Good morning. In recent months, mounting opposition to AI has given rise to a surge of violent rhetoric, threats against people and property, and a serious attempt at harm. The phenomenon has executives at tech companies large and small reconsidering their personal-security arrangements and how they talk about their products to a public that is increasingly wary of the technology and the societal changes it is ushering in.

• Targeted threats: The volume of digital threats targeting AI chiefs and data centers grew sevenfold between late February and May, according to Liferaft, which scans social media and the dark web for Fortune 100 companies.
   
• Varying responses: Aware of the backlash, some tech leaders have begun traveling with armed guards. Some stay quiet on the topic of AI to avoid attention. Industry leaders who had been issuing dire warnings about the risks AI poses to the workforce have pivoted to talking up its potential benefits. Still, they are pushing ahead on developing more-sophisticated models, just as Americans increasingly use the technology while expressing misgivings about its impact on jobs, their children’s well-being and energy prices.
   
• Growing security spending: Three companies reporting major jumps in security spending operate near the center of the AI boom. The spending by Palantir Technologies on executive protection rose 150% in a year to nearly $3 million in 2025. At Oracle, spending rose 85.5% to $5.6 million from $3 million in the prior year. Disclosures show that most of that money funded Larry Ellison’s residential security in an environment with “specific threats and safety concerns.” Salesforce’s spending grew to about $4 million, about $1 million more than in 2024.

White House teleprompter operator probed over alleged bets on Trump speeches.

Federal regulators are probing prediction-market bets allegedly made by a White House teleprompter operator on President Trump’s speeches that netted more than $100,000 in profit. 

The operator, Gabriel Perez, is in talks to settle the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s civil claims, a person familiar with the matter said. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Perez had been placed on administrative leave without pay. “He believes it’s deeply unfortunate and frankly a disgrace,” she said of Trump’s reaction to the news.

EU gives Google binding instructions to open Android to AI rivals.

The European Union gave Alphabet’s Google binding instructions to open up its Android operating system and search engine data to services that compete with its own tools.

The European Commission said on Thursday that rival AI assistants have restricted access to key features of Google’s Android operating system and aren’t able to compete equally with the tech group’s own services.

• The federal government is cracking down on companies that provide ketamine for consumers to take at home, as concerns grow about misuse, adverse effects and deaths.
   
• The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a rule Thursday that would allow companies and brokers to make electronic delivery the default for the prospectuses, proxy notices, and the other communiqués they’re required to send investors.
   
• A former TD Bank employee has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for helping a money-laundering network move millions of dollars through the bank, Risk Journal reports (free link).
   
• Undersecretary of Commerce Jeffrey Kessler told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the Bureau of Industry and Security exists to safeguard “the crown jewels of the American economy: our critical technology and supply chains,” as the agency seeks to more than double its enforcement budget, from $122 million to $301 million.
   
• The European Union wants to further relax its landmark carbon-pricing system to give the bloc’s heavy industry more breathing space to decarbonize.

U.S. insisting on export controls in trade agreements, trade representative says.

Risk Journal reports that the U.S. is asking all trading partners to match its export controls regime as it negotiates new trade deals (free link).

The administration has already extracted commitments from Malaysia, Indonesia, Argentina, Ecuador and five other countries in so-called “reciprocal” agreements over tariffs and other trade measures during President Trump’s second term, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Wednesday at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colo.

U.S. defense companies need to change approach to Europe, Anduril president says.

American defense companies need to recognize European allies want to use increased defense spending to benefit their sovereignty and local economies, the president of U.S. defense technology firm Anduril Industries said.

Part of this stems from President Trump’s treatment of European allies, which has prompted a backlash against U.S. companies in Europe, Anduril President and Chief Strategy Officer Chris Brose said Thursday at the forum.

Parasitic outbreak puts Big Lettuce in PR crisis mode.

The cyclospora outbreak has consumers across the country holding the lettuce.

And the U.S. lettuce industry fears it will take a hit—whether or not its leafy greens are truly to blame.

“Being prosecuted in the court of Reddit and social media is just devastating to the industry without any evidence,” said Max Teplitski, chief science officer at the International Fresh Produce Association.

Chevron will explore creating Strait of Hormuz alternative for Iraqi oil.

Chevron intends to sign preliminary deals Friday to invest in two Iraqi oil fields and will join a consortium of investors exploring the construction of a pipeline to connect Iraq’s oil patch with the Syrian coast.

Iraq and other Middle East oil producers are scrambling for alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has sought to shut down and put under its control, triggering a U.S. military response. About 20% of the world’s oil transited the waterway before the Iran war began.

• U.S. Targets Iranian Bridges in Bid to Choke Off Regime’s Supply Routes
• Trump’s Tightening Squeeze on Iran Will Heap More Pain on Its Battered Economy

• President Trump delivered an extraordinary prime-time address in which he alleged that the U.S. election system had been compromised, ramping up his efforts to sow doubts about his 2020 election loss, raise skepticism about the coming midterms and pressure lawmakers into passing sweeping voter-ID legislation.
   
• U.S. jobless claims fell again last week, defying expectations for an uptick.
   
• Two people have died in catastrophic flooding that swept through the Texas Hill Country one year after fast-moving floods devastated a girls camp along the Guadalupe River.

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