week ending Jun 20

Trump trusts Fed Chair Warsh. It matters for more than interest rates -  When Kevin Warsh steps to the podium Wednesday for his first news conference as chair of the Federal Reserve, he will enjoy something his predecessor Jerome Powell lacked for years: breathing room from the president.“The president trusts Warsh, so he’ll have some scope of action,” a person familiar with Trump-Fed dynamics said, speaking under condition of anonymity to describe what has been one of the most volatile relationships of this administration.The new Fed chair will attempt to use that freedom to make his case internally for far-reaching change at the Fed, people who know him and closely follow the central bank said. Warsh’s reform agenda includes moving the Fed slowly toward the lower rates Warsh has endorsed as well as reducing the institution’s multibillion-dollar balance sheet and changing how it thinks about inflation. Making that happen will require carefully marshaling the extensive but not unlimited political capital that comes with his new position.Warsh comes in as the U.S. economy appears resilient, and a tentative deal to end the Iran war may ease inflation worries. While Warsh is unlikely to deliver the immediate interest rate cut President Donald Trump has demanded, the new chair is already getting a break from a president who took unprecedented steps to undermine the Fed under Powell.Powell said repeatedly that he and the Federal Open Market Committee based their interest rate decisions solely on economic factors, but Trump was convinced otherwise. He saw politics everywhere.The markets overwhelmingly anticipate Warsh will this week announce that the Fed is holding interest rates steady, just as Powell has done since December. Trump won’t see that as a betrayal, the person said. “I think having the trust of the president is worth a lot of room because the president thinks you’re acting out of your best judgment and not a vendetta against him,” the person said.Trump has said in recent days he wants Warsh to “do whatever he wants” and “be totally independent.” The Fed is independent by statute and reports to Congress, not the president.Warsh said at his April confirmation hearing he’s willing to hear from the president or anyone else on interest rates, but that the final call is up to the Fed. “Humble central bankers should be listening and then making their own decisions,” Warsh said.The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment about the Trump-Warsh relationship. The Fed declined to comment on Warsh’s plans for the meeting and his relationship with the president.How long that relationship holds up is a matter of intense speculation in Washington. Trump has a long history of turning on his political allies.Warsh will need to quickly shore up his support among the 12 voters on the Federal Open Market Committee, composed of the president of the New York Fed, a rotating set of four other regional Fed bank presidents and the seven permanent members of the central bank’s Board of Governors. “The chair has considerable leeway,” said Jon Faust, a Johns Hopkins University economist who was a longtime advisor to Powell. “But a chair who chooses to push too far in any one direction is going to both run into trouble with the board or the committee, whichever is relevant.” The Fed’s most vocal proponent for cuts, Stephen Miran, resigned his board seat to make way for Warsh. Another governor who had favored cuts, Christopher Waller, said in May that rate hikes may be required instead if inflation doesn’t subside. The Fed is officially committed to keeping a certain measure of inflation known as core personal consumption expenditures below 2%. The core PCE came at 3.3% in the most recent reading.  The Iran war has spiked energy prices, raising the cost of gasoline in the U.S., among other price hikes. That has prompted some Fed members, including Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, to say rates might need to rise this year. Should the Strait of Hormuz reopen to shipping traffic as envisioned in the U.S.-Iran framework announced Sunday, Warsh would have better footing to make his long-standing case that artificial intelligence is helping the economy grow without worsening inflation.Neither the war nor Trump’s tariffs have knocked the U.S. economy fully off balance. Labor Department data for May showed 172,000 jobs were created, with unemployment holding steady at 4.3%. Traders have pivoted from expecting cuts in January when Warsh was nominated to expecting at least one quarter-point rate increase this year, according to CME FedWatch. Warsh has an opportunity to reset how the Fed deals with those market expectations.

