Tessera

President Trump personally intervened to have U.S. striker Folarin Balogun reinstated for the team’s round-of-16 game against Belgium following his red card in the previous round. www.wsj.com/sports/socce...

FIFA Sparks World Cup Furor After Trump Intervenes Over U.S. Striker’s Red Card

President Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino, urging him to review Folarin Balogun’s suspension for the U.S. team’s round-of-16 match against Belgium.

wsj.com

Capital Account: The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence finds the U.S. among the richest economies in the world. Americans owe much of that to the democracy the founders built, Greg Ip writes. www.wsj.com/economy/amer...

The Founders Are Why America Is Rich. That Legacy Is at Risk.

Checks, balances and trust in personal agency made the U.S. a haven for entrepreneurs and wealth creation.

wsj.com

The ruling allows donors to circumvent a tenet of campaign-finance law: caps on direct cash donations to a candidate. Now, donors can give to a political party knowing that the party will use that money on a candidate’s behalf, with the candidate’s guidance. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

Supreme Court Strikes Down Key Limit on Campaign Spending by Political Parties

At issue was how much money the parties can spend in coordination with candidates for public office.

wsj.com

California billionaire tax is headed to the ballot in November. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

California’s Billionaire Tax Kicks Off a Democratic Civil War

The divisive proposal heads to the ballot after attempts to reach a compromise deal failed.

wsj.com

The company instructed creators not to disclose they are paid, according to creators who have worked with the company. They said the pay often added up to $2,000 to $3,000 a month. www.wsj.com/business/med...

They Looked Like They Were Getting Rich on Polymarket—but None of It Was Real

The prediction market has flooded social media with deceptive videos by paid creators. ‘Is this just free money?’

wsj.com

World Cup fans dropped six figures to watch the first U.S. match from suites at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium. FIFA advertised high-end food and beverage service. But the workers who deliver that service voted to authorize a strike. BYOB? www.wsj.com/sports/socce...

L.A. Stadium Workers Vote to Strike Days Before the World Cup

The union said concessions workers could walk off the job any time, leaving hungry fans to fend for themselves.

wsj.com

Both Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom’s PACs reported buying and distributing books to supporters—Newsom’s spending $1.6 million the week his book went on sale. Harris’s PAC spent $97,000 buying her books during the month Newsom’s memoir launched. www.wsj.com/politics/ele...

‘Like Two Cats Circling’: Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom Weigh a 2028 Showdown

They claim to be friends, but many expect a gloves-off brawl should the two California Democrats decide to run for president.

wsj.com

University of California professors are begging schools to reinstate the SAT www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

University of California Professors Are Begging Schools to Reinstate the SAT

An open letter cites “severe preparation deficits” among incoming students.

wsj.com

“The biggest challenge is, How do you make sure the wealth lasts for 100, 200 years and that your heirs live a happy, purposeful life and are using the wealth in a productive way?” www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...

The Exclusive Retreat Where Wealthy Kids Learn How Not to Blow an Inheritance

Inside a three-day gathering where a group of heirs collectively worth $7 billion learn the secrets to staying rich.

wsj.com

You can be a red-blooded capitalist and still worry about the political stability of an economy in which ever more output flows toward shareholders instead of employees, Greg Ip writes. www.wsj.com/finance/stoc...

The Record Divide Between Corporate Profits and Worker Pay

Labor’s share of economic output just hit an all-time low, while the profit share neared a record. It helps explain why consumers feel so glum.

wsj.com

“We don’t know exactly what has been happening, but most charities that were helping us have been closing,” said Jean Muhindo, who lives in a Congolese refugee camp with his family after fleeing Islamic State violence in his hometown earlier this year. www.wsj.com/world/africa...

Doctors, Hospitals Struggle to Keep Up With Ebola’s Spread

The fast-spreading virus is overwhelming creaking hospitals and clinics in Democratic Republic of Congo, dimming hopes for quick containment of what is already the third-largest outbreak of the killer...

wsj.com

Autism-therapy clinics are enticing to health care investors: Demand is high and payment rates far exceed labor costs. Medicaid often pays about $70 per hour for therapy largely provided by workers with high school diplomas who earn around $20. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/23/h...

Short Naps, Long Hours: How Autism Clinics Squeeze Medicaid Dollars Out of Preschoolers

nytimes.com

The funds moving through Binance to Iran-linked groups largely corresponded to payments from Chinese buyers of Iranian oil, part of a sanctions-busting trade that is controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and is a significant revenue source for the regime. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Iran Moved Billions Through Binance to Fund Regime—Continuing Into This Month

The crypto transactions took place despite repeated red flags. Binance says it has “zero-tolerance for illicit activity.”

wsj.com

David Wessel @davidmwessel.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Gonna offer a middle-ground take here. If you meet someone IRL and like them, go to dinner for the first date. But if you meet online, do a low-stakes coffee, drink, or walk in the park…just make the plan ASAP. You don’t get to know someone by texting for days and days. www.wsj.com/lifestyle/re...

