The extra investment would help prevent any dilution of the sovereign wealth fund’s stake in SpaceX when the company goes public, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

SpaceX, known for its rocket launches and Starlink satellite internet service, is aiming to raise a record $75 billion when public trading begins. That would shatter the previous mark set by Saudi Aramco, which raised $29.4 billion when it went public in 2019.

SpaceX is aiming to raise about $75 billion. Getty Images

The talks with the Saudi PIF are part of SpaceX’s efforts to line up anchor investors ahead of the debut — or backers who commit to fixed purchase of shares before the IPO roadshow.

Representatives for SpaceX and PIF did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.

SpaceX confidentially filed for an IPO earlier this week, Bloomberg reported. It is said to be targeting a valuation of more than $2 trillion.

Previous reports said the famously eccentric Musk was eyeing a mid-June date for the IPO, to coincide with his birthday as well as a rare planetary alignment in which Jupiter and Venus will be in “conjunction” for the first time in three years. Musk turns 55 on June 28.

The potential investment would help protect the Saudi PIF’s stake from dilution. AFP via Getty Images

Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are all expected to take leading roles in the IPO.

In February, Musk revealed that SpaceX was merging with his artificial intelligence firm xAI, best known as the creator of the Grok chatbot. The billionaire has floated the concept of building AI data centers in space to support his ambitions in the sector.

XAI rivals Anthropic and OpenAI are each reportedly planning to go public in the near future.

The post SpaceX in talks with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund about potential $5B investment in IPO: report appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Fresh research from the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) shows nearly a quarter of Dutch adults, 24%, believe people around them see gambling as normal behavior. Men were significantly more likely than women to share that view. The regulator surveyed 1,000 residents and found that when gambling comes up casually in conversations with friends or family, people are more likely to join in themselves.

“For many, gambling problems don’t appear overnight and often stay under the radar,” said Kansspelautoriteit chair Michel Groothuizen in a translated statement. The regulator says discussions about betting often focus on big wins or fast cash. That upbeat framing, it argues, can romanticize gambling and make it tougher for people to recognize when things are going wrong or to speak openly about concerns.

The survey results highlight how strong social influence can be. Some 43% of respondents said they would be less inclined to gamble if no one in their immediate circle did. Meanwhile, 18% reported regularly hearing gambling described as an easy way to make money. More than three-quarters of those surveyed said they see gambling problems mainly as the result of poor choices rather than addiction. Many also admitted they would struggle to confront someone they suspected might be in trouble.

Netherlands gambling normalization warning ahead of next World Cup

Research from the United Kingdom is adding to worries about how exposure shapes behavior. A recent study by the University of Sheffield examined betting patterns among men aged 18 to 45 during the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The researchers found that televised gambling ads were strongly associated with people placing bets, including individuals who had not intended to gamble beforehand. Viewers were significantly more likely to bet during matches that featured betting advertisements compared with games that did not.

Lead author Ellen McGrane said the findings raise questions about whether current advertising rules are strong enough to protect vulnerable viewers. “These television adverts may be acting as powerful triggers during live games, encouraging betting even among people who had no prior intention to gamble,” she said in a release.

The Sheffield team cautioned that when overall participation increases, gambling-related harm typically rises as well. With the 2026 FIFA World Cup expected to draw massive global audiences, public health advocates are paying close attention.

Across Europe, some regulators are already pushing for tighter controls on betting promotions during major sporting events. France’s gambling authority recently called on operators and broadcasters to scale back World Cup-related advertising to limit pressure on fans and vulnerable groups.

In the Netherlands, the Kansspelautoriteit has launched an online platform called OpenOverGokken to offer independent information and direct people to support services. The regulator says acknowledging how social norms influence behavior is an essential first step toward preventing harm.

Featured image: Canva

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Earlier this month, the Maya Angelou estate joined in a lawsuit filed against the state of Utah’s book banning law. The suit challenges the legality of Utah’s “sensitive materials” law, which had at that point banned 22 books from every public school in the state.

Last week on Friday the 13, Utah added its 23rd title to the list: Stephen King’s Bag of Bones.

This new ban continues to keep Utah at the top of states with the most banned books, beating out South Carolina’s 21 bans.

