5 Big News Stories Overnight - Friday, June 12, 2026

Waymo launches premier subscription tier for $29.99 a month, starting in select cities

CNBC reports:

Waymo is launching a new subscription tier called Waymo Premier, targeting avid users in some of the most popular markets for the robotaxi service.

The Alphabet-owned company said in a blog post on Thursday that the plan will cost $29.99 per month, and is invite only to start for select riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix. Subscribers will get prioritized matching, up to five free cancellations per month and will earn 10% back in loyalty credits, or Waymo Cash, for each trip.

“You spoke, and we listened to how we can offer an even more elevated experience for you, our top riders,” the company said in the post. “For a monthly fee, members gain access to a suite of exclusive benefits designed to make their journey more seamless and rewarding.”

As Waymo plots an aggressive expansion plan, including to London later this year, the company is aiming to capitalize on its power users, particularly in markets where demand is highest.

PHOTO: Clement Proust, Unsplash

Former ‘60 Minutes’ Staffers Unload on Bari Weiss: ‘Everything She’s Touched Has Turned to S—’

Variety reports:

Staffers have taken to calling it “Black Thursday.” 

On May 28, a half-dozen senior producers and correspondents at “60 Minutes,” the longest-running and highest-rated news program in the country, were unceremoniously shown the door. Correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, as well as executive producer Tanya Simon and executive editor Draggan Mihailovich, were among them. The firings were carried out by Bari Weiss, the editor-in-chief of CBS News, who’d clashed with Alfonsi in December over her “60 Minutes” report “Inside CECOT,” which told the stories of Venezuelan migrants who’d suffered horrific abuse at an El Salvadoran prison after being deported there by the Trump administration. Weiss pulled the piece hours before it was set to air, demanding it include the perspective of Stephen Miller or another high-ranking Trump official. In an email to her colleagues, Alfonsi said she’d already made multiple requests to officials for comment, and that Weiss’ move was “not an editorial decision, it was a political one.” She added, “If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient.” 

Trump Flip-Flops Again on Iran

President Donald Trump flip-flopped again on Iran.

In the morning, he threatened to take harsh military action against Iran.

By the afternoon, the attacks were off the table.

The war is now 104 days old.

Bridge Strikes, Drone Swarms: Ukraine Targets Russia’s Key Crimea Supply Route

Kyiv Post reports: 

Ukraine is intensifying pressure on Russia’s key logistics routes to occupied Crimea and southern Ukraine, with repeated strikes on bridges, roads, and supply corridors that analysts say are increasingly constraining Moscow’s military mobility.

According to a Guardian report on Thursday, Russian forces refer to the R-280 highway as the “Novorossiya” route – a critical supply line running from Russia’s Rostov-on-Don through occupied Mariupol and Melitopol toward Crimea via the Sea of Azov coast.

Ukrainian troops, however, have dubbed it the “highway of death,” citing frequent drone attacks targeting Russian convoys along the route.

PHOTO: Screenshot from the video 412 Nemesis Brigade

"Erika Kirk Lays Out a Vision for the Conservative Christian Woman"

Wall Street Journal reports:

Erika Kirk was standing center stage in a hotel ballroom, explaining the difference between earthly pleasures and heavenly joy, when a heckler interrupted her remarks to shout incendiaries at her. 

The hundreds of women in the audience booed over the commotion. Erika’s pale blue eyes flashed with panic, then hurt, but soon narrowed into a resolved stare.

“You can be a woman of the world, as we just saw,” she said, “or you can be a woman of The Word.” She prayed for the protester to make the right choice. “Eternity is long,” she deadpanned, drawing laughs from the crowd.

Roughly 3,000 women descended on San Antonio last weekend for Turning Point USA’s Women’s Leadership Summit. The annual gathering had been the vision of Erika’s late husband, Charlie Kirk, an antidote to what he saw as the feminist indoctrination rampant on college campuses and in popular culture. With birth rates in steep decline, marriage falling out of fashion and the future of MAGA up in the air, the event was meant to deliver a clear message for this moment in American politics: How to be a woman in the Trump 2.0 era.