As a Millennial, I Loathed First-Date Dinners. Gen Z Changed My Mind.

I’ve always recoiled at having dinner on a first date. Now, I’ve noticed younger people challenging the dating norms millennials like me had grown to accept.

wsj.com

LA tried to tax mansions, but unintended consequence: It discouraged construction of apartments. Smart @wsj.com piece by @pkwsj.bsky.social www.wsj.com/economy/hous...

Los Angeles Tried to Tax Mansions. Apartment Construction Tanked.

Developers say the levy is making L.A.’s housing shortage worse. The city is considering changes.

wsj.com

“If you spend lots of time socialising with your peers in the real world, your standards [for a potential partner] are anchored in the real world. If you spend your time on Instagram, your standards are anchored to an artificial sense of what is normal.” www.ft.com/content/fba3...

Why birth rates are falling everywhere all at once

Homes and phones are part of the reason for the demographic shift changing our world

ft.com

Campaign Staffer Becomes Thousandaire www.npr.org/2026/05/07/n...

Campaign staffers tell NPR they make 'thousands' betting on their own candidates

Campaign staffers are turning private polling data into personal paydays. They describe the election prediction market as a "Wild West" for staffers.

npr.org

New LA metro stop, fresh out the kitchen. “Getting Angelenos out of their cars and onto mass transit will likely be a challenge, and experts say the D Line could be a major test of whether adding rail in prime real estate can change behavior,” LA Times writes. www.latimes.com/california/s...

“You’re going to find that the easiest money is going to be in sports,” professional poker player Michael Boss said. “Sports has the attention of all the sick young men, I guess.” By “sick,” he clarified, he meant gambling addicts. www.wsj.com/finance/inve...

Why Almost Everyone Loses—Except a Few Sharks—on Prediction Markets

A WSJ analysis shows a small number of accounts on Polymarket and Kalshi—often pros using data-driven algorithmic trading—take home most of the winnings.

wsj.com

“This is a warning. We know you live right here.” Federal agents nationwide can access your personal data, including communications and daily travels in America’s new surveillance dragnet. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

‘We Know You Live Right Here’: No Secrets in America’s New Surveillance Dragnet

Technical wizardry used to combat illegal immigration also funnels the personal data and whereabouts of U.S. citizens to federal agents.

wsj.com

The government becomes more sensitive to interest rates as debt grows. One in seven dollars of federal spending now goes to interest. A 0.1 percentage-point interest-rate increase would cost $379 billion over 10 years, according to the CBO. www.wsj.com/economy/u-s-...

U.S. Debt Tops 100% of GDP

Federal debt exceeding the size of the economy is a potent symbol of the gathering fiscal stresses on the U.S.

wsj.com

Having largely abandoned budget cars years ago, Detroit’s Big Three now rely heavily on expensive SUVs and pickup trucks that deliver fatter profits. Now their continued existence depends entirely on trade barriers to keep superior Chinese cars out of the U.S. www.wsj.com/business/aut...

The U.S. Wants to Ban China’s High-Tech Cars, but They’re Already Here in El Paso

Mexican dealers are selling cutting-edge Chinese cars that U.S. consumers can’t buy. Americans are warming to the idea of them.

wsj.com

Congo isn't the only African country with which the Trump administration has brokered deportation deals. Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Eswatini are among several countries that have also agreed to take in U.S. deportees from Latin America and elsewhere. www.npr.org/2026/04/28/n...

'We don't know what will happen to us': U.S. deportees in limbo in DRC

15 South American migrants and asylum seekers deported from the U.S. to the DRC are now living in uncertainty in a country an with ongoing armed conflict, where they have no ties.

npr.org

California’s billionaire tax has the signatures to make the November ballot, backers say. They claim to have collected more than 1.5 million (875k need to be valid to qualify the initiative). www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Exclusive | California’s Billionaire Tax Has the Signatures to Make the Ballot, Backers Say

Supporters of the measure say they’ve accumulated more than 1.5 million signatures, topping the 875,000 required to make the ballot.

wsj.com

U.S. authorities charged an Army soldier who took part in the mission to capture Nicolás Maduro with using classified information to reap profits from bets on the former Venezuelan leader’s ouster www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

U.S. Soldier in Maduro Raid Is Charged With Making Bets on Former Leader’s Ouster

Federal authorities allege that classified information was used to net more than $400,000 in profit.

wsj.com