Bahrain has imposed strict limits on Ashura commemorations, the New York Times reported, in the latest measure targeting public Shiite religious activity amid heightened tensions after the Iran war.
The Sunni-ruled Persian Gulf state, where most citizens are Twelver Shiites, ordered this year’s Ashura observances to be cut from the usual 10 days to five and said processions must end by midnight, except in Manama, where they may continue until 2 a.m. In previous years, public processions often continued until dawn.
Bahrain has also barred citizens from traveling to Iran and Iraq until further notice, a move that affects thousands of Bahrainis who usually travel during this period to Karbala, one of Shiite Islam’s holiest cities.
The New York Times said the measures come after Bahrain, a close US ally that hosts the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, faced hundreds of Iranian drone and missile attacks during the recent war.
Bahrain has long accused Iran of trying to stir unrest among its Shiite population and has taken a hard line against dissent, including the violent suppression of a pro-democracy uprising in 2011.
Iranian MP Kamran Ghazanfari said Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s stated interest in meeting Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was part of a US-Israeli plan to prepare the ground for targeting him.
Ghazanfari wrote on Iranian social media platform Eitaa that Sharif’s meeting with Khamenei was part of a plot by the United States and Israel to pave the way for Khamenei’s “martyrdom,” using the Islamic Republic’s term for being killed.
Strive is a new charter school set to open in the South Bronx this fall that’s designed to serve the needs of working families.
We’ll be open to our elementary-grade students with flexible hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week, 12 months a year, so we can combine rigorous academics with ample extracurriculars.
Parents love the idea — but not the state and city teachers’ unions.
A rally in support of charter schools in New York outside of City Hall on March 13, 2026.Paul Martinka for New York Post
Last week the United Federation of Teachers and New York State United Teachers sued to stop us from opening, claiming that we’re violating the state’s charter-school cap.
It’s nonsense: We’re not increasing the number of charter schools.
We’re simply taking over an existing charter school that’s now operating out of the same building.
And we’re doing so with the blessing of the State University of New York, the school’s authorizer.
Just like prior lawsuits the unions have brought against charter schools, this one will be dismissed for lack of standing — and the union knows it.
So why bother bringing it?
To bolster the UFT’s continuing campaign meant to hollow out New York’s charter-school law.
More than a quarter-century ago, the law’s authors feared the State Education Department would drag its feet on authorizing charter schools.
After all, charters compete with the government-run district schools SED regulates: Giving it sole authority to bless new charter schools would be like giving McDonald’s the power to decide how many stores Burger King could open.
To address this problem, legislators gave authorizing authority to both SED and to SUNY, the regulator that gave Strive the green light.
It’s played out just as predicted.
SUNY has authorized schools energetically (its schools serve 117,000 children) while SED has done so ambivalently (its schools serve only 40,000).
Not only has SED been slow to permit its own charters, it recently filed an affidavit backing a teachers’ union lawsuit to prevent two other SUNY-authorized schools from opening.
Now the unions want to put SUNY under SED’s control, claiming that SUNY’s ability to authorize charter schools against the wishes of SED is a “loophole.”
It isn’t: It’s a feature, not a bug — another argument that will be DOA in court.
But the court isn’t the real audience, anyway.
Legislators in Albany are.
The unions hope to convince lawmakers of a lie: that stripping SUNY of its authorizing autonomy would merely fix an unfortunate legislative drafting error.
And if they succeed, New York’s children will suffer.
Not only would fewer charters be authorized, those that are allowed would be worse.
SUNY has achieved an astonishing record of authorizing high-performing charter schools under Board President Merryl Tisch and attorney Joseph Belluck, who has chaired SUNY’s charter-school committee for the last 14 years.
At SUNY-sanctioned charter schools, 15% more students areproficient in readingthan in district schools, and 13% more students are proficient in math.
These schools do so despite serving more economically disadvantaged students than district schools (82% vs. 56%) and more minority students (95% vs. 53%).