Interest rates stay steady for now, but more Fed officials are signaling hikes later this year - The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday for the fourth consecutive policy meeting. Central bank officials signaled that they're looking to hold rates steady through this year — but are close to hiking rates once. Fed members voted in a unanimous decision — the first since last June — to hold the benchmark interest rate in the range of 3.5% to 3.75%. By a close margin, Fed officials see holding rates or possibly hiking once this year before cutting once next year. The hawkish shift comes after policymakers previously projected one 2026 rate cut, but the job market has firmed and inflation has risen to the highest level in three years, pushed up by higher energy prices from the conflict in the Middle East. The meeting was the first under new Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, who announced significant changes in some Fed operations, with possibly much more to come. The big change on Wednesday: The FOMC did not issue "forward guidance," public communication that telegraphs the likely direction of monetary policy and interest rates. Warsh also announced task forces to examine five areas that touch monetary policy: Fed communications (including forward guidance), the Fed's balance sheet, use of existing data sources, productivity and jobs, and the Fed's inflation framework. When he was sworn in, Warsh said he intended to lead a "reform-oriented Fed," and that work has clearly begun. Only 18 officials on the Fed's 19-member Federal Open Market Committee submitted interest rate projections, the so-called dot plot. Warsh said he encouraged his colleagues to make projections but declined to submit one of his own, "consistent with my long-held views," he said. This year, eight officials see holding rates steady, three officials see one rate hike, five see two rate hikes, and one sees four hikes. Only one member projects a single rate cut. The Fed dramatically shortened its policy statement and dropped language signaling that its next move would be a rate cut. The language previously stated that "in considering the extent and timing of additional adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, the Committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks." In the new statement, officials noted that the economy is expanding at a "solid" pace despite elevated uncertainty, in part due to the conflict in the Middle East. They said that inflation remains elevated, in part reflecting supply shocks that have driven up price increases in certain sectors, including energy. "The committee will deliver price stability," officials said in their statement. Inflation is now seen rising 3.6%, compared with 2.7% previously, on a headline basis. On a "core" basis, officials see inflation at 3.3%, compared with 2.7% previously. The Consumer Price Index rose 4.2% in May, reaching the highest level in three years, driven largely by higher energy prices. Stripping out volatile energy and food prices, core inflation ticked up to 2.9% from 2.8% in April, nearly a full percentage point above the Fed's 2% target. The Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, is worse, showing higher core inflation of 3.3% in April, with expectations that it will rise to 3.5% for May. The Fed expects lower GDP this year, by 0.2% to 2.2%, versus the previous estimate of 2.4%. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 4.3%, down from 4.4% previously.

Analysis: Kevin Warsh task forces are key to understanding the new Fed --  Chairman Kevin Warsh’s 43-odd minutes at the Federal Reserve’s podium Wednesday were intended to deliver the message that, slowly but surely, he will set about making the Fed quieter, more humble in its engagement with the markets and the economy, and — ultimately — laser-focused on inflation. “I’ve said for years inflation is a choice,” Warsh told reporters. “You bet it is.” Warsh sees his confirmation as Fed chair as a mandate to deliver far-reaching change to the Fed, intended to get the Fed out of the business of allowing inflation to run too hot. At his first press conference, he gave a roadmap to how that change will come about. He also gave some hints as to where he may face the biggest risks.  Warsh’s initial changes to the Fed are in some ways modest. The 12 members of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at 3.5-3.75%, just as traders have expected for weeks. But behind the scenes, much is changing — even in the process of how the Fed came about making that core decision. Prior Fed chairs had offered different policy statements for the committee to consider. Warsh changed that.“There was one proposal on the table,” Warsh said. “The group was unanimous and unambiguous on it.” That shift and others show Warsh carefully marshaling his political capital for the bigger alterations he has planned. The bulk of Warsh’s prepared remarks at the top of the press conference — and much of the discussion with reporters that followed — was spent detailing a series of task forces. These will deal with communications, the balance sheet, data, productivity and jobs and the Fed’s inflation framework, Warsh said. They will pair internal Fed staff with external experts, whom Warsh said he is in the process of selecting. Warsh’s task forces have the ring of the classic do-nothing government blue-ribbon commission, but they are central to his theory of change at the Fed. Warsh’s authority as Fed chair is largely delegated by the Fed’s Board of Governors and the wider FOMC. The task forces are an attempt by Warsh to prompt the Fed’s other members to come around to his way of thinking all on their own, with a little helpful guidance from the outside experts he selects. Warsh also pointedly declined to submit an economic forecast to the Fed’s Summary of Economic Projections, which includes its famed “dot plot,” though he allowed his colleagues to do so because “that’s the commitment that the FOMC made.” By withholding his own views about where interest rates are headed, Warsh effectively devalues the rest of the Fed’s views. Any discussion about the future path of interest rates now has to include the caveat that the Fed’s most influential official, the chair, hasn’t stated his opinion on the matter. And that saves him the trouble of taking an immediate, difficult vote on how to change communications. That vote instead is deferred until closer to the end of the year, when his communications task force delivers its report, Warsh said. That process may also result in changes to the Fed’s practice of releasing transcripts to its meetings, he said, and to the press conference itself. That would have the effect of pulling back even further on how much the public can see into the Fed — beyond what the chair wants to say. Some of that is by design. Warsh declined to discuss the market’s sinking reaction to his unfolding comments because, he said, he valued the “unfiltered” market reaction. “What we’ve given markets is a new chapter for the central bank.” The two-year Treasury yield rose 16 basis points following the Fed’s statement, suggesting investors believe Warsh will eventually need to raise interest rates. That is a large move for one day, and how investors and the Fed can adjust to a new era of volatility remains to be seen. Another risk for Warsh in this process is that the other members of the Fed simply may not agree to come along for the ride. The Fed is an effective institution in part because of its decentralized power. The Fed’s governors serve 14-year terms and are difficult to remove. Its regional bank presidents have a right to speak their own minds. It may be relatively clear in a moment of profound transition for the global economy that the Fed should wait and see if inflation continues to worsen. But if members of the Fed come to believe that, for instance, Warsh is putting too much emphasis on the promise of artificial intelligence and underweighting the risks of energy price increases, they will simply vote him down. Warsh can manage dissent at the Fed but cannot fully contain it. But at least for now, Warsh can assume the voice of the Fed. “This committee will deliver price stability,” Warsh pledged. If he can do that, all the other changes he wants may come easily.

