📊 Taiwan Self-Defense, Obama Center, and Teen Jobs

Weapons request, presidential opening, and frustrating search.

Jun 19, 2026

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🌎 GLOBAL NEWS

🇹🇼 Taiwan presses for weapons. Taiwan’s top envoy in Washington says the island still needs American weapons for self-defense. Alexander Yui Tah-ray leads the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States. He said Taiwan faces a growing threat from Beijing. China claims Taiwan as its own. China’s communist government has never ruled the island. Beijing sends military aircraft and warships near Taiwan almost daily. It has also held major military exercises around the island in recent years. A $14B American arms sale package remains in limbo. President Trump discussed the proposal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping after returning from Beijing in May. That raised anxiety in Taiwan and concern among lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Yui said Taiwan is increasing defense spending. He said the island will not wait for “the United States cavalry” to rescue it. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the proposal is under review, not held up. Rubio said Washington does not consult Beijing on Taiwan arms sales. He also said American weapons stockpiles and procurement needs must be weighed. The Trump administration approved a separate $11B package in December. That package included High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and howitzers. Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said Thursday that his government hopes the purchase is approved soon. The island is asking for deterrence before crisis turns into calendar.

🇵🇸 Gaza truce keeps killing. Israeli operations in Gaza have killed 1,005 Palestinians since the October ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Wednesday. Gaza officials and trackers say Israel has violated it 3,000+ times, injuring 2,780+, and killing 25+ over the Eid holiday last month. The enclave has seen near-daily strikes. It has also seen shelling and gunfire along the boundary dividing Israeli-controlled and Palestinian-controlled zones. Recent deaths followed drone strikes on towns and refugee camps in central Gaza and Gaza City. Another Israeli strike killed two Palestinians and wounded six others in Khan Younis. Health officials at Nasser Hospital reported the casualties. Israel’s military said it targeted a “terrorist.” Families at the hospital said the strike hit people near the beach in Muwasi. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians live in that tent camp. Israel says it is continuing operations against Hamas and allied militants. Both sides accuse the other of ceasefire violations. Gaza’s broader death toll has surpassed 73K. Gaza’s vocabulary remains annexation, apartheid, blockade, collective punishment, displacement, embargo, ethnic cleansing, famine, genocide, illegal occupation, irredentism, and settler-colonialism. A ceasefire that still produces a four-digit death toll is not a pause anyone can mistake for peace. Editor’s Note: The polycrisis afflicting Gaza was officially considered a genocide by the United Nations (UN) and International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), with famine declared formally by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), confirmed by UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNICEF, World Food Program (WFP), and World Health Organization (WHO), along with Global Sumud Flotilla eyewitnesses.

🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS

🏛️ Obama Center opens. Former President Barack Obama formally opened his presidential center in Chicago on Thursday. The dedication came with a call to defend democracy. Three former presidents joined him on stage. Former President Joe Biden attended. Former President George W. Bush attended. Former President Bill Clinton attended. Former first ladies Jill Biden, Laura Bush, and Hillary Rodham Clinton also joined. Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia appeared with him. The event brought politicians, celebrities, athletes, and global figures to the South Side. Obama said the center should affirm how precious democracy is. Bono, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Marc Anthony, and Eddie Vedder performed. Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder closed the show with “Higher Ground.” President Trump was absent and unmentioned by speakers. Trump had called the $850M center a “total disaster” in February. Obama praised character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, and duty. He said he could not have built the center anywhere but Chicago. The museum opens to the general public on Juneteenth. A city that made Obama now receives the archive of what he says democracy still owes itself.

✈️ Texas jet crash probed. Investigators searched wreckage Wednesday after a small business jet crashed on a highway in Laredo, Texas. One person was killed. Two pilots and three teenagers survived. Laredo police said all survivors had been released from the hospital. A dog aboard the plane suffered smoke inhalation and was expected to survive. The aircraft was a Cessna Citation Latitude twin jet. It departed Tuesday evening from San José del Cabo, Mexico. It was bound for Austin, Texas. The jet was operated by NetJets, a private aviation company owned by Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK.B). NetJets said it was cooperating with authorities. The plane went down around 10 p.m. on Loop 20. Pilots had radioed the local airport seeking an emergency landing. Laredo International Airport Director Gilberto Sanchez said the call mentioned low fuel and power loss. Dashcam video showed the aircraft careening down the highway. It knocked down a light pole and hit a car. Officers and bystanders rushed to help. The crash turned a highway into a runway, then into evidence.

🗂️ MISC

🧑‍🍳 Teen job hunt gets harder. Many American teenagers are finding the summer job market closed before it really opens. Jaelyn Chester, a 17-year-old A+ student and basketball player from Lake Mary, Florida, has applied widely. She said she is unemployed not because she is incompetent but because nobody is hiring. The summer job was once a teenage rite of passage. Federal data show about one-third of 16- to 19-year-olds worked last summer. That is down from about 60% in the late 1970s. Nicole Bachaud, an economist at ZipRecruiter, said early career opportunities have dried up. Challenger, Gray and Christmas found teen jobs fell 25% last summer from the year before. The firm expects even fewer teen jobs this year. It says summer teen hiring could be the lowest since federal tracking began in 1948. Teens often work in food preparation, service, and sales. Those jobs are now leaner. Employers often prefer more experienced candidates. Max Stephenson, a 19-year-old in Little Rock, has applied to 50 to 100 jobs. The handshake economy has been replaced by the ignored application portal.

📈 Stocks claw back losses. American stocks rose Thursday and erased much of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve-driven selloff. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500) gained 80.48 points. That was a 1.1% rise to 7,500.58. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 72.15 points. That was a 0.1% increase to 51,564.70. The Nasdaq Composite surged 496.28 points. That was a 1.9% jump to 26,517.93. All three major indexes notched weekly gains. American markets will close Friday for Juneteenth. Big technology stocks powered the reversal. Intel ($INTC) surged 10.6% after President Trump said it would make chips for Apple ($AAPL) in America. Nvidia ($NVDA) rose 3%. Micron Technology ($MU) jumped 8.7%. SpaceX ($SPCX) fell 3.6% after losing 4.9% Wednesday. Brent crude settled at $79.85 per barrel. American benchmark crude fell to $75.85. Airlines rallied while energy companies slipped. Wall Street found relief, but it still kept one eye on rates and another on oil.