G7 Drama, Trillion-Dollar Deals, and a B-52 Goes Down

Maya: Good morning, and welcome to the morning rundown. I'm here with David, and David, we've got a lot going on today. David: Understatement of the week, Maya. Like, where do you even start? Maya: Okay, so G7 is wrapping up in France, Trump just called his sit-down with Zelenskyy a very good, and somehow the U.S.-Iran deal is both almost done and almost blown up at the same time. David: Right. And senators are saying they can't even evaluate the deal because nobody's... Nobody's told them what's in it, which is, I mean, come on. Maya: That tracks, honestly. Then, on the business side, SpaceX just dropped $60 billion on an AI coding startup called Cursor, and Fox is buying Roku for $22 billion. David: Yeah, big swings. And then the week just, it gets heavy. B-52 crashed at Edwards Air Force Base on a routine test flight, eight crew members. Maya: Yeah, eight people. We're going to spend some real time on that. David: And we close out with a little lighter stuff. Stuff. L.A. cleaning up at the James Beard Awards and Dana White saying never again on the White House Fight Night. Maya: Never again. OK, let's start with what's happening overseas, the G7 and everything circling Iran right now. Trump came out of the G7 meeting in France calling his sit-down with Zelenskyy, quote, very good. And I love that phrase, right? Because it tells you almost nothing. David: Yeah, very good is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Maya: It really is. Reuters covered the summit and the headline is basically leaders met, Ukraine and the Middle East were on the agenda, Trump urged Russia to make a deal, Which, Okay, but what did he actually commit to? David: That's the question, and the honest answer is, we don't know. There's no announced change in U.S. military aid, no new framework for ceasefire talks. What we got was a good meeting and a press photo. Maya: Which, I mean, at least they're talking. But Zelenskyy's been through enough of these summits to know that very good doesn't keep the lights on in Kyiv. David: Right, and then you pivot to the Iran situation and the stakes get a lot more concrete. Maya: Okay, walk me through it. David: So the Times of Israel confirmed... Confirmed this: the Israeli Air Force chief came out and said a major strike on Iran was called off last week. Called off, as in it was on. Maya: Wait, like planes in the air called off? Or still in the planning room? David: Close enough to scare you. And CNN reported that Netanyahu was in a bunker with the security cabinet, essentially bracing for Iranian ballistic missiles when the diplomatic channel opened up. That's how tight the window was. Maya: That's wild, right? We were that close. David: And Israel did strike Lebanon in the middle of all this. Trump publicly said that strike should not have happened; he called it a problem for the Iran deal. Maya: So Trump is basically telling Israel to stand down while he closes a deal with their biggest adversary. Netanyahu is not having a great week. David: No, he is not, and here's what makes the Iran deal story even messier: The New York Times reported that senators on both sides of the aisle are saying they're largely in the dark about the Iran deal. In the dark about what's actually in this agreement. Maya: Both sides? So it's not just Democrats pushing back? David: Both sides. And they're not praising it, which is kind of remarkable. Your own president strikes a deal, and members of his party in the Senate won't even endorse it because they don't know what's in it. Speaker 3: Hulu Maya: That's a real oversight problem. Congress is supposed to weigh in on agreements like this. There's a reason the Constitution gives the Senate a role in foreign treaties. David: Follow the money, or in this case, follow the process. When you sideline Congress on something this significant, you're betting everything on executive-level trust, and that's a fragile foundation. Maya: And Iran's foreign minister is out there adding conditions. CBS News reported he's saying Israeli troops have to leave Lebanon as part of any deal. So the goal posts are still moving. David: Which means even the deal that almost caused a military strike isn't finalized. There are still huge gaps between what the U.S. wants... what Iran will accept and what Israel can live with. Maya: I mean, do you think there actually is a deal here? Like, a real one? David: I think there's a framework that both sides want to call a deal for domestic political reasons. Whether it holds, whether Israel stays out of it long enough for the ink to dry, that's a different question. Maya: And that's the part nobody has an answer to right now. Not the senators, not Netanyahu, probably not even everyone in the room at the G7 either. David: Very good meeting, though. Maya: Very good. A good meeting. So powerful players making enormous moves and almost nobody outside the inner circle knows the full picture. Doesn't that sound familiar for a Tuesday morning? David: You'd think that was just a geopolitical thing, but honestly, the same energy showed up in a couple of massive business deals this week that had investors and analysts doing double takes too. Maya: What do you do when a $60 billion acquisition drops and half the market is still trying to figure out if it makes sense? Makes sense. Shifting gears into money, Reuters is reporting SpaceX is buying Anysphere, the company behind the Cursor AI coding tool, for $60 billion. David: 60 billion for a coding assistant. Maya: I know, right? And Cursor's only been around a couple years. It went from a college project to a $60 billion acquisition basically overnight. David: Follow the money on this one. Elon Musk already controls rockets, satellites, and a social media platform. media platform now he's buying one of the tools that developers use to write the software