Good morning. The U.S. Justice Department has fined a California-based recruiting company for allegedly favoring foreign temporary workers over U.S. citizens, the first such action by the department following Trump-administration promises to target the practice.

• The agreement: Technology recruiting company Epik Solutions has agreed to pay about $72,000 in civil penalties as part of a settlement with the Justice Department, the department said Tuesday. The company allegedly favored foreign holders of the H-1B visa over U.S. workers, according to the department.
   
• The background: Trump administration law enforcement agencies have promised a crackdown on businesses that discriminate against U.S. workers in favor of non-Americans. The Justice Department took on the practice in Trump’s first term under what it called the Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative, and has relaunched the initiative in Trump’s second term.
   
• Foreign workers: The H1-B program, created by Congress in 1990, offers a pathway to the U.S. for skilled workers. Many businesses, especially in the technology sector, have turned to temporary H-1B visas to fill job openings, but some research has shown their pay can be well below median wages for the same jobs.

Disney, Universal sue Midjourney over AI-generated princesses and minions.

Disney and Universal, the studios behind Princess Elsa and the Minions, have come together to fight an AI company they allege is stealing their intellectual property.

The two entertainment companies filed a lawsuit Wednesday against artificial-intelligence provider Midjourney, claiming it illegally made copies of the studios’ copyrighted works.

‘My Big Coin,’ executives to pay $25 million over crypto fraud.

A U.S. District Court judge on Wednesday issued a default judgment order requiring a pair of crypto companies and two men who worked for them to pay more than $25 million over allegations of digital asset fraud by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The CFTC alleged My Big Coin and My Big Coin Pay, Las Vegas-based companies that purported to offer crypto and virtual payment services, were scams. The derivatives regulator alleged that between 2014 and 2017, the companies’ founders and executives solicited more than $6 million in investments in a virtual currency called “My Big Coin” by making false and fraudulent statements.

• Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of one count of sexual assault and acquitted on another in his sex-crimes retrial in New York on Wednesday, a partial victory for the #MeToo movement that forced his downfall.
   
• A lawsuit filed in federal court in Tennessee seeks to end a program designed to funnel tens of millions of dollars to colleges and universities with large percentages of Hispanic students, charging it is racist and unconstitutional.
   
• President Trump has signed an executive order substantially revising his predecessor’s cybersecurity framework while preserving key elements aimed at defending against foreign cyber threats, particularly from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
   
• Norway’s $1.9 trillion sovereign wealth fund said late Wednesday that it has placed Toronto-Dominion Bank under observation for a period of four years over financial crime concerns.

How Home Depot became ground zero in Trump’s deportation push.

President Trump’s immigration crackdown is starting to show up in and around the parking lots of Home Depot stores across the country.

The usual crowds of day laborers have begun to dwindle, scared off by increasing and unannounced immigration raids. These laborers often lack legal status in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would deploy the National Guard across parts of the state as anti-ICE protests that have gripped Los Angeles since Friday—and resulted in hundreds of arrests—spread across the country.

• ICE Raids Have Sent Latino Shoppers Into Hiding and Big Brands Are Hurting
• These L.A. Business Owners Say Protest-Fueled Mayhem Is Hammering Their Sales
• L.A. Police Suppress Protests as ‘Anti-Trump’ Demos Planned for Weekend

China puts six-month limit on its ease of rare-earth export licenses. 

China is putting a six-month limit on rare-earth export licenses for U.S. automakers and manufacturers, according to people familiar with the matter, giving Beijing leverage if trade tensions flare up again while adding to uncertainty for American industry.

Beijing’s agreement to temporarily restore rare-earth licenses was one of the key breakthroughs in the latest round of intense trade talks in London, but the six-month limit illustrated how each side is retaining the tools to easily escalate tensions again.

• Supply Chains Become New Battleground in the Global Trade War

• Israeli army officers and American military contractors looked on from their joint operations center late last month with concern. A new attempt to hand out food and other aid to thousands of hungry people in Gaza had just launched, and it was about to be overwhelmed.
   
• The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned five individuals and a number of groups operating internationally that allegedly funnel money to Hamas’s military wing and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine under the guise of humanitarian work.
   
• The U.S. is moving to draw down its presence in parts of the Middle East to essential personnel, the State Department and Pentagon said Wednesday, as tensions in the region rise, sending oil prices higher.
   
• The Pentagon is reviewing a defense pact with the U.K. and Australia, throwing into doubt a strategic partnership that aims to give Australia nuclear-powered submarines and deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific.
   
• Iran said it would open a new uranium enrichment facility and increase its production of highly enriched fissile material after the U.N. atomic agency member states declared Tehran had failed to comply with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations, casting a fresh shadow over struggling U.S.-Iran nuclear talks.
   
• Russian forces ate into more Ukrainian territory in May than in almost any month since the end of 2022, as the Kremlin presses a summer offensive to create the impression in the West that victory is within its grasp.
   
• The U.K. economy contracted more than expected in April as President Trump’s evolving trade policy brought a halt to a surprising surge in activity.

• Howard Schultz gave a full endorsement of Starbucks Chief Executive Brian Niccol’s turnaround plan, with the chain’s former leader saying work under way is helping to correct recent challenges. 
   
• Elon Musk publicly retreated on some of his attacks on President Trump after a pair of phone calls between the camps, including one with the president, according to people familiar with the matter.
   
• New York City apartment hunters are waking up to some of the steepest overnight rent surges in the city’s recent history.
   
• Corporate America’s diversity, equity and inclusion campaign is going incognito. It’s a pragmatic move—unless a company has Harvard-level supplies of fight and funding.
   
• A London-bound Boeing 787-8 passenger jet carrying more than 240 people crashed in a residential area of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff on Thursday.

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