Shalit, the bushy-haired mustachioed television personality who reviewed books and movies on “The Today Show” for 40 years, died Friday. His family told NBC News he “passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life.”
Shalit appeared on NBC’s “The Today Show” from 1970 until his retirement in 2010, sporting his signature bow ties and large glasses and working numerous puns into his film and book reviews in the “Critic’s Corner” segments.
In addition to his reviews, he interviewed celebrities from Steven Spielberg to the Grateful Dead to Helen Hayes.
“It was always magical for me to see Gene on the screen,” CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric said upon his retirement in 2010. “I think Gene was a master at doing celebrity interviews. He interviewed Sophia Loren and you could tell he was completed mesmerized by her.”
His long tenure on “The Today Show” made him one of the few recognizable film critics, which led to him being featured in several animated shows. “SpongeBob Square Pants” dubbed him Gene Scallop, a fish food critic for whom Shalit provided the voice. He was parodied in four episodes of “Family Guy,” voiced a character playing himself on “The Critic” and was portrayed in “The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence.”
“Saturday Night Live” also parodied the popular critic, with Jon Lovitz and later Horatio Sanz portraying Shalit. On “Second City Television,” he was portrayed by the equally bushy-eyebrowed Eugene Levy.
Born in New York City, he graduated the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where like fellow critic Roger Ebert many years later, he wrote for the Daily Illini newspaper. Early in his career he was a press agent for Dick Clark, a job which ended during a Congressional investigation of payola.
He turned to writing about entertainment in the late 1960s for publications including Look, Ladies’ Home Journal, TV Guide and The New York Times. He also authored four books of humor.
Shalit also broadcast daily essays called “Man About Anything” on the NBC Radio Network from 1970 to 1982.
He is survived by a son and a daughter. Another daughter and his wife, Nancy Lewis, pre-deceased him.

U.S. oligarch Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on Friday after his company SpaceX went public in the largest initial public offering ever. Musk is worth $1.1 trillion, thanks in large part to his stock in both Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk becoming a trillionaire is an incredibly dark milestone for humanity. In a world where millions of people are suffering from treatable illnesses and starvation—often as a result of Musk’s own actions—there is one guy who holds more wealth than most of us can even conceptualize.
How wealthy is Musk now?
It can be difficult to put such staggering numbers in perspective.
At $1.1 trillion, Musk is worth about $704 billion more than the second-wealthiest person in the world, Google co-founder Larry Page, who’s worth $296 billion, according to Forbes. The gap between Elon Musk and Larry Page ($804 billion) is larger than the entire GDP of Ireland ($779 billion).
Google co-founder Sergey Brin is worth about $273 billion, according to Forbes, making him the third-wealthiest person in the world. The gap between Elon Musk’s wealth and Sergey Brin’s wealth is $827 billion, roughly what it would cost to fix the national debt, according to Fortune.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the third-wealthiest on the Forbes list of richest people, at about $247 billion. That’s a gap of $853 billion, roughly the combined net worth of the 10 wealthiest people in 2020.
Oracle founder Larry Ellison currently sits at number four on the Forbes list of wealthiest people, with $228 billion. The gap between Ellison’s wealth and Musk’s net worth is about $872 billion. If you spent $1,000 per day every single day, it would take about 2.4 million years to spend that amount of money.
Dell founder Michael Dell is currently just under Ellison on the Forbes billionaires list at $227 billion. If you have even a single dollar to your name, your net worth is closer to Michael Dell’s than Dell’s is to Elon Musk’s.
Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is worth $196 billion. The gap between Zuck’s net worth and Musk’s is a whopping $904 billion. The median U.S. home price is currently about $436,500. You could buy 2.07 million homes with the money in that gap.
Nvidia founder Jensen Huang is worth $178 billion, making him the eighth-wealthiest person, according to Forbes. The gap between his net worth and Musk’s now sits at $922 billion. That amount of cash could buy you over 92 million horses for your personal flight attendants. Or settle over 3.6 million claims with those employees (at $250,000 a piece) after they accuse you of sexual harassment.
Bernard Arnault, the CEO of luxury goods company LVMH, and his family are worth about $156 billion, meaning the gap between their wealth and Musk’s is $944 billion. That’s nearly the entire GDP of Taiwan, which is currently at $976 billion.