Utah passed one of the strictest bills related to books in public schools in 2024. House Bill 29 (HB 29) allows parents to challenge books they deem “sensitive material” and it also outright bans books from all public schools in the state if those books have been deemed “objective sensitive material” or “pornographic” per state code in at least three public school districts or two public school districts and five charter schools statewide. The bill went into effect July 1, 2024, and it started with 13 titles on it.

The bill is retroactive, meaning that titles which met the state’s guidelines prior to the bill’s start date were included on the list. Per HB 29, any time a public or charter school removes a book deemed “sensitive material,” they must notify the State Board of Education. If that book meets the threshold of removals, all schools will be notified and expected to dispose of it.

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There are now 23 books prohibited in any Utah public school. Of them, 16 are written by women, and their average publication date is 2009. This means that most of these books have been on shelves and available for many years and caused no issues until this manufactured crisis. The list is as follows:

What is important to understand about the law is that despite claims this is about “local control,” schools in the state are forced to follow the decisions made in other districts. There are 42 public school districts in Utah, but two districts account for nearly 80% of the books banned statewide: Davis School District and Washington School District.

Bag of Bones was banned in Davis, though it was not banned in Washington. The other three districts in which King’s book was banned include Toole, Jordan, and Granite–the first time that district has contributed to a statewide ban.

We’re going to continue to see more books added to this list in Utah as the school year carries on. These are not, of course, the only books being banned in the state where book bans are happening, despite claims by the federal Department of Education. Individual school districts are allowed to ban any books they deem inappropriate–which, of course, helps add more titles to the state list as only three districts need to remove a book before the book must be removed everywhere.

Utah is not the only state with such a book list. South Carolina also retains a sanctioned list of books that must be removed in every public school district. Their list contains 21 titles, making them the most censorious state when it comes to state-sanctioned book bans. There is a pending lawsuit in that state as well, brought by the ACLU on behalf of the South Carolina Association of School Librarians and three public school students under the age of 18.

Tennessee has the legal mechanisms for creating statewide school book bans as well, though it has yet to add any titles to a list–in that state, the Secretary of State has instead targeted public libraries. And though there is no law in the state that permits creation of a state-sanctioned banned list, Florida officials have also distributed a list of books the state deems inappropriate and necessary to be removed from school libraries anyway.

None of these laws apply to private or homeschool institutions. That’s intentional.

Book bans in Utah are coming in waves, so anticipate more titles to be added to the list in the coming weeks. The state is working its way backwards from the date of the law’s implementation–so chances are as we see more books being banned here, they’ll continue to be older and older titles. Clearly, the lawsuit filed against HB 29 isn’t deterring the most important work in the state education system: removing books that have been on shelves for decades.

The post Amidst Lawsuit, Utah Bans Its 23rd Book from All Public Schools appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.

View All posts by Kelly Jensen

Utah passed one of the strictest bills related to books in public schools in 2024. House Bill 29 (HB 29) allows parents to challenge books they deem “sensitive material” and it also outright bans books from all public schools in the state if those books have been deemed “objective sensitive material” or “pornographic” per state code in at least three public school districts or two public school districts and five charter schools statewide. The bill went into effect July 1, 2024, and it started with 13 titles on it.

The bill is retroactive, meaning that titles which met the state’s guidelines prior to the bill’s start date were included on the list. Per HB 29, any time a public or charter school removes a book deemed “sensitive material,” they must notify the State Board of Education. If that book meets the threshold of removals, all schools will be notified and expected to dispose of it.

Literary Activism

News you can use plus tips and tools for the fight against censorship and other bookish activism!

Subscribe to Selected
No Thanks

There are now 22 books prohibited in any Utah public school. Of them, 16 are written by women, and their average publication date is 2011. This means that most of these books have been on shelves and available for many years and caused no issues until this manufactured crisis. The list is as follows:

What is important to understand about the law is that despite claims this is about “local control,” schools in the state are forced to follow the decisions made in other districts. There are 42 public school districts in Utah, but two districts account for nearly 80% of the books banned statewide: Davis School District and Washington School District.

The three latest book bans came exclusively because of bans at Davis, Toole, and Washington school districts. Again, two districts are doing nearly all of the dictating of what books are allowed at public schools throughout all of Utah.

We’re going to continue to see more books added to this list in Utah as the school year carries on. These are not, of course, the only books being banned in the state where book bans are happening, despite claims by the federal Department of Education. Individual school districts are allowed to ban any books they deem inappropriate–which, of course, helps add more titles to the state list as only three districts need to remove a book before the book must be removed everywhere.