To shrink the balance sheet, Fed must move past 2019 fears - New Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh wants to turn back the clock on the central bank's balance sheet to 2010. To get there, he will have to go through 2019.

• Key insight: The biggest hurdle to shrinking the Fed's balance sheet is the amount of reserves in the banking system necessary to ensure smooth market function. Fears of 2019-like reserve scarcity have shaped balance sheet management in the post-COVID era.
• Expert quote: "They are haunted by this. They feel that was an own-goal and there's been a lot of work in the Federal Reserve System to find out when those risks are in danger of repeating." — Anil Kashyap, professor of economics and finance at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business
• Forward Look: New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh wants the central bank's balance sheet to be smaller. This week he will give his first public remarks.

Balance sheet reduction is a top priority of new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh. Achieving that goal means avoiding the kinds of disruptions that roiled the Treasury bond market in 2019, the last time the central bank embarked on quantitative tightening.

Pakistan Says US-Iran Deal 'Has Been Reached' -  Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday night that a deal between the US and Iran to end the conflict in the region “has been reached” and that an official signing ceremony will take place this Friday in Switzerland.“Following intensive talks, we are pleased to announce that the Peace Deal between the United States of America and Islamic Republic of Iran has been REACHED,” Sharif wrote on X. “Both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”The inclusion of Lebanon is notable since Israeli officials have been rejecting the idea of ending the war, and Israel just bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday, which was seen as an effort to sabotage a US-Iran deal.Sharif suggested not all of the details have been worked out, saying that the “mediators will facilitate a series of meetings this week. These pre-implementation discussions will lay the foundation for the technical talks and the official signing ceremony.” Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, confirmed that a Memorandum of Understanding has been reached and that it will be formally signed on Friday. After that, the US and Iran will begin 60 days of negotiations on other issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, but the lifting of the US blockade and a ceasefire in Lebanon will happen immediately.“Starting tonight, the US naval blockade against Iran will be terminated,” Gharibabadi said, adding the agreement would bring the “immediate and permanent end of the war and military operations on various fronts, including Lebanon.”Gharibabadi said Iran’s threat to strike Israel in response to Israel’s latest attack on Beirut played a role in reaching the agreement. “Our armed forces were ready to deliver a decisive response. Trump also adopted positions and criticized the Zionist regime. Hezbollah gave firm and decisive answers to the terrorist act of the Zionist regime. Military power and the threats we made helped finalize the text and advance several issues we were working on,” he said.President Trump posted on Truth Social about the deal and announced he was lifting the blockade of Iranian ports.“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” the president wrote.Trump later told The New York Times that if he failed to reach a final nuclear agreement with Iran after the signing of the MOU, he would restart the bombing campaign against Iran, or declare the US the “guardian of the Middle East” and take a 20% cut of the region’s revenues. He also called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “really difficult guy” and said “he should be very thankful” to the US for the Iran war. The MOU will essentially bring the region to a state meant to be reached after the initial ceasefire announcement in early April, and it may also grant Iran access to some of its frozen funds. The initial ceasefire was violated by Israel’s continued war in Lebanon and the US blockade of Iranian ports.