Legendary 95-year-old investor Warren Buffett is worth about $144 billion, making him the tenth-wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes. The gap between Buffett’s wealth and Musk’s is now $956 billion. As Bloomberg notes, Musk is worth about seven Warren Buffetts.
Where did the money actually come from?
SpaceX is currently trading at $173 per share at the time of this writing, up significantly from the IPO price of $135. The company is now the sixth-largest by market cap, behind Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. And while nobody knows what will happen to the stock, every penny that it goes up contributes to Elon Musk’s enormous wealth.
Musk was worth $24.6 billion as recently as 2020. But he managed to see his wealth climb tremendously, in large part thanks to government contracts. The trillionaire’s companies have been built on at least $38 billion in government funding, according to the Washington Post, including loans, subsidies, and tax credits. And yet he still promotes the libertarian myth that he somehow exists outside of America’s oligarchic system.
No matter how many ways you try to put these numbers in context, it’s still difficult for any human to comprehend the kind of money and power Elon Musk now possesses. Another way to look at it: If you gave someone $1 million every day since the birth of Jesus Christ, they’d have about $741 billion, not including any interest. Elon Musk is much wealthier than that. (Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, recently used this stat to complain about the national debt.)
Elon Musk and charity
There simply aren’t enough hours in the day for anyone to “earn” a trillion dollars. And yet Musk doesn’t believe in giving money to charity, insisting that his creation of private companies is its own kind of charitable giving.
Back in 2021, the head of the UN World Food Program asked Musk to donate $6 billion to save 42 million people from starvation. Musk declined.
At the time, that $6 billion was just 2% of Musk’s wealth. Today, it’s just half a percent. We won’t hold our breath waiting for the newly minted trillionaire to save millions of people from unnecessary death.
What money can’t buy
No matter how much money you have, it won’t make you a good person or fulfill you in any profound ways. And it can’t make people like you.
Only 36% of Americans say they approve of Elon Musk, with 48% saying they disapprove of him, according to the latest polling. It will be interesting to see how those numbers fluctuate as his net worth goes up or down with the price of SpaceX stock.
Then again, it’s hard for mere mortals to imagine even the difference between $100 billion and $1 trillion. The numbers are simply too large.

Iran has not yet given final approval to a draft memorandum of understanding with the United States, Iranian state-affiliated Mehr News Agency reported Friday, adding that Tehran’s ballistic missile program will not be part of any negotiations.
According to the report, discussions with Washington will focus exclusively on Iran’s nuclear program and economic issues, particularly sanctions relief.
Mehr published what it said were the 14 points contained in the draft agreement, although the details have not been confirmed by U.S. officials.
Under the reported framework, the war would end immediately and permanently on all fronts, including Lebanon. The United States would commit to respecting Iran’s sovereignty and refraining from interference in its internal affairs.
The draft also reportedly calls for the lifting of the maritime blockade within 30 days, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from areas near Iran, and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz under arrangements coordinated with Tehran.
According to the report, sanctions on Iranian oil, petrochemical products and related exports would be suspended, granting Iran access to its financial resources. The United States and its allies would also commit to presenting plans for rebuilding Iran’s economy worth at least $300 billion.
The memorandum would establish a 60-day period of ceasefire and negotiations aimed at reaching a final agreement. During that period, Washington would pledge not to increase its military presence in the region or impose additional sanctions.
Mehr reported that Iran would reaffirm its commitment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty not to pursue nuclear weapons. The final agreement, if reached, would focus exclusively on uranium enrichment and enriched material, the removal of sanctions and Iran’s economic recovery.
According to the report, discussion of Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for allied militant groups across the Middle East has been permanently removed from the agenda.
The draft reportedly includes the release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets during the 60-day negotiating period, with half of that amount to be made available before talks begin. It also calls for the establishment of a mechanism to monitor implementation and for any final agreement to receive approval from the UN Security Council.
Iranian media said the framework includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, removing sanctions on Iranian oil exports and unfreezing Iranian assets.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Israeli officials have insisted that any agreement with Tehran must address not only Iran’s nuclear activities but also its ballistic missile program and its network of regional proxy groups.
For that reason, Israeli officials have opposed the emerging framework and continue to hope the talks collapse or that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, does not approve the deal.
The precise details of the framework remain unclear. Iranian reports claimed Washington backed away from some of its earlier demands, although it remains uncertain whether President Donald Trump maintained his original conditions.
