Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan Dies at 100

Alan Greenspan, who led the Federal Reserve for nearly two decades and shaped the contours of modern American economic policy, died June 22 at his home in Washington at 100 from complications from Parkinson's disease. He is survived by his wife, NBC correspondent and journalist Andrea Mitchell. 

Born in 1926 in New York City, he received three degrees from New York University after a stint at Juilliard. Greenspan served five terms as Fed chairman under four presidents, from Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush, stepping down in January 2006 after the second-longest tenure in the institution's history.

His chairmanship was widely celebrated during his tenure. He allowed the unemployment rate to fall well below levels that would typically have prompted rate increases, helping sustain one of the longest expansions in American history. But his legacy grew complicated after his departure in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, with some arguing his promotion of financial deregulation and failure to discourage risky mortgage lending helped lead to the financial crisis. Greenspan himself acknowledged mistakes in his own statements after his Fed chairmanship ended.

 

World Cup 2026 Recap

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, the first to feature 48 teams and to span three host nations, completed its group stage Saturday, with the Round of 32 starting Sunday. Through 66 matches, 196 goals have been scored, for an average of nearly three per game. Lionel Messi became the tournament's all-time leading scorer. Cape Verde, in their World Cup debut, became the smallest nation ever to reach the knockout rounds. The United States and France each won their groups, while defending champion Argentina advanced.

 

Venezuela Earthquakes Kill More Than 1,400

Two powerful earthquakes struck northern Venezuela within seconds of each other on the evening of June 24, killing at least 1,430 people as of Saturday and leaving rescuers racing to find survivors buried beneath collapsed buildings across the capital and the coast.

The first earthquake, measuring magnitude 7.2, struck near Yumare, in Yaracuy state, at 6:04 p.m. local time and was classified as a foreshock. It was followed 39 seconds later by a 7.5-magnitude mainshock that was the strongest tremor to hit the country in more than 125 years. At least 3,200 people have been injured, and 13 hospitals were damaged across the country.

Damage was concentrated in La Guaira and Caracas, where dozens of buildings collapsed. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello identified the Los Palos Grandes and Altamira neighborhoods as the worst-affected parts of the city. In La Guaira, volunteers dug through wreckage with their hands nearly 24 hours after the earthquakes, facing a shortage of heavy equipment and very limited government assistance.

The disaster compounds an already severe crisis:. With nearly 8 million people inside Venezuela were already in need of urgent humanitarian support before the earthquakes struck.

The United States announced $150 million in aid, deploying search-and-rescue teams and directing the amphibious transport ship USS Fort Lauderdale and the USS Billings to support relief operations. Colombia announced it would send more than 60 rescuers and four search dogs, while Spain said it would deploy a field hospital. The United Nations coordinated the rapid deployment of urban search-and-rescue teams to Venezuela.

 

Harambe Remembered Ten Years Later

Ten years ago Thursday, the 17-year-old western lowland gorilla Harambe was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo after a three-year-old boy fell into his enclosure. Born on May 27, 1999, at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas, Harambe had been transferred to Cincinnati in 2014.

The zoo's decision to shoot him rather than risk a tranquilizer, which could have taken minutes to work and potentially agitated Harambe, set off a petition that collected over half a million signatures and launched what became one of the internet's most durable meme cycles. The Cincinnati Zoo director said publicly that the zoo was "not amused" by the jokes and petitions, and the zoo eventually deactivated their Twitter temporarily.

What followed over the next decade was harder to categorize. The memes, often absurdist, irreverent, occasionally pointed, became a shorthand for a particular strain of Millennial and Gen Z humor. This week, on the eve of the anniversary, the official White House account on X posted a lengthy tribute calling Harambe "an icon that became part of internet history, American culture, and an entire generation's timeline," and referred to him as a "true patriot." The post sparked immediate debate, with some finding it nostalgic and others questioning whether the gesture was appropriate for an official government account. Whatever one makes of it, the fact that the White House felt the moment worth marking says something about how thoroughly a gorilla from Brownsville worked his way into the American cultural fabric.

 

SpaceX IPO Nears Reality

SpaceX filed its S-1 registration statement with the SEC on May 20th, putting the world's most anticipated IPO on an official countdown. The prospectus targets up to $75 billion in proceeds at a valuation approaching $2 trillion. The filing revealed that Musk controls 85% of shareholder votes and that the company lost nearly $5 billion last year, driven in part by AI division spending. Starlink is the only profitable segment.

 For markets, the deal would reset expectations around private-to-public transitions and test whether retail investors, allocated 30% of the offering, three times the typical share, will absorb that risk willingly.