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Israel’s latest move in Gaza is testing the limits of an already fragile ceasefire, while a fiery explosion has forced Blue Origin to confront a major setback in its race to compete with SpaceX. In Washington state, investigators are searching for answers after a deadly industrial disaster claimed more lives.

Elsewhere, Wall Street pushed to new records, scientists uncovered surprising insights into Antarctica’s past, and a Game 7 is now all that stands between the Spurs and the NBA Finals.

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In Q1 2026, the non-traded BDC market hit $20.8B in redemption requests — most investors received roughly half of what they asked for. Moody's revised the U.S. BDC sector outlook to Negative. Investors who thought they owned liquid private credit found out their fund manager decided whether they could get out.

On Percent's marketplace that same quarter: new issuances, scheduled payments, and a 0.44% lifetime net loss rate on asset-based deals that's held since inception.†

The difference is structural. BDCs often own concentrated corporate loans with quarterly redemption windows that close at the manager's discretion. Percent finances specialty lenders against pools of performing receivables — diversified, overcollateralized, short duration.

Track record through 3/31/26:†

See what private credit built for individual investors looks like.

^{Alternative investments are speculative. No assurance can be given that investors will receive a return of their capital. Secondary market transactions are subject to availability and issuer approval; liquidity is not guaranteed. †Past performance is not indicative of future results. Terms apply.}

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his military to seize 70% of Gaza — well beyond the 53% permitted under the US-brokered October 2025 ceasefire. Israeli forces currently control roughly 60% of the territory, and Israeli-backed militias have begun clearing residents from areas along the ceasefire line.

Approximately two million Palestinians are now being pushed into an ever-shrinking portion of the strip as international condemnation mounts. Netanyahu's move threatens to collapse the ceasefire and has drawn sharp rebukes from European leaders and UN officials.

Blue Origin's 188-foot New Glenn rocket exploded in a fireball during a static hot-fire test at Cape Canaveral Thursday night, destroying the vehicle and severely damaging its launch infrastructure. No injuries were reported, but the blast toppled a lightning mast tower and set back Blue Origin's timeline by an indeterminate period.

Blue Origin had planned a June launch to deploy Amazon's "Leo" internet satellites, making the explosion a costly blow to Jeff Bezos's decade-long, multi-billion-dollar program. Engineers will need months to assess the launchpad damage before determining when New Glenn can fly again.

The confirmed death toll from a chemical tank rupture at a Washington paper mill rose to eight, with three more workers missing and presumed dead as recovery crews work the wreckage. The tank had been holding a chemical mixture when it collapsed earlier this week.

Federal and state investigators are now digging into the vessel's structural integrity and the mill's maintenance records. For a small industrial town, the loss is enormous — and the questions about how one tank killed nearly a dozen people are just getting started.

Israel severed contact with UN Secretary General António Guterres after the UN's annual report on conflict-related sexual violence named Israel's Prison Service — the first time Israel has appeared on the list in its 15-year history. Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon declared Israel "done with this secretary-general" while the UN said Guterres' "door remains open."

The EU is edging closer to a full trade fight with China as cheap EVs and consumer goods flood the continent and squeeze its manufacturing base. Brussels is weighing tariffs and subsidy probes that would mark its most aggressive economic posture toward Beijing in years.

Sweden and Ukraine agreed to deepen cooperation on the potential future use of Saab Gripen fighter jets following President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Stockholm. While Sweden has not committed to transferring the aircraft, both governments signaled continued work on training, planning, and defense coordination as Ukraine seeks additional Western-made combat aircraft.

JFK Airport will start screening passengers arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and Uganda for possible Ebola exposure. The CDC is rerouting travelers from those three countries to a small set of US airports for enhanced health checks.

A federal jury convicted three protesters, including an Army veteran, of conspiracy charges tied to a June 2025 demonstration against ICE. Civil liberties groups say the verdict marks a significant escalation in how federal prosecutors are treating protest activity.

The Justice Department is examining the financial backing behind E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuits against President Trump. The inquiry is now turning toward private citizens who supported the litigation — a notable expansion of federal scrutiny into civil cases.

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Wall Street closed at new all-time records Thursday, with the S&P 500 gaining 0.58% to 7,563 and the Nasdaq up 0.91% to 26,917 — both record closes — despite fresh US-Iran strikes and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty. Snowflake led the charge, surging 36.5% after strong earnings and a $6 billion AWS deal, lifting software stocks broadly.

