsylvania -13.2% 30 New York -13.5% 31 Colorado -14.1% 32 Iowa -14.5% 33 New Jersey -14.8% 34 Illinois -15.4% 35 Montana -17.9% 36 Indiana -19.2% 37 Nebraska -20.0% 38 Nevada -20.5% 39 Arizona -22.3% 40 Maryland -22.7% 41 Massachusetts -22.8% 42 Wisconsin -25.6% 43 New Hampshire -26.5% 44 California -27.0% 45 Oregon -28.4% 46 Hawaii -30.0% 47 Alaska -30.4% 48 New Mexico -35.3% 49 Vermont -35.3% 50 Washington -36.3% 51 Wyoming -38.9% -- 🇺🇸 U.S. State Average -9.6% Where Hiring Demand Is Growing Fastest

Idaho leads the nation with job openings up 20.5% since 2020, followed by Mississippi and Oklahoma. Georgia (16.0%) and Texas (14.2%) have also posted strong gains, reflecting continued migration toward lower-cost states and expanding regional economies.

Manufacturing investment is helping drive demand. Billions of dollars tied to semiconductors, EVs, and industrial reshoring have fueled hiring across parts of the South and Midwest. Significant population growth has added another tailwind, boosting both labor supply and consumer demand.

The map highlights how America’s labor market is increasingly diverging at the state level, with neighboring states often moving in very different directions.

Why Many Western States Saw Hiring Cool Off

Several Western states have seen some of America’s steepest declines in job openings since 2020.

Wyoming ranks last nationally, with hiring demand down 38.9%, while Washington is close behind at -36.3%. California, Oregon, and Nevada have also posted sizable declines after the rapid hiring surge seen earlier in the decade.

Much of the slowdown reflects a reversal of pandemic-era expansion, especially across technology and white-collar industries. During 2021 and 2022, many companies aggressively expanded payrolls amid booming demand and cheap capital. Since then, layoffs, higher interest rates, and efficiency-focused cost-cutting have pushed many firms into retrenchment mode.

California alone has announced more layoffs than any other state since 2022. The result is a labor market that looks very different from the hiring frenzy that defined the post-pandemic recovery.

What It Means for Workers and the Economy

Hiring demand affects more than just how easy it is to find a job. It can influence migration patterns, wage growth, housing demand, and local economic confidence.

States with stronger hiring markets often attract more workers, investment, and new business formation, reinforcing long-term economic growth. Weaker hiring markets, meanwhile, may experience softer consumer spending and slower labor demand.

The map increasingly reflects broader economic shifts unfolding across America. Lower-cost states continue attracting people, capital, and industrial investment, while many high-cost markets are adjusting to slower growth after the pandemic-era boom.

The result is a labor market that is becoming more fragmented geographically, with economic momentum increasingly concentrated in a smaller group of states.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic showing where wealth is moving across America.

Tyler Durden Fri, 06/12/2026 - 21:20

The Mets identify as a disappointment, and the possibility their plight will worsen over the 23-game stretch that began Friday night is very real.