U.S. and Iran reach deal to end the Mideast war, with agreement set to be signed Friday  - The U.S. and Iran have agreed on a deal to bring their nearly four-month war to an end, with both sides declaring the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday.“Following intensive talks, we are pleased to announce that the Peace Deal between the United States of America and Islamic Republic of Iran has been REACHED,” Sharif said in a post on X. Pakistan has served as a mediator between the two countries. “The official signing ceremony will be on Friday, 19 June in Switzerland,” Sharif said.U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that a deal had been reached soon after the prime minister’s announcement. In a post on Truth Social, the president said, “The deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete.”“I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade,” Trump wrote.Trump, in a later post, said that the strait would open on Friday.“With the opening of the Strait upon the signing of the Deal on Friday, for purposes of mine removal, oil will flow on both ends again for the Region, and the World!” he said.  Iran’s Supreme National Security Council confirmed Sunday that Tehran had finalized a memorandum of understanding, saying all military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, would cease “immediately and permanently.”The naval blockade against Iran would also be lifted immediately, according to the statement in Persian translated by MS NOW, while noting that negotiations toward a final agreement would be deferred until Washington fulfilled its commitments under the memorandum of understanding first.Iranian state media had broadcast a television banner declaring the U.S. had been “forced to sign an agreement to end the war,” according to The Associated Press. Iranian state TV also said Iran’s Foreign Ministry holds the U.S. and Israel “responsible for the dangerous consequences of the continued insecurity and tension in the region.”The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Qatar said in a statement that it welcomes the agreement, which includes measures to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. Qatar “considers it an important step towards consolidating sustainable peace and promoting economic growth regionally and internationally,” Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said.European nations, including the U.K., Germany, France and Italy, said Sunday they were willing to lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for the country taking steps on its nuclear program, Reuters reported.“Iran ‌must ⁠never acquire a nuclear weapon. We stand ready ​to work ​with ⁠the US, Iran and ​the IAEA to ​this ⁠end,” the nation’s leaders reportedly said in a joint statement.On Friday, Iranian state media reported that a 14-page draft memorandum had been drawn up, outlining terms of a proposed peace deal that would include the U.S. lifting oil sanctions and Iran committing to reopening the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days.The deal follows weeks of mixed messaging from both Washington and Tehran over the conflict’s trajectory, with a fragile ceasefire in place as diplomatic efforts were made to end the war.The deal was put at risk earlier Sunday after the Israel Defense Forces said Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon had launched projectiles into Israel. Subsequent Israeli strikes in Beirut prompted condemnation from Trump, who warned Iran and Hezbollah not to strike back. Trump asked both sides not to “blow it.” The Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route in the Middle East, has effectively been closed since the conflict began in late February. The blockade of the waterway has created severe supply constraints for various goods, including oil, gas and fertilizers, sparking price rises and fueling concerns about a return to stagflation.

