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✏️ Chinese artificial-intelligence companies are loosening the U.S.'s global stranglehold on AI. The competition is pushing countries to align with either American or Chinese systems, a split that will determine who sets global standards for the technology. Separately, the White House's trade-deal deadline is next week, but many of America's trading partners are still balking at President Trump's pressure campaign. And as Republicans try to wrap up their tax-and-spending megabill, GOP lawmakers are facing a new reality: They now represent more constituents who rely on social safety-net programs. | |
Emma Tucker Editor in Chief, The Wall Street Journal | |
- Paramount has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit with Trump over a "60 Minutes" Kamala Harris interview, capping a monthslong legal saga.
- House Republicans are already lining up to fight the president's megabill. Only three of them need to oppose the bill to sink it.
- The U.S. has stopped the delivery of key weapons intended for Ukraine and is using them instead to beef up Pentagon stocks.
- The jury in Sean "Diddy" Combs's sex-trafficking case is at an impasse over a racketeering-conspiracy charge but reached a verdict on four other charges.
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China is quickly eroding America's lead in the global AI race. | |
OpenAI's ChatGPT remains the world's predominant AI consumer chatbot, and American AI is widely seen as the industry's gold standard. But as in many other industries, Chinese companies have started to snatch customers by offering performance that is nearly as good at vastly lower prices. In Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, users ranging from multinational banks to public universities are turning to large language models from Chinese companies. Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company, recently installed DeepSeek in its main data center. Liza Lin, Raffaele Huang and Josh Chin examine the heated AI competition and what's at stake if China wins. | |
Netflix is exploring music shows and celebrity interviews as part of its unscripted TV push. | |
The streamer found success by offering prestige TV and movies on demand for a monthly fee. Now, it is planning to introduce more of the fare that was core to the cable bundle. Netflix has held conversations with Spotify about partnering on a number of projects such as a music awards show or a live concert series, Jessica Toonkel reports. It has also discussed doing big celebrity interviews and shorter-turnaround documentaries to capture the news of the moment. | |
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Q: What's the status of Trump's trade deals? | |
After slapping so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries—then putting them on hold—the White House vowed to strike a spate of trade deals before July 9. The administration reached a limited agreement with the U.K. in May, and then looked to Japan to keep the momentum going. Now a standoff with Tokyo shows how hard that is turning out to be, Gavin Bade and Brian Schwartz report. | |
A: Administration officials attempting to negotiate several deals have at times contradicted one another about goals and timelines, and Trump has further muddied the picture with references to sending letters—referring to his repeated pledges to dictate to trading partners what they would have to pay the U.S. Adding to the uncertainty is an appeals court hearing set for late July over the legality of the emergency authority Trump used to impose the so-called reciprocal tariffs. Even the tariff deadline is in question. Last week, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated some countries could get an extension, Trump injected further uncertainty. "We can do whatever we want," he said in a news conference. "We can extend it, we can make it shorter. I'd like to make it shorter." On Tuesday, Trump said he's "not thinking about" extending the deadline. The chaotic situation has left countries bewildered, unsure of what the White House wants or when they have to deliver a deal. Hanging over the entire process is Trump's earlier promise to restore the Liberation Day tariffs on countries that don't do deals—potentially triggering another round of market chaos. | |
More lower-income Americans are voting GOP. That's problematic for Trump's tax bill. | |
America's two political parties have traded places economically. Where Americans once referred to upper-income "country club Republicans" and blue-collar "lunchpail Democrats," they now see a working-class GOP and, in many ways, a professional-class Democratic Party. That's good news for Republicans, because working-class voters are one of the biggest blocs in the electorate. But it's also making it harder for the GOP to cut social safety-net programs, such as Medicaid. | |
- Tesla will release delivery numbers for the second quarter.
- Earnings: UniFirst
- 📰 Today's paper
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The cost of a collectible popcorn bucket tied to this month's Marvel Studios film "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." The container is a replica of villain Galactus's head, with glowing LED eyes and removable purple horns, and holds 361 ounces of popcorn—more than twice the size of a typical large popcorn. It's one of the specially designed and shockingly expensive receptacles that moviegoers race to get. | |
Get the private jet experience for a bargain price. | |
The legroom is dreamy. There are no overhead bins to hit your head on. Instead, there are free checked bags, in-flight drinks, Starlink Wi-Fi and a generous pet policy. And you have to show up at the airport only 20 minutes before your jet takes off. The perks of flying semiprivate come at a price. For our travel columnist, it was $644 for a round-trip flight from Scottsdale to Las Vegas, less than a week out. To last-minute business travelers or spontaneous vacationers, that doesn't look so bad. | |
| About Us | The 10-Point is your guide to The Wall Street Journal's reporting and analysis you can't get anywhere else. Your subscription makes our journalism possible. Today's newsletter was curated and edited by Sarah Chacko and Bryony Watson in collaboration with Editor in Chief Emma Tucker. | |