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First Thing: the US morning briefing

First Thing: Trump and Musk joust in astonishing social media duel

The world’s richest man called for the US president’s impeachment, and in return Trump threatened to scrap subsidies for Musk’s companies. Plus, a university paid private investigators to snoop on campus activists
Donald Trump and Elon Musk in March.
Donald Trump with Elon Musk in March. Photograph: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

Clea Skopeliti

Good morning.

Elon Musk has called for Donald Trump’s impeachment and in effect claimed the president was part of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged child sexual abuse ring in an extraordinary social media blow-up between the former allies on Thursday.

Trump did not hold back either, threatening to end federal contracts and tax subsidies for the billionaire’s companies as the feud that had been brewing flared up on their respective social media platforms.

In the saga’s most explosive movement, Musk tweeted: “Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” The post followed Trump threatening to cut subsidies for Musk’s companies as it would save “billions”.

  • What is the origin of the feud? Tensions have been mounting for weeks over a Republican spending bill that Musk has been critical of.

  • How is it affecting Musk’s bottom line? Tesla’s shares plunged by about 14.2% on Thursday at market close after the pair traded barbs.

Rubio imposes sanctions on four ICC judges for ‘targeting’ US and Israel
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, accused the four judges of being ‘actively engaged in … targeting America or our close ally Israel.’ Photograph: Chris Kleponis/EPA

The US is imposing sanctions on four judges from the international criminal court (ICC) for what it has termed its “illegitimate actions” against the United States and Israel, the secretary of state has announced.

Marco Rubio announced the sanctions against Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin and Beti Hohler of Slovenia on Thursday after Donald Trump instructed cabinet officials to devise sanctions against the court.

  • Why were these judges targeted? Two of the judges authorized the arrest warrants against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the former defense minister Yoav Gallant, while the other pair authorized an ICC investigation into abuses by US personnel in Afghanistan.

  • Has the US targeted others before? Yes – it sanctioned the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, after he pursued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. As a result, Khan has lost access to his email and had his bank accounts frozen, the Associated Press reported.

Judge blocks Trump’s ban on Harvard’s international students from entering the US
The Widener library during Harvard’s 374th commencement in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 29 May 2025.
The Widener library during Harvard’s 374th commencement in Cambridge, Massachusetts, last week. Photograph: Rick Friedman/AFP/Getty Images

A district judge in Boston has blocked the Trump administration’s ban on Harvard’s foreign students from entering the United States after the university argued it had violated federal law.

The Ivy League school argued that the administration failed to back up the president’s claims that the students posed a threat to national security and asked Judge Allison Burroughs to block the ban.

The filing also argued that the administration’s national security argument was unsound as, under the ban, the same people were able to still enter the country – just not attend Harvard.

The development came while hundreds of thousands of Chinese students in the US struggle with an uncertain future after the state department said last week that it would “aggressively” revoke visas for Chinese students.

  • Why did Trump ban Harvard from accepting international students? The White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson has called Harvard “a hotbed of anti-American, antisemitic, pro-terrorist agitators” – claims the school denies. Harvard argues Trump is angry because it has refused to give in to the administration’s demands to shape the school’s governance, curriculum and ideology of staff and students alike.

In other news …
Fire and smoke in Kyiv after a Russian drone and missile strike.
Fire and smoke in Kyiv after Russian drone and missile strikes. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters

  • Russia’s overnight missile and drone barrage on Kyiv overnight killed four people after Vladimir Putin vowed revenge for Ukraine’s attack on its bomber fleet.

  • The IDF has recovered the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages in their 70s who were abducted during Hamas’s 7 October attack, in an overnight operation in southern Gaza.

  • El Salvador is using emergency gang violence legislation to seize land that was granted to people following the country’s civil war.

Stat of the day: University of Michigan paid undercover investigators at least $800,000 to surveil students involved in Gaza protests

University of Michigan students on campus in Ann Arbor. In a statement, the university did not deny the surveillance.
University of Michigan students on campus in Ann Arbor. In a statement, the university did not deny the surveillance. Photograph: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

The University of Michigan is using private, undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian campus groups, the Guardian can reveal, with the records from the school’s governing body showing that the university paid at least $800,000 between June 2023 and September 2024 to Ameri-Shield, the parent company of the private security group City Shield. Five students who have been followed, recorded or eavesdropped on said it appeared largely to be an intimidation tactic.

Don’t miss this: Death is not the end! – how posthumanism is having a movie moment
Dead men talking … Cory Michael Smith, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef and Jason Schwartzman in Mountainhead.
Dead men talking … Cory Michael Smith, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef and Jason Schwartzman in Mountainhead. Photograph: HBO/2025 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Disneyland recently announced an animatronic recreation of Walt Disney, intended to give visitors a sense of “what it would have been like to be in Walt’s presence”, earning a rebuke from his granddaughter Joanna Miller. Long a fascination for cinema, posthumanism is starting to feel worryingly current, writes Stuart Heritage, after experts this year voiced concerns about Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant company.

Climate check: The Swiss village buried by a glacier collapse
The hamlet of Wyssried is seen above a massive avalanche, triggered by the collapse of the Birch Glacier, as it swept down to the valley floor and buried the village of Blatten, Switzerland, on Thursday, June 5, 2025.
A glacier collapsed above the village of Blatten on 28 May, triggering a landslide. Photograph: Michael Buholzer/AP

When a Swiss village was wiped out in seconds after a glacier collapsed above it on 28 May, attention turned to why it happened – and how global heating will make such events more common. This podcast tells the shocking story.

Last Thing: Spanish police’s plea for respect backfires over photo of old women alfresco

Police in a small Andalucían town have unleashed a storm after they chose to illustrate a call for people not to disturb their neighbors late at night with … a picture of six older women sitting outside. The move violated the silent Spanish injunction that forbids any attempts to alter the habits of the country’s cherished older people – particularly given the long tradition of the outdoor sit-down chat as the heat of the day gives way to the cool of the evening, known as tomando el fresco, or taking the cool air. The social media response was full of force and sarcasm. One typical example: “We need to put an end to this serious issue – no more impunity for grannies who sit out to enjoy the fresh air.”

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