World leaders welcome U.S.-Iran deal as Europe signals sanctions relief, urges Hormuz reopening --World leaders welcomed the U.S.-Iran agreement to end the Middle East war, with some European nations signaling they were prepared to lift sanctions on Tehran in exchange for the country taking steps to curb its nuclear program.After more than three months of war, the U.S. and Iran reached a deal on Sunday that would bring an immediate and permanent end to the conflict, according to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, with a signing set for Friday in Switzerland that’s expected to open 60 days of additional talks on Iran’s nuclear program.U.S. President Donald Trump said he would authorize the immediate removal of the U.S. naval blockade. While the final terms have not been released, Iranian state media reported last Friday that a 14-page draft memorandum included the U.S. lifting oil sanctions and Iran committing to reopening the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days.China’s foreign ministry welcomed the preliminary peace deal and expressed hope that the signing would proceed as scheduled.“We hope all parties to stick to the path of peace and solve issues through dialogue,” a spokesperson said during a press briefing on Monday. In a joint statement after the agreement was announced, the U.K., France, Germany and Italy commended it as “a moment of opportunity to restore regional stability and stabilise the global economy,” adding they were prepared to lift relevant sanctions in response to “clear and verifiable steps taken by Iran regarding its nuclear program.”The group, known as the E4, in the statement also called for the agreement to be “implemented rapidly and comprehensively” and that the “urgent reopening of the Strait of Hormuz with unconditional and unrestricted freedom of navigation is essential.”The European nations stressed that “Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon. We stand ready to work with the US, Iran and the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] to this end,” according to Reuters.    U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed the deal as a “hugely important step forward in ending the war,” while stressing that the Strait of Hormuz, a critical energy chokepoint that has effectively been closed for the duration of the war, must remain “fully and permanently open.”Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that the country welcomed the agreement as “a major step toward resolution of the situation,” according to a Google translation of her statement on X on Monday.  “We strongly hope that this memorandum will be steadily implemented, that free and safe navigation in the Strait of Hormuz will be actually ensured, and that a final agreement on Iran’s nuclear issue and other matters will be realized at the earliest possible date,” Takaichi said.

Senate Republicans want a say on Trump’s Iran deal - President Donald Trump is touting a deal that would end the monthslong war with Iran — and potentially ease some of the political headwinds bearing down on Republicans because of high energy prices.GOP lawmakers still have lots of questions.The absence of publicly released text for the “memorandum of understanding” Vice President JD Vance reportedly signed with Iranian officials Sunday left an information vacuum on Capitol Hill, where senators of both parties were left airing concerns about what the deal might entail. Even most Republicans agreed: More information needs to come to Congress soon, and any agreement touching on the future of the Iranian nuclear program would have to eventually be subject to a congressional vote.

U.S. peace deal with Iran in question as Israel strikes Lebanon - An anticipated deal to stop the war with Iran and open the Strait of Hormuz hangs in the balance as Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon traded strikes Sunday.The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday said in a social media post that they had struck a “Hezbollah command center” in Beirut after Hezbollah launched aerial attacks “against Israeli civilians & IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon.” The IDF said it is preparing for more strikes aimed at Israeli territory in a later Telegram post.The exchange of blows comes after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that Washington and Tehran would sign an agreement on Sunday to stop the fighting with Iran and open the Strait of Hormuz.Trump, in a Sunday Truth Social post, said that the Israeli attacks on Beirut “should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran.”“Israel has the right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process,” he wrote. “There should be no more attacks by Israel anywhere in Lebanon, but there should also be no more attacks by any other party, including Hezbollah, against Israel.”The U.S. president warned the parties not to “blow it.”The agreement, known as a memorandum of understanding, reportedly includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz and taking steps to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program. It would also end Tehran’s funding of violence and impose an “inspection regime” on the Islamic Republic.Iran would be rewarded for compliance, including the unfreezing of assets and the easing of sanctions. Trump later told Fox News that he still expects the agreement to be signed on Sunday, and that he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump on Saturday said on Truth Social that he hopes “this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly,” adding the threat that if it does not, “we have the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again!”