Students in SUNY’s charter schools are demographically similar to those in East Harlem (85% economically disadvantaged; median household income $45,000) — but they perform at levels comparable to schools in Long Island’s relatively affluent Port Jefferson (median household income $145,000).
Even more startling is the gap between the charter schools authorized by SUNY and those authorized by SED: 17 points in reading and 21 points in math.
But the unions and their allies don’t care about that.
To the contrary, the better SUNY gets at authorizing charter schools, the more vitriolic the attacks on it become.
That’s because the unions would actually prefer inept and lethargic authorization, thereby diminishing competition with unionized district schools.
Hence the all-out effort to put SUNY, with its admirable authorization record, under the control of the less-than-stellar SED.
To bolster that argument, the unions and their allies are using Strive Charter School to push a false narrative that SUNY’s authorizing is somehow lax, claiming that it has violated the hard cap on charters.
It’s time for the unions to end these meritless attacks.
Instead of trying to beat charter schools in courtrooms and legislative chambers, they should compete with us in the classroom — and improve New York’s schools for every child’s benefit.
Eric Grannis is executive director of Strive Charter School.
Aber Kawas — theDSA member and Mamdani-backed candidate who once described 9/11 as a terror attack that a “couple people did” — cinched the Democratic nomination to rep a western Queens-based state Senate district Tuesday night.
Kawas, a self-described “Muslim civil right advocate,” won with 60% of the vote in her primary race against Assemblyman Steven Raga (D-Queens) to replace outgoing state Sen. Mike Gianaris (D-Queens) with 95% of precincts reporting.
Aber Kawas holds up posters at a rally in Queens on June 11, 2026.Xavier Diaz/AdMedia / SplashNews.comWhile Gianaris, who held a significant amount of power as deputy majority leader and chair of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm in Albany, made endorsements in several other primary races, he did not weigh in on his successor.
Sangamo Therapeutics will lay off 51 members of its workforce while retaining 77 people to continue work on the programs central to Astellas and Eli Lilly’s bids.
In conjunction with plans to file for bankruptcy, Sangamo Therapeutics is laying off 51 people.
The workforce reduction equates to about 40% of the biotech’s team, according to an SEC document filed mid-Tuesday.
Affected employees were notified of the restructuring on Monday. Sangamo has retained 77 staffers who will continue work on the programs and platforms that are central to the stalking horse bids from Lilly and Astellas.
After over a year of struggle and strife, Sangamo has filed for bankruptcy and is selling off its pipeline, including a rare disease gene therapy that is in the process of being submitted for FDA review. That asset is now earmarked for purchase by Astellas, while pharma giant Eli Lilly is bidding for a handful of platforms from the California biotech.
Lilly is specifically eyeing Sangamo’s capsid delivery, zinc finger and modular integrase platforms, according to a Tuesday release. The pair have already worked together, with Lilly paying $18 million upfront last April to use Sangamo’s adeno-associated virus capsid STAC-BBB technology to develop a gene therapy for a disease of the central nervous system. The back-loaded deal could have topped out at $1.4 billion if Sangamo met certain milestones.
Sangamo is also selling its prion disease program, coded ST-506, to Lilly. The AAV-based, one-time gene therapy targets a neurodegenerative condition and was designed using STAC-BBB tech, aligning with the scope of the Lilly licensing deal, though it has not been explicitly confirmed as an asset from the 2025 partnership. Early-stage activities designed to get the program into the clinic are currently in motion.
Meanwhile, the public biotech has also struck a separate deal with Astellas for one of its most advanced assets, a pivotal-stage gene therapy for Fabry disease known as isaralgagene civaparvovec or ST-920. Last year, Sangamo shared pivotal Phase 1/2 data showing that the therapy improved kidney function at 52 weeks for patients with the rare genetic disorder.
The biotech began a rolling submission for a biologics license application in December 2025 and was continuing to submit data for the application in March of this year. Sangamo is hoping to use the agency’s accelerated approval pathway.
In tandem with the Lilly and Astellas deals, Sangamo has filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy to launch “a court-supervised reorganization” that is expected to include all of the biotech’s assets.