Utah is not the only state with such a book list. South Carolina also retains a sanctioned list of books that must be removed in every public school district. Their list contains 21 titles, making them the most censorious state when it comes to state-sanctioned book bans. While Tennessee has the legal mechanisms for creating statewide school book bans, it has yet to add any titles to a list. Florida officials have also distributed a list of books the state deems inappropriate and necessary to be removed from school libraries, though theirs is not codified into law like in the other three states.

These laws do not apply to private or homeschool institutions. That’s intentional.

Book bans in Utah are coming in waves, so anticipate more titles to be added to the list in the coming weeks, especially as the state works its way backwards from the date of the law’s implementation.

The post Utah Begins 2026 by Banning Three Books at All Public Schools Statewide, Leads U.S. In Bans appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Two Palestinians are gathering donations to create a public library in Gaza, after Israel’s war and genocide destroyed nearly all existing libraries, schools, and universities. The two men, Omar Hamad and Ibrahim, are avid readers who have spent years trying to save books as they struggled to survive in Gaza.

On their donation page, Omar wrote about his early love of books, and how as a child he saved, “coin by coin, until at the end of each month I could buy two or three books.”

When he received an evacuation order on October 8th, 2023, Omar packed up what books he could and fled. But each time he was forced to evacuate, his collection dwindled. He nearly lost his entire salvaged library when the hospital he was sheltering in was attacked:

When the soldiers stormed the building, they dragged us out with insults, blows, and humiliation. I said goodbye to my books and left a note among them:

“Whoever finds these books, please take care of them.”

I deliberately left it unsigned — I wanted the books to remain free, without an owner.

Miraculously, the books survived.

Omar kept trying to rescue books as he was repeatedly displaced. Books felt essential to him, and as he wrote in Lit Hub back in June, “My library was like paradise—I would travel and sail through its books to seize wisdom and the self I had forgotten since the first day I was forced to abandon reading.”

Salvaging books from wrecked libraries and schools has led to some agonizing choices, Omar told The Jordan Times, and he’s found it “very difficult to preserve the cultural spirit amidst this destruction.” Omar has been documenting his library on Instagram, in particular his favorite Russian writers like Chekhov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Svetlana Alexievich, and Mikhail Bulgakov.

The other librarian behind this effort is Ibrahim, who fell in love with books in university, particularly Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish and Tamim Al-Barghouti, and Gabriel García Márquez.

Ibrahim’s house was completely destroyed by Israeli forces, but miraculously, his bookshelf survived: “And then I saw it — my small book cabinet, perched at the top of the rubble, its pages breathing through the stones as if refusing to die. In that moment, something inside me returned to life.”

With their new library in Gaza, the two are hoping to preserve as many books as they can, but also build a space for rebuilding collective memory and fostering expression, creativity, and play. Their tenacious defense of books amidst brutality and genocide is not only an attempt to preserve objects, or institutions, or even a culture under assault:

“With your support, you are not rebuilding a place —
you are rebuilding a life that can continue.”

You can donate to help Omar and Ibrahim’s library here.

The post » You can help build the first public library in Gaza since the genocide began. appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.

View All posts by Kelly Jensen

Despite the legal precedent of “local control” in Florida’s statutes related to book bans in public schools, the State Board of Education has been threatening legal action against districts that don’t remove 55 books they deem inappropriate. It began with Florida’s Education Commissioner and Attorney General writing letters to leadership at Hillsborough County Public Schools. The Education Commissioner’s letter stated that the district had two books deemed “pornographic” in the collection that needed to be removed immediately. The two books are Call Me By Your Name and Jack of Hearts and Other Parts. The Attorney General’s letter added four more titles: Choke, Beautiful, What Girls Are Made Of, and Breathless, which he called “patently pornographic.”

The removal of those six books–done without formal review per both school policy and state policy–then led to the agreement by the Hillsborough County Schools superintendent to pull 49 more books without review, following a heated meeting with the state Board of Education. Among those books was a title that the district had already had a challenge to and that went through the formal review process. It had been retained for certain grade levels.

Targeting Hillsborough was intentional. Florida’s State Board of Education has taken on the role of statewide book censors, despite not having the legal mechanisms in place that states like Utah and South Carolina do. While Florida’s Department of Education requires that each school submit to them books removed from their libraries and why annually, those lists aren’t used to then demand removal of those books from additional schools (as in Utah).