Iran says end of Israeli war on Lebanon ‘inseparable’ part of understanding with US - Iran says termination of the Israeli war on Lebanon is an “inseparable” part of an agreement between Tehran and Washington to permanently end the illegal US-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei made the remarks during his weekly press briefing on Monday as American and Iranian officials confirmed that the two sides had finalized a memorandum of understanding (MoU), with a formal signing ceremony expected on Friday. He said that the finalization of the Iran-US memorandum that calls for ending the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, was the outcome of the Islamic Republic’s resilience against two evil actors. He added that the Zionist regime’s crimes in Beirut’s southern Dahiyeh suburb, which took place amid mounting efforts towards an agreement between Iran and the US, became a means to secure the national interests of Iran and Lebanon at a maximum level and made the Resistance Axis more united. “Lebanon and the termination of the war in Lebanon are an inseparable part of the understanding on ending the [US-Israeli] war [on Iran]. We have shown that we are determined in this regard and have proven in practice that we are serious, and we will continue to monitor developments carefully in the future,” he said. “The word Lebanon is used three times in the understanding. It is mentioned that ending the war includes that in Lebanon and respecting the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” The spokesman also warned that the Zionist regime is not seeking peace in the region, emphasizing that the United States bears responsibility for any breach of promise by other parties to the agreement. “We have no trust in the Zionist regime, just as we have no trust in the US. Meanwhile, we have our own tools. The United States must honor its commitments and ensure that the Zionist regime fulfills its obligation not to attack Lebanon. The obligations are corresponding and reciprocal,” he asserted. Additionally in his remarks, Baghaei said the MoU to end the war on all fronts was finalized 108 days after the imposed war began, in a situation where the other side in the worst possible terms claimed to have destroyed Iran's infrastructure and civilization. He said the enemy’s retreat is indicative of the Islamic Republic’s deterrence power. However, he added, “the Iranian nation's suspicion of the long-standing acts of sabotage by the ruling US administration (which has its roots in historical events, including the 1953 [coup]) is so deep-rooted that the recent understanding is merely an initial step towards reducing tensions.” Baghaei also said the initiators of the war of aggression faced a defeat and heavy losses while the Iranian nation proved that it would spare no sacrifice or resistance in the pursuit of its national dignity, independence, and sovereignty.

Iran to hold US to account for implementation of agreement: Araghchi to counterparts Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has discussed the agreement with the United States with his counterparts from Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Japan, and Saudi Arabia, emphasizing US responsibility for implementing the deal. Speaking in separate telephone calls on Monday morning with Hakan Fidan of Turkey, Fuad Hussein of Iraq, Badr Abdelatty of Egypt, Toshimitsu Motegi of Japan and Faisal bin Farhan of Saudi Arabia, Araghchi discussed the process and provisions of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding. Referring to the responsibility of the United States in implementing the agreement, Araghchi emphasized the need for a complete halt to the destabilizing aggressions and the Israeli attacks against Lebanon. The top diplomat also expressed gratitude for the positions and roles of Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt in supporting the establishment of a ceasefire, reducing tensions, and pursuing diplomatic efforts to achieve regional stability and security. The foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt also stressed the continuation of close consultations and cooperation regarding regional developments and the necessity of strengthening diplomatic efforts to maintain peace and stability. In his conversation with the Japanese counterpart, Araghchi explained the most important provisions of the memorandum of understanding and expressed hope that its implementation would mark the beginning of a new chapter of economic cooperation and investment between the two countries. Motegi welcomed the Islamabad memorandum of understanding, describing it as an important step toward resolving regional crises, and emphasized the necessity of its precise implementation. Araghchi also briefed his Saudi counterpart on the provisions and latest developments regarding the Islamabad memorandum of understanding. Araghchi also expressed gratitude for Saudi Arabia's role in the ongoing diplomatic process aimed at ending the US-Israeli aggression against Iran and strengthening regional stability and security. He further stressed the importance of continuing this process. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States, following the announcement of a ceasefire on April 8 of this year, began negotiations to permanently end the war with Pakistan's mediation. The text of the announced memorandum of understanding — based on Iran's 14-point proposal from the very beginning of the ceasefire — was reviewed multiple times over the past 60 days in the capitals of both countries. Tehran and Washington each, at various stages, applied and announced their perspectives on the text. Despite all pressures, ceasefire violations, and repeated changes in Washington's position, the Islamic Republic of Iran insisted on its stance. Following the signing of this memorandum, the two countries will place a series of intensive negotiations on their agenda over the next 60 days to reach a comprehensive agreement on disputed issues.