Given the bankruptcy, Lilly and Astellas will serve as “stalking horse bidders,” meaning they have agreed to be the initial, baseline bidder for the agreed-upon assets in the court‑supervised auction. In exchange for their bid, the companies will likely receive certain deal protections.
Another Sangamo asset that isn’t included under the stalking horse deals but is expected to be put up for sale is a one-time gene therapy called giroctocogene fitelparvovec. Designed to treat hemophilia A, the late-stage candidate has received Fast Track, Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy and Orphan Drug designations from the FDA.
The gene therapy once had Pfizer’s support via a licensing deal, but the pharma terminated the agreement at the end of 2024, triggering a stock slide for Sangamo. A month prior, Sangamo had said it only had enough money to last until the first quarter of 2025, with Lilly coming in at the final hour with its April licensing deal.
“Following a comprehensive review of available alternatives, we believe this process provides a clear framework to pursue value‑maximizing transactions,” Sangamo CEO Sandy Macrae said in Tuesday’s release.
According to Sangamo’s bankruptcy filing, the biotech owes money to numerous creditors, including Catalent Pharma Solutions and Charles River Laboratories.
Lilly has already spent more than $25 billion in potential business development commitments this year, including the $6.3 billion buyout of Centessa Pharmaceuticals that closed today.
With its 2026 M&A commitments already topping $25 billion, Eli Lilly continues to invest more money into its pipeline, this time expanding an ongoing partnership with Shanghai-based Abbisko Therapeutics.
The companies did not provide a specific financial breakdown of the agreement, noting only that it could be worth up to around $1.9 billion, according to a Wednesday morning release. This total covers the pharma’s upfront payment plus potential development, regulatory and commercial milestones. Abbisko will also be eligible for tiered royalties on annual net sales of alliance assets that reach the market.
It is unclear what specific indications or disease targets the partners will work on. The companies revealed only that they will advance therapies for “multiple targets” of Lilly’s choosing. Abbisko bring to the table its early-stage discovery engine to produce precision small-molecule and immuno-oncology therapies.
Lilly has previously tapped Abbisko’s discovery and development capabilities, particularly its small-molecule engine. In January 2022, the pharma placed up to $258 million on the line in potential payments to develop treatments for an undisclosed cardiometabolic target. The companies did not specify whether Lilly made an upfront commitment to Abbisko at the time.
The Indiana giant is pharma’s top-spender in 2026 so far, as per a BioSpace tally on June 12, which found that Lilly has bet up to $25.27 billion in acquisition deals this year. At the top of this list is the company’s $6.3 billion takeover of sleep specialist Centessa Pharmaceuticals in March, which was the biggest buyout of the year—until GSK took its spot earlier this month with a $10.6 billion offer for Nuvalent Bio. AbbVie usurped GSK this week with its $10.9 billion takeover of Apogee Therapeutics.
Lilly followed its Centessa play by picking up Kelonia Therapeutics in April, putting up to $7 billion on the line. Other notable Lilly acquisitions this year include the $2.4 billion takeover of Orna Therapeutics in February, the $2.3 billion purchase of Ajax Therapeutics in April and the up to $3.8 billion play in May to absorb three vaccine biotechs.
Outside of outright acquisitions, the pharma has also been actively expanding its list of partners. Lilly opened the year by fronting $55 million to work with Nimbus Therapeutics and advance a preclinical oral obesity drug. This deal could reach up to $1.3 billion if all milestones are met.
Even after BioSpace published its mid-year spending tally, Lilly picked up two new partners: Swedish biotech AlzeCure Pharma, which got $10 million upfront in an Alzheimer’s disease contract, and BioArctic, which received $30 million upfront for its brain delivery technology.
Key parts of the oil market are suddenly awash in supply, as a stream of cargoes out of the Strait of Hormuz accelerates after the US-Iran agreement to open the waterway.
Even before the deal, a combination of strategic inventory releases, a collapse in demand from top buyer China, and a substantial number of tankers sneaking “dark” out of the Persian Gulf had contributed to a small oversupply in some key markets, traders say.
