Friday morning news: June 6, 2025

China-U.S. trade » At the White House on Thursday, President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that trade talks with China will resume in the days ahead.

The president struck a positive tone after his first phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, since returning to the White House.

TRUMP: We had a very good talk and, uh, we've straightened out any complexity and it's, it's very complex stuff and we straighten it out.

He said top U.S. trade officials will be meeting with their Chinese counterparts very soon. U.S. negotiators hope to break an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals.

Trump-Musk feud » President Trump also responded Thursday to criticism from Elon Musk, who just days earlier exited as the head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk in recent days grew louder and more pointed in his criticism of a Republican budget bill backed by the president, calling it a big-spending “disgusting abomination.”

Trump told reporters:

TRUMP:  I've always liked Elon, and it's always very surprised, but I'm, I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot.

Trump also suggested that Musk, the CEO of Tesla, was upset about losing federal electric vehicle subsidies.

A war of words later exploded on social media, with Trump threatening to cancel federal contracts with Musk's companies, including SpaceX and Tesla.

Musk retaliated by announcing plans to decommission SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which plays a crucial role in NASA's missions to the International Space Station.

SCOTUS decisions » The Supreme Court issued several unanimous decisions on Thursday. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher has details.

BENJAMIN EICHER: One of the rulings, the court effectively said that so-called reverse discrimination in the workplace is just as wrong as other forms of discrimination.

The justices ruled that under Title VII (seven) all individuals—regardless of social minority status—are entitled to equal protection.

That stemmed from a case in which a hetrosexual woman said she was passed over for promotions in favor of homosexual candidates.

In another case, all nine justices agreed that Mexico can’t hold U.S. gun manufacturers liable for violent acts committed with American-made guns.

And separately, the court also ruled unanimously that Wisconsin violated the First Amendment by denying a religious nonprofit tax-exempt status based on the perceived secular nature of its services.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

News conference on Colorado attacker charges » The man accused of carrying out a terrorist attack in Colorado on Sunday has been formally charged with 118 criminal counts.

Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman is accused of attacking a group that had gathered to call for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty:

DOUGHERTY:  The defendant is charged with attempted murder in the first degree as to 14 different victims. Each one of those counts carries a sentence of 16 to 48 years.

Authorities say Soliman threw Molotov cocktails injuring 15 people and yelled “Free Palestine” during the attack. Police arrested him at the scene.

Soliman has also been charged with a hate crime in federal court.

Travel ban latest » And Trump administration officials again pointed to that attack in Boulder in discussing President Trump’s new travel ban.

The president this week signed an order halting travel to the U.S. from a dozen different countries that the administration deems high risk.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce:

BRUCE:  What, of course Colorado showed us was the vital importance of this action, the fact that the president has been right from the start. It is another example of why this has to be done.

The ban lists nine countries located in the Middle East or Africa, as well as Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Haiti.

Trump also ordered partial bans for nations like Turkmenistan, Cuba, and Venezuela.

Multiple legal challenges to the order are already in the works.

SOUND: [Explosions]

Israel-Gaza latest » Explosions as Israel's military struck several sites in southern Beirut yesterday. Israel says it was targeting underground facilities where the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah built drones.

Meanwhile, tragic news out of the region:

NETANYAHU: [Speaking Hebrew]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing that Israel's military recovered the bodies of two Israeli-Americans who had been captured by Hamas during the October 7th attacks. They were identified as Gad Haggai and his wife Judih Weinstein.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, a voice from the past returns with a new recording project.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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