Trump Says Israel's Strike on Beirut 'Should Not Have Happened' - --  President Trump said on Sunday that an Israeli attack on the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, “should not have happened,” a strike that came hours before Pakistan announced an agreement to end the war between the US and Iran.  Israel’s strike on Dahiyeh came one week after Iran bombed northern Israel in response to Israel’s previous attack on the suburb, and Iranian officials said there will be another response to Sunday’s strike, but have backed off following the agreement with the US. Israeli officials said that the latest attack on Dahiyeh was a response to Hezbollah drones targeting northern Israel, which Trump downplayed.“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran. Israel has the right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.“We are very close to a Deal that will bring peace to the region, including to Lebanon, and all sides should stand down. There should be no more attacks by Israel anywhere in Lebanon, but there should also be no more attacks by any other party, including Hezbollah, against Israel. This could be the beginning of a long and beautiful peace — Let’s not blow it!” the president added.Trump has claimed several times now that some sort of ceasefire was reached in Lebanon, but the IDF has continued its occupation and destruction campaign in southern Lebanon, which has included heavy airstrikes. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said on Sunday that the latest Israeli strike on Dahiyeh shows the US lacks either the will or the ability to rein in Israel.“The Zionists’ incursion into Dahiyeh has once again shown that America either lacks the will to fulfill its commitments or the ability to do so. By giving the green light to the regime, you cannot gain concessions,” Ghalibaf wrote on X. “The game of bad cop and good cop is outdated. If you lack the will and ability to fulfill your commitments, speaking of continuing the path is not possible.”Trump later told Fox News that he would ask Iran not to respond to the Israeli attack on Beirut and claimed that he asked Netanyahu “what the fu*k are you doing?” but according to US and Israeli officials speaking to Axios, Israel notified US Central Command before the strike on Dahhiyeh, and there’s no sign he’s willing to impose any real consequences on Israel for the strike, such as cutting off military aid or support for the war in Lebanon.Lebanese officials said that at least three people were killed by the strike in Dahiyeh, while Israeli officials claim a senior Hezbollah commander was killed, which so far hasn’t been confirmed. Netanyahu posted a video of the strike, showing a building being hit as cars were driving by.

Israeli Ministers Say Israel Isn't Bound by US-Iran Deal, Won't Withdraw From Lebanon - --In the wake of the US and Iran announcing a Memorandum of Understanding to end the conflict between the two nations that includes a ceasefire in Lebanon, Israeli ministers have said Israel isn’t bound by the agreement.Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed that the IDF will not withdraw from its so-called “security zones” in southern Lebanon, which include a major swathe of Lebanese territory, and will also continue the occupation in southwest Syria and Gaza.“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I are leading a clear policy that determines that the IDF will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, without any time limit, to protect, from there, the border and Israeli communities against jihadist elements,” Katz said.Netanyahu later put out his own statement reaffirming what Katz said, vowing that Israel will not withdraw from Lebanon, Syria, or Gaza.The Israeli defense minister said that the IDF will continue its destruction campaign in southern Lebanon and its forced displacement of Lebanese civilians. “We oppose an IDF withdrawal from Lebanon, despite all the existing pressures and those that will still come,” he said. Katz added that Netanyahu “made these points clear to US President Trump and to other senior American officials,” which aligns with a report from Ynet that said Netanyahu told Trump that Israel is not bound by the Lebanon clause of the US-Iran MOU. Katz also said that if Iran strikes Israel over its continued war in Lebanon, Israel will hit Iran “with full force.”Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich slammed the agreement Trump reached with Iran, saying it is “bad for Israel and for the entire free world. Period.” Israeli opposition leaders also attacked Netanyahu, with former Prime Minister Yair Lapid saying there has “never, ever, been a more absolute failure than Netanyahu’s diplomatic failure on the Iranian front.”Iranian officials on Monday reaffirmed that an end to Israel’s war in Lebanon was key to a lasting deal with the US. “Lebanon and the termination of the war in Lebanon are an inseparable part of the understanding on ending the [US-Israeli] war [on Iran]. We have shown that we are determined in this regard and have proven in practice that we are serious, and we will continue to monitor developments carefully in the future,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei.“The word Lebanon is used three times in the understanding. It is mentioned that ending the war includes Lebanon and respecting the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity … The United States must honor its commitments and ensure that the Zionist regime fulfills its obligation not to attack Lebanon,” he added.While Baghaei said Israel must respect Lebanon’s “territorial integrity,” a US official claimed to reporters on Monday that the MOU doesn’t include an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, just a “ceasefire.” Israeli attacks and military operations appear to have eased since the announcement of the US-Iran deal, but at least one person was killed by an Israeli drone strike on Monday, and as long as the occupation remains, the war will continue at some level.