The proposed memorandum would establish a 60-day window for negotiating a comprehensive nuclear agreement, with the possibility of a further 60-day extension. Analysts note that reaching such a deal within that time frame appears unlikely, given that negotiations leading to the 2015 nuclear agreement lasted roughly 18 months.
One of the main sticking points remains how much financial relief Iran will receive. According to information circulating in Israel, a compromise has been reached under which Iran would not receive direct cash transfers but would instead be allowed to purchase food and medicine using funds held by Qatar.
U.S. officials are reportedly insisting that frozen assets will not be released until issues surrounding Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium are addressed, though that issue itself is expected to be part of future negotiations.

Apple was rumored to be working on an AI health service, but it was scrapped well before the iOS 27 beta came out. It could resurface in the future, but for now, there are a handful of health and fitness changes in the update.
Design
Apple redesigned the Browse section of the Health app, and it now uses a card-style interface instead of a list. It is more colorful and easier to see the different categories.
The app also has a single bottom navigation bar that incorporates a search/browse button, instead of a separate search button.
Visual Intelligence
Visual Intelligence has a new nutrition feature that can tell you the nutritional value of what you’re eating. You can open the Camera app to the new Siri mode and take a photo of a food item to get feedback.
It does not give exact calorie counts, but it lets you know if a food is heavily processed, if it has protein, if it’s high in sugar, and more. It gives food a nutritional value ranking between very low and very high. Data does not sync to the Health app, but it’s still useful.
‌Visual Intelligence‌ requires an iPhone 15 Pro or later.
Cycle Tracking
Cycle Tracking is expanding with perimenopause/menopause support. The Health app now sends notifications when logged cycle patterns are suggestive of perimenopause.
The feature uses long-term cycle data to flag the perimenopause hormonal transition that can begin a decade or more before menopause. Cycle deviation alerts are based on the user’s logged cycle history and are for users age 40 and above.
Users can keep track of symptoms and access educational resources that offer guidance and support.
Apple also added new Fitness+ workouts for perimenopause and menopause.
Data syncs to the Health app quicker than before thanks to performance improvements Apple implemented.
Child Safety
There are several new Child Safety features that give parents more control over the content their children are seeing. Apple is including guidance based on expert health research to help parents make decisions about managing child accounts.
Route and Distance Accuracy
Route maps that populate the Fitness app after workouts are more accurate in ‌iOS 27‌. During treadmill workouts, distance is also reflected more accurately than before.
Step Count
Step counts will sync between the Health and Fitness apps.
GymKit
GymKit has expanded to the iPhone, which can pair with treadmills, indoor bikes, and other exercise equipment for data syncing. GymKit was previously an Apple Watch feature, but now iPhone users won’t need a watch to use it.
GymKit can sync calories, distance, speed, incline, and pace.
‌iOS 27‌ is available to developers, with a public beta planned for July. It will launch to the public this fall.

It’s been a year since federal immigration authorities detained 76 employees at a meatpacking plant in Nebraska’s second-largest worksite immigration raid.
But the effects are still being felt.
South Omaha’s business district has not fully recovered from the negative economic effects of the raid on the Glenn Valley Foods meatpacking company, city officials and community leaders said at a news conference Tuesday.
Following the raid last June, federal authorities had touted the operation as uncovering “massive identity theft,” accusing the immigrant workers of using stolen Social Security numbers to obtain employment.
Yet, a year later, only one woman has been charged with the crimes federal immigration authorities said drew them to the meatpacking plant in the first place. The person pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in prison.
“If they’re meant to make our community safer, they’re not doing that,” Roger Garcia, chairman of the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, said at the news conference about the raid and other subsequent immigration actions in Omaha.
Meanwhile, the people who were detained, their families and the broader community are still dealing with the enforcement action’s ripple effects, leaders noted, as they try to mitigate the effect on local businesses. The community leaders encouraged participation in a “Day of Joy” event Wednesday to support the businesses in the predominantly Latino 24th Street corridor.
Two community surveys of the South Omaha business district show that business health and customer traffic remain low.
Forty local business owners surveyed by the Nebraska Hispanic Chamber of Commerce said uncertainty, misinformation about immigration enforcement actions and ingrained fears have affected consumer behavior so dramatically that it’s hurting businesses’ ability to bounce back.