Anthropic closed a $65 billion funding round that pushes it past OpenAI as the most valuable AI startup in Silicon Valley, with a valuation closing in on $1 trillion. The Claude maker's rise reorders the pecking order in a sector already moving faster than its investors can count.

Nvidia is investing in silicon photonics technology as it looks for faster and more energy-efficient ways to move data between AI chips and servers. The company believes optical connections could help address growing bottlenecks in large-scale AI data centers, where the cost and power demands of moving information are becoming a major challenge.

New research suggests sperm cells bypass a fundamental law of fluid dynamics, swimming through viscous environments that should stop them almost instantly. The trick seems to lie in the unusual properties of active living matter, and it could rewrite parts of microscale biology.

Researchers found that Antarctica’s ice sheet underwent a major transition around one million years ago, becoming more persistent and less prone to large-scale retreat during warmer periods. The study suggests this shift marked a climate tipping point that fundamentally changed how the Antarctic ice sheet responds to changes in Earth’s climate.

Researchers developed a method for converting discarded plastic into new packaging materials designed to break down more readily after use. The approach could help reduce long-term plastic pollution by giving waste plastics a second life while creating products that are less likely to persist in the environment.

San Antonio forced a Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals, routing Oklahoma City 118–91 in a dominating Game 6 performance. Victor Wembanyama led San Antonio throughout; Game 7 tips off May 30 in Oklahoma City, with a berth in the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks on the line.

Major League Baseball has formally proposed a salary cap and salary floor in CBA negotiations with the players union, putting the sport's most contentious issue squarely on the table. MLB is the only major North American league without a cap, and the union has historically treated the idea as a non-starter.

Tennessee defeated defending national champion Texas on the opening day of the Women’s College World Series, earning a key early victory in the double-elimination tournament. The result sends Tennessee forward in the winner’s bracket while Texas faces a tougher path to remain in contention for the national title.

HBO's documentary about former New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern took the top prize at the Documentary Emmy Awards on Thursday. Nat Geo and Netflix led the broader winners list on a strong night for streaming nonfiction.

Disney announced that Pixar’s “Hoppers” will begin streaming on Disney+ following its theatrical release earlier this year. The move gives subscribers access to one of the studio’s newest animated films as Disney continues expanding its streaming library with recent theatrical titles.

Former mega-manager Scooter Braun gave his most extensive interview since exiting music management, opening up about Taylor Swift, Kanye West, and his new relationship with Sydney Sweeney in a 90-minute podcast conversation. Braun also revealed he's backing Spencer Pratt's bid for Los Angeles mayor, adding another surreal chapter to his post-industry reinvention.

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What it is: Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is battling a fast-expanding Ebola outbreak that has recorded more than 1,200 suspected and confirmed cases since December, with at least 264 deaths. WHO declared a global emergency on May 17 — the agency's highest alert level — after case counts began accelerating sharply through April and May.

The detail: Unlike the 2018–2020 DRC outbreak eventually controlled using the approved rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, this crisis involves the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no approved vaccine or specific treatment exists. Epicentered in Mongbwalu — a gold-mining town of roughly 130,000 in Ituri province — the virus is spreading through a region fractured by at least four active armed militias, making contact tracing and isolation nearly impossible.

Why it matters: Uganda closed its border with DRC after imported cases reached Kampala, and the US Centers for Disease Control has requested volunteers to screen inbound passengers from both countries at American airports. WHO officials have warned of a "catastrophic collision" between the disease and ongoing armed conflict — the same combination that turned the 2018 outbreak into the second-deadliest Ebola event in recorded history before it was brought under control after two brutal years.

What to watch: International aid organizations are racing to deploy experimental Bundibugyo-specific countermeasures, and WHO has set a 60-day containment benchmark for its first major evaluation. A failure to contain the outbreak before June's rainy season — which renders remote Ituri roads impassable and pushes the region's isolation to its extreme — could accelerate the spread well beyond the capacity of the current international response.

- A Texas golf course built the world's largest golf ball pyramid, proving that even thousands of lost balls can eventually find a purpose.

- Three bat-eared fox kits were born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, giving visitors an early look at one of Africa’s most distinctive mammals and providing a welcome dose of cuteness amid the news cycle.

- Six rhesus monkeys escaped from a rescue facility in western Germany, sending staff and local authorities on an unexpected search mission after the primates slipped out of their enclosure.

Thanks for spending five minutes with us. Stay curious, stay informed, and we'll be back with more of the stories shaping the world.

—The Five Minute Daily Team