that runs everything else that's not just a business deal that's infrastructure yeah Maya: Right. And the WSJ noted SpaceX stock was up big this week, pointing toward a third straight day of gains. So the market is clearly not worried about the price tag. David: 60 billion in stock not cash that's a key detail SpaceX's post-IPO valuation is doing a lot of heavy lifting there Maya: So anyway, the other big media story: Fox is buying Roku. David: for $22 billion, and Fox's own stock dropped on the news. Maya: Which is, I mean, come on. You announce a massive expansion and your shareholders go, ah, we're good, actually. David: Barron's had a piece on exactly that, the market read it as Fox overpaying. Roku's been struggling, the stock had been down significantly before this deal. Maya: Axios framed it differently. They said this makes Fox the owner of the of the top digital TV operating system in the U.S. You control the home screen. You control what people watch first. David: Hmm, that's the play. Fox has always been good at owning the relationship with the viewer. Cable, news, sports, now they want to own the remote, basically. Maya: And it fits, right? Free, ad-supported streaming is the direction everything's moving. If Fox can bundle its news and sports content with Roku's reach... David: That's a different kind of leverage than Netflix has. Netflix charges you. Maya: Roku gets you for free and sells your eyeballs. Fox understands that model. David: Wild week for big dollar moves. Maya: Yeah, and that's actually what makes the next story hit differently, because not every headline this week had a valuation attached to it. David: No, a B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Eight crew members were on board, all eight killed. Maya: A routine test mission, according to Al Jazeera. The B-52 Stratofortress, it's been in service since the 1950s, one of the longest running aircraft in U.S. military history. David: The New York Times confirmed eight dead. It's one of the deadliest U.S. military aviation accidents in recent memory. Maya: The 60 billion dollar deals on one side of the news feed and that on the other, it's a tough week to process. David: We've got more on that, plus, and I promise this is a real pivot, Los Angeles just swept the James Beard Awards. And Dana White says the White House fight night was a one and done. Okay, so on a day full of big financial numbers, one story cuts through all of it. Maya: Yeah, a B-52 bomber went down shortly after takeoff at Edwards Air Force Base in California. All eight crew members were killed. David: The New York Times and Al Jazeera both confirmed it. The bomber was on a routine test mission. Routine. And then it wasn't. Maya: Eight people. That's one of the deadliest U.S. military aviation accidents in recent years. years. David: Wait, and this is a B-52 Stratofortress, right? These are not new aircraft. Maya: No, the BBC noted the B-52 has been in service since the 1950s. We're talking about a plane that is older than most of the people flying it. They've been upgraded, obviously, but still. David: And they're still actively used, not just ceremonially. Maya: Right. Long-range missions, nuclear deterrence, test flights like this one. The Air Force still relies on them heavily, which is why the crash matters beyond the immediate tragedy. You start asking questions about the fleet, about maintenance cycles, about what this means operationally. David: I mean, eight people left for a routine flight and didn't come back. That's the thing that stays with you. Maya: No cause has been confirmed yet, an investigation is ongoing, but yeah, sit with that for a second. David: All right. We do want to close on something a little lighter, because Because that's the honest shape of a news day sometimes. Maya: The full range. David: So, Los Angeles had a moment at the James Beard Awards, big night for the city. Maya: Would they take home? David: Best Chef California, Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program, and Outstanding Hospitality. Eater LA's Rebecca Roland reported LA swept it. Maya: I mean, honestly, that tracks. LA's food scene has been on a serious run. David: And then there's Dana White. Maya: Oh no, what happened? David: So the White House fight night, Freedom 250, that whole big outdoor UFC event on the South Lawn, the Associated Press covered it, weather problems, insane logistics, building a cage on federal property, the cost, he said it was a one-off, will not be repeated. Maya: Shocking that staging a UFC fight on the White House lawn turned out to be complicated. Located. David: Who could have predicted-I mean, come on. Maya: To be fair to Dana White, that event did happen, they pulled it off, but apparently once was enough. David: Once was very much enough-I respect the honesty. Maya: Yeah, file that one under good idea in theory. David: So, a rough morning for aviation, a big night for LA chefs, and Dana White crossing something off his bucket list permanently. Maya: That about covers it. David: Pretty full day. Maya: Pretty full week, honestly. David: All right, that's the Rundown for today. A lot to sit with. Bunkers, billion-dollar deals, and Dana White swearing off the White House forever. Maya: The bunker moment really got me. Netanyahu bracing for missiles and diplomacy opens up in that window. David: Mm Maya: That's David: -hmm. Maya: a wild thing to picture. David: Right? And meanwhile, on the business side, SpaceX buying the tool developers used to build everything else. Infrastructure, like you said. Maya: Big week. A lot of moving pieces and honestly not a lot of clean answers yet. David: Which is kind of the job, right? We'll keep watching it. Thanks for spending your morning with us. Maya: If you haven't subscribed or left a review, please do. Helps more than you'd think. David: See you tomorrow, and that's the Rundown.