Quick News 6/13

Olga Nesterova
Jun 13
3 min read

Here are some quick news of the day:

Donald Trump filed his first public financial disclosure report on Friday, detailing his holdings, including income from cryptocurrency ventures. He reported earning $57.35 million from token sales at World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm, and holding 15.75 billion governance tokens in the company. The report, signed on June 13, didn’t specify the exact time period it covered.
President Trump officially approved Nippon Steel's $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel on Friday, concluding an 18-month process filled with challenges, including opposition from unions and two national security reviews.
President Trump encouraged EchoStar Corp Chairman Charlie Ergen and FCC Chair Brendan Carr to come to an agreement regarding the future of the company’s wireless spectrum licenses, according to a Bloomberg report on Friday.
Earlier this month, the White House directed the Defense Department and NASA to collect information on billions of dollars in SpaceX contracts. This came after the public dispute between Trump and Musk, according to four sources familiar with the order, as reported by Reuters.
Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba and President Trump spoke on the phone Friday, discussing issues related to tariffs and Israel's attacks on Iran, according to the Japanese foreign ministry.
A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration unlawfully removed three Democratic members of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and ordered their reinstatement. U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox of Maryland determined that President Trump’s administration overstepped its authority when it dismissed commissioners Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric, and Richard Trumka Jr.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Friday that he and his team are collaborating with the White House's National Security Council to monitor the situation in the Middle East and assess any potential impacts on global energy supplies.
The U.S. military has assisted in shooting down Iranian missiles aimed at Israel, according to two U.S. officials on Friday. One official, speaking anonymously, stated that the interceptions were conducted using ground-based systems, and that fighter jets and warships had not been involved at this stage.
After “months of urging Israel not to strike Iran amid nuclear deal efforts”, President Trump told Reuters on Friday that he and his team had “anticipated the attacks but still believed there was room to reach an agreement”.

NOTE: It was the Trump administration that supplied Israel with heavy weapons (1,800 × 2,000-pound bombs) in February of this year.

The U.S. State Department on Friday denied offering Mexico tariff relief in return for investigating high-level politicians. In a post on X, the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs stated that the U.S. and Mexico continue to collaborate in “combating cartels and the corrupt actors who support them”.
A federal judge in California on Friday temporarily blocked the U.S. State Department from implementing a reorganization plan that included nearly 2,000 layoffs. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled that her earlier decision—prohibiting federal agencies from laying off tens of thousands of employees under President Trump's directive—also applies to the State Department's planned overhaul announced in April.
U.S. Senate Republicans have included language in President Trump's “Big Beautiful Bill” that would limit judges’ power to block government policies they find unlawful.
Trump administration on Friday proposed raising the required amount of biofuels that oil refiners must blend into the U.S. fuel supply over the next two years, primarily due to a significant increase in biomass-based diesel mandates.
President Trump was unsuccessful in convincing a federal appeals court to revisit the $5 million verdict awarded to E. Jean Carroll. The jury had previously found that Trump sexually abused and defamed Carroll, a former magazine columnist, in the 1990s.