Good morning. President Trump has gotten involved in regulatory decisions big and small that once were made by independent agencies, according to interviews with business executives, lobbyists and administration officials, dramatically shifting the balance of power across Washington and reordering how influence campaigns are waged.

These days, companies are directly approaching the president instead of pleading their cases with staff or senior officials at the agencies.

• Lobbying surge: Disclosures of lobbying targeting the White House increased 70% in 2025, according to an analysis of federal lobbying filings by Bloomberg Government, a government-affairs platform.
   
• ‘You're fired’: Agency leaders whom Trump perceives as not moving quickly enough to implement his agenda have found themselves in the president’s crosshairs. Trump recently ousted Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, in large part due to his unwillingness to follow White House orders, the Journal has reported.
   
• Stripping independence: Congress over the years authorized certain agencies to operate independently from the White House to keep some key government functions separate from politics, most of them governed by bipartisan boards whose members can only be removed for cause. A few weeks after returning to the White House last year, Trump signed an executive order requiring independent agencies for the first time to submit major regulations to the White House budget office. Trump has fired the Democratic commissioners at multiple agencies.
   
• White House response: White House spokesman Kush Desai said the president had the right to be informed about and express his opinions on federal policymaking, including “decision-making by so-called ‘independent’ agencies.”

Federal regulators investigating George Santos over suspicious prediction-market trading.

Federal regulators are probing whether former Rep. George Santos traded illegally in a predictions contract that referenced his own appearance at this year’s State of the Union address, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In late February, prediction market Kalshi informed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Justice Department about suspected trading, people familiar with the referral said. Santos was said to have placed a bet on a contract that asked whether he would appear at the president’s annual address to Congress that month at the Capitol, the people said.

The CFTC has opened an investigation, one of the people said.

Real-estate giant Compass under antitrust investigation in New York.

Real-estate brokerage Compass, which became an industry giant after acquiring rival Anywhere Real Estate earlier this year, is under investigation by the antitrust bureau of the New York attorney general’s office.

New York-based Compass grew from about 40,000 U.S. agents to more than 200,000 when the $1.6 billion deal closed. Compass was already the country’s biggest real-estate brokerage by volume. Anywhere, which owned well-known brokerage brands such as Century 21, Sotheby’s and Coldwell Banker, was the second-biggest.

• The Geneva offices of commodities trader Gunvor were searched by Swiss authorities as part of a federal investigation into bribery of foreign public officials, Risk Journal reports (free link).
   
• U.K. antitrust regulators said they would allow publishers to opt out of feeding their content to power artificial-intelligence features in Google’s online searches.
   
• Robinhood and other brokers are lifting ‘pattern day trader’ restrictions, put in place in the dot-com era to prevent blowups among small investors.
   
• What is personalized pricing—and why are lawmakers scrambling to ban it?
   
• The chief executive of an Iran-based technology company was arrested on charges he violated U.S. sanctions against Iran by supplying U.S.-origin networking, security and encryption equipment to Iranian customers.
   
• Short seller Andrew Left’s conviction this week on securities-fraud charges has shocked an influential niche of the stock market whose calling card is its ability to affect stock prices.
   
• Commerzbank said it asked Germany’s financial watchdog to review the support levels for UniCredit’s takeover offer after the Italian bank said it secured commitments to raise its stake in its German rival above 30%.

America’s data-center build-out is falling way behind schedule.

Tech companies are earmarking unprecedented sums of money to finance the build-out of massive data centers, with a planned $85 billion equity-raise by Google parent Alphabet being the latest example.

But even as the piles of capital secured have grown ever larger, the ability to deploy it in the artificial-intelligence race has become less certain. Supply-chain backlogs, permitting fights and availability of power supplies are among the issues that have caused the construction of data centers to fall behind targeted timelines, with the gap growing wider in recent months: A JPMorgan analysis last month found that more than 60% of data-center capacity planned for completion in 2027 isn’t yet under construction, and another 7% is delayed.

Canada orders broadcast regulator to revise streaming decision amid U.S. trade talks.

Canada’s Liberal government on Wednesday ordered the country’s broadcast regulator to revise its released online-streaming decision that sparked the likelihood of fresh trade retaliation from the U.S.

Canada’s Culture Minister Marc Miller said the cabinet didn’t agree with elements of the decision, and was worried about significant price increases from streaming providers to comply with the regulatory order. He added the possibility of trade retaliation from the Trump administration also was a factor.

• The European Union is putting forward a stack of measures aimed at bolstering its technological capabilities in the latest push from the bloc to reduce its dependence on tech giants from countries like the U.S.
   
• President Trump has told aides privately that he would consider ending the ceasefire with Iran if Tehran kills American troops, U.S. officials said, insisting that the weekslong pause in airstrikes remains intact despite a steady stream of violent skirmishes.
   
• The Gulf kingdom of Kuwait came under a barrage of ballistic missiles and drones on Wednesday that shut its international airport, killed one person and injured dozens more, as Iran launched its largest salvo of the near two-month ceasefire.
   
• Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez is facing growing resistance from an unlikely source: the leftist movement that brought her to power.

• Mark Zuckerberg wants Meta’s new artificial-intelligence agents to run your whole business.
   
• Hiring by American businesses remained resilient in May, according to the latest monthly numbers from human-resources firm ADP, adding to evidence that the U.S. labor market has found more solid footing.
   
• There’s a clear sign that Americans are tired of high gas prices: Hybrid cars and trucks are now hotter than ever.
   
• The GOP-led House voted to restrict President Trump’s ability to continue the war against Iran without congressional approval, a rebuke to the White House and the latest sign that Republican lawmakers’ support for the war is eroding on Capitol Hill.
   
• With the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, brands and bootleggers are cashing in.

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