Apple to raise prices as AI boom pushes up chip costs

Source: BBC News [UK state media]

“Apple plans to raise the prices of its products as the cost of the memory chips it uses has surged, the technology giant’s boss has said. Tim Cook, Apple’s outgoing chief executive, told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that price increases were ‘unavoidable’ as the situation around memory chips had become ‘unsustainable.’ He did not say when prices would rise or which products would be affected. It is also unclear whether the price hikes will affect the iPhone 18, which is expected to be launched in September.” (06/18/26)

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3wyxvqdx1zo

Thomas L. Knapp

Trump showing the world, G7 leaders who’s the “boss”

Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine

“‘I’m the boss,’ President Trump joked when he arrived a bit late to a meeting with G7 leaders in France Wednesday. He is. That’s what his detractors forget. America is ‘the boss’ again, the colossus. Iran doesn’t bully us. Israel doesn’t instruct us. Europe can sneer at Donald Trump all it likes, but it’s a supplicant. China respects us. Canada bows. Trump understands power, and it rests easy on his shoulders. He joked about it at the G7 in his relaxed American fashion, and European leaders now get it. They laughed along, but they understood. By the time he had emerged from a glittering dinner at Versailles to fly home, he had signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Iran that has the great and the good worked up into a symphony of hysterical catastrophizing.” [editor’s note: It’s sometimes hard to discern what percentages of Devine’s brain are “clueless” vs. “crazy,” but the total of other percentages is zero – TLK] (06/17/26)

https://nypost.com/2026/06/17/opinion/miranda-devine-trump-is-showing-the-world-g7-leaders-whos-the-boss-and-deserves-respect-for-his-deal-making/

Steve Trinward

Hegseth announces six-month review of American forces in Europe, blasts NATO allies for putting troops “at risk”

Source: Fox News

“US defense secretary] Pete Hegseth had harsh words for NATO allies during an address to his European counterparts on Thursday, announcing a six-month review of U.S. force deployment on the continent. Hegseth said the review’s outcome will depend on how quickly European nations act to support themselves militarily. ‘This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe,’ he told NATO officials in Brussels. Hegseth also lashed out at European countries for refusing to assist U.S. forces in the war against Iran, particularly those that withheld use of military bases.” (06/18/26)

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hegseth-announces-6-month-review-american-forces-europe-blasts-nato-allies-putting-troops-risk

Thomas L. Knapp

This Is Why Missouri Families Need Choice

Source: Show-Me Institute
by Susan Pendergrass

“Why do families need school choice? The answer is straightforward — a single, zip-code-assigned school cannot possibly be everything to every child. And when a school fails a student, that student needs a lifeline. A recent iteration of EdChoice’s long-running Public Opinion Tracker survey shows that roughly one in four parents indicate that they have had to switch their children’s school at some point. When you dig into why these families are switching, the reasons are straightforward. Parents pull their children out of schools because of unfortunate, everyday problems that directly impact a child’s well-being and future.” (06/17/26)

https://showmeinstitute.org/article/education/this-is-why-missouri-families-need-choice/

Thomas L. Knapp

Democrats Need to Lead the Second Reconstruction

Source: The UnPopulist
by Andy Craig & Shikha Dalmia

“Trump’s authoritarian assault has decimated our institutions that ‘kitchen table’ issues won’t fix.” [editor’s note: The analogy to post-Civil-War “Reconstruction” sucks. The first time around, its whole point was to rebuild a bad former system minus only one bad feature (slavery), and the emergence of Jim Crow afterward marked even that subtraction at least partly a failure. Trying to “reconstruct” a crappy pre-Trump politics is a terrible idea, and the only good thing about it is that it won’t work either – TLK] (06/17/26)

https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/democrats-need-to-lead-the-second

Thomas L. Knapp