The businesses surveyed include seven restaurants and food trucks, 18 retail establishments, three construction companies and a variety of other storefronts. Three business owners said they’re planning to transition to online operations to stay afloat.
Challenges in workforce retainment have caused six businesses to shut down, said Irma Villezcas, a grocery store owner and chair of the South Omaha Business Association.
The results echo some of the findings from recent nationwide workforce studies on the economic impact of last year’s immigration raids.
A Brookings Institution study found that last year’s immigration enforcement surge across the nation cost 668,000 jobs, and those losses affected both immigrant and U.S.-born workers. Another study from the University of Colorado Boulder found immigration enforcement didn’t expand opportunities for U.S.-born workers and instead reduced employment for some of them.
‘Unlike anything we had ever seen’
Of the 76 people immigration authorities arrested at Glenn Valley Foods, close to 10 self-deported, Garcia told NBC News on Tuesday. Others who were also detained were eventually granted bond and reunited with their families, though many of them are still facing immigration proceedings.
“They have this constant pressure of being tied up in that system that might ultimately lead to deportation eventually,” said Garcia, who is the first Latino commissioner of Douglas County, where Omaha is located.
Garcia’s family was also among those directly affected by the raids. His wife’s aunt was among the meatpacking workers taken into immigration custody.
The woman, a mother of three U.S.-born children, spent a couple of months in detention before she was released on bond. Garcia said his wife’s aunt was granted a temporary work permit — alongside others who had been detained — while they wait for their next immigration court hearing.
Luis Mejía, 20, said he went to work last June at Glenn Valley Foods “thinking it would be a normal day.” The Nebraska native who was raised in South Omaha said everything changed that morning when immigration officers entered their workplace.
As some ran away in fear, Mejía’s immigrant mother hugged him and told him to take care of his younger siblings. Then, she ran with the others.
Meanwhile, immigration officers asked Mejía to show proof of U.S. citizenship.
“I didn’t know how to do that since I’ve never been asked that before. I looked at the officer with confusion and told him I was born here,” Mejía recalled. The officers cleared him to go after looking him up in their system.
A couple of hours after authorities let him go, Mejía received a call from his mother, telling him she had been detained. After that, Mejía didn’t hear from her for a few days while she was in detention.
She was one of the at least 63 workers who were taken to the Lincoln County Detention Center, four hours away.
The situation forced Mejía and his older brother to provide for their two younger siblings while not knowing if they would get to see their mother again.
“What made this raid especially significant was what happened afterward. Many individuals were held for more than 60 hours before being processed. During those 60 hours, families did not know where their loved ones were being held and we legal service providers did not have access to them,” said Roxana Cortes-Mills, legal director at the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement, an immigrant rights organization in Omaha. “It was unlike anything we had ever seen in Nebraska.”
Lina T. Stover, executive director of the Heartland Workers Center, agrees.
“One day a person may have authorization to work and remain with their family, the next day policy changes, processing delays or court decisions can place their future in jeopardy,” she said at the news conference.
Her organization supports workers in the meatpacking, construction, restaurant and cleaning industries. The group, alongside the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement, was crucial in helping the families directly affected by last year’s raid.
Two other people were sentenced in connection with the events surrounding the raid at Glenn Valley Foods. One man who worked at the plant was sentenced to 14 months in prison after being convicted of wielding a box cutter while attempting to resist an immigration arrest. Another worker who protested the raid was sentenced to 22 months in prison for using a rock to assault and impede a federal officer.
“At the end of the day, only like two or three people were prosecuted with any kind of charge,” Garcia said. “It’s just really quite silly that this huge effort led to like two or three prosecutions.”
Even though Omaha police do not cooperate with ICE to enforce immigration, state police do. Garcia said he gets weekly calls informing him of individuals who have been detained by immigration officials.
“Immigration enforcement did not end a year ago,” Cortes-Mills said.
After the one worker from the Glenn Valley Foods raid was charged with identity fraud last year, Elhrick Cerdan, the assistant special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations who led the operation, told NBC News “that number could change.”
The Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Attorney’s Office-District of Nebraska did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the investigation and the workplace raid last year.
U.S. Attorney Lesley Woods said last year that a five-year statute of limitations had expired for much of the Glenn Valley workforce that otherwise would have been similarly charged.