The threats made toward Hillsborough were meant to make other districts not-so-silently remove titles before they, too, became state targets. The Commissioner of the Board has gone so far as to use Twitter to demand book removals and issue threats against state school districts.

The Florida State Board of Education is appointed by the governor. The new Commissioner, Anastasios Kamoutsas, was appointed in June by the governor.

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Now, just weeks after the gross overreach by the state into policies at the local school district level, eight additional Florida public school districts have capitulated. Each has agreed to remove any of the 55 titles on their shelves deemed to have “sexual content.” Removals will be done without formal review of the titles.

These eight districts represent only those on the record having agreed to the removals. It’s likely others have agreed or will remove the titles quietly so as not to catch the attention of the State Board of Education. The districts who have agreed to removals publicly include Hillsborough, Broward, Columbia, Escambia, Orange, Osceola, Pasco, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and St. Johns. Each district joining in the effort to ban books without review is another district bowing to a state-level committee, rather than meeting the needs and interests of their own community. Each district joining in the effort to ban books is another district making clear they’re more interested in showing their loyalty to the state than their obligations to taxpayers.

Escambia County remains one of the most censorious districts in the nation, and it is currently defendant in two separate lawsuits over book bans.  

It comes as no surprise that the majority of books on the list of 55 are by or about queer people and/or people of color. The same books that have been in the crosshairs from the start of this wave of book censorship remain there. Here’s the full list of books being banned right now in Florida schools, despite the state not having the authority to demand their removal at the district level:

There may also soon be three more books on the list. State Commissioner Kamoutsas demanded via Twitter late last week that Hillsborough–and by extension, all Florida public schools–remove Trans Mission by Alex Bertie from shelves, as well as to prepare to remove Blankets by Craig Thompson and Identical by Ellen Hopkins.

How does this list compare to the state-sanctioned banned book lists in Utah and South Carolina? Florida’s list includes 13 of the 18 titles banned in all schools in Utah. Florida’s list includes 12 of the 21 titles banned in all public schools in South Carolina.

Florida’s list does not include the third installment in Sarah J. Maas’s five-book “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series, A Court of Wings and Ruin, a reminder of how arbitrary and haphazard this list is.

Florida’s lawmakers failed to pass new legislation this year that would change the state’s working definition of obscenity. That failure helped tee off this round of censorship.

The Florida Freedom to Read Project asks public education and intellectual freedom advocates to continue showing up to school board meetings, continue asking questions about why districts are making these decisions, and to alert districts who haven’t agreed to blanket removals without review that they’re being watched by taxpayers.

The post Under Threat from State, Florida Public Schools Are Banning These 55+ Books Without Review appeared first on Our Story Insight.

The hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, August 13, will be a space for members of the public to comment on the renewal of the Category 2 Slot Machine Operator License for Stadium Casino, the operator of Live! Casino Philadelphia.

Those who want to offer an opinion, whether that’s local citizens, public officials, or community groups, can do so by speaking in person or submitting written testimony. Anyone attending in person is advised to arrive early and bring official identification, as required to enter the state office building. You’ll also need to register via the board’s website by Monday, August 11.

Set to take place at the Philadelphia State Office Building at 801 Market Street, a breakdown of all government officials, community groups, and individuals who have registered to speak at this hearing will be posted on the board’s website during the week prior to the hearing.

All casino licenses are due for periodic renewal in Pennsylvania, with the application requiring an update of all relevant information since the last renewal. This includes a part of the process for a public input hearing.

Why does a public hearing need to be held in Pennsylvania?

Such hearings are standard practice in Pennsylvania, the Director of the Board’s Office of Hearings and Appeals must hear documentary evidence and testimony to build up a record that the board will use in its licensing decision. The hearing record, along with a report from the Director of Hearings and Appeals, will be transmitted to the board for review.

Following on from this, a separate public hearing in Harrisburg at a later date will provide an opportunity for representatives of the casino licensee to present evidence and oral arguments. At that time, board members may also ask follow-up questions based on anything raised at either hearing.

The onus is on the applicant to demonstrate their eligibility for a gaming license. They must prove the brand’s good character, honesty and integrity, legal compliance, tax revenue generated, jobs created, and involvement in the surrounding communities, among other factors.

Based on all of this input, the board will then decide whether the license should be renewed for a further five-year period.

Featured image: Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

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