Trump is urging tankers to sail through Hormuz. Vessels aren’t so sure yet. - President Donald Trump declared that the Strait of Hormuz is now open and operating toll-free. But industry analysts — and members of his own administration — aren’t so sure. Trump’s declaration of a peace agreement with Iran on Sunday provided some breathing room for the administration as oil and gasoline prices fell. But analysts said conflicting reports — including from Vice President JD Vance — on whether Iran still will be able to charge oil tankers to travel through the Strait of Hormuz and whether the Strait was in fact open to any traffic has kept oil shipping companies wary of resuming traffic through the key waterway. Vance said Monday the issue of Iran charging ships a toll to move through Hormuz remains a point of contention ahead of the peace agreement signing later this week. “Our expectation is that the Strait is going to be opened in a toll-free way for the long term, and that’s the sort of thing that we’re going to figure out in these technical negotiations,” Vance said in an interview on CNBC. “You know that there are a lot of very important details to figure out that we’re actually going to sit at the table and discuss together and figure out a path forward on these details.”

US Military Notice Says US Blockade on Iranian Ports Is Still in Effect, Contradicting Trump - Iran The US military said in an advisory to merchant ships on Monday that the US blockade on Iranian ports remains in effect “pending execution” of a ceasefire deal between the US and Iran, The Hill has reported, a notice that contradicts President Trump’s declaration that the blockade has been lifted.The MOU will be officially signed on Friday to begin nuclear negotiations, but the end of the US blockade and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz were supposed to take effect immediately. Iranian media reported on Monday that several ships had made it to Iranian ports and that the blockade had been officially lifted, but the US military’s advisory suggested there was still a threat to commercial ships entering and leaving Iranian ports. “A military blockade of Iranian ports remains in effect, restricting all traffic inbound and outbound from these ports. Do not attempt to cross until explicit direction is given,” the notice said, according to Reuters. The notice told ship captains to consider “the health and safety of their crews,” warning that failure to comply with US orders “may result in rapid escalation to disabling or destructive fire.” The US bombed at least nine civilian commercial ships in its enforcement of the blockade since April, and one attack last week killed three Indian mariners.   Also on Monday, US officials told reporters that the US would maintain its current military posture in the Middle East and suggested it won’t pull any troops out of the region until some sort of nuclear deal is reached.“We want to see again the Iranians do what they promise they’re going to tell us that they’re going to do, and the agreement contemplates the reduction of military forces in the region upon the agreement of a final deal, which again is the agreement that we assume we can make, so long as the Iranians make some concessions and give up some of their activities and some of their nuclear program,” a senior Trump official said.

Trump's Iran deal stirs skepticism: Key takeaways and implications The agreement between the U.S. and Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and kick-start 60 days of nuclear negotiations is set to be signed in person Friday, but it’s still unclear what’s in it. Senior U.S. officials told reporters Monday that the memorandum of understanding (MOU), signed digitally over the weekend, is only the first step and that “real technical discussions” will begin later this week and be led by Vice President Vance. The officials said details of the agreement will be released publicly within the next couple of days, while President Trump said it would come out “sometime after Friday,” stoking debate and speculation over commitments and concessions on both sides. Trump and Vance have already digitally signed the MOU that was also signed by Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the country’s lead negotiator. The U.S. has repeatedly said that Iran has made guarantees that it would not have a nuclear weapon, but it appears that details regarding the handover of its current stockpile of enriched uranium will be punted to future talks. A senior U.S. official described the deal as having “two pathways”: Either Iran doesn’t cooperate and stays financially weak and without the ability to rebuild its nuclear program, or the country complies with the deal and benefits economically while also making assurances that no nuclear weapons will be built. “It’s a win either way for the United States,” the official said. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) shared his concern Sunday that Iran and the U.S. do not seem to be on the same page on what the agreement entails. “I am somewhat concerned that Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming,” he wrote on social media. Victoria Coates, vice president of national security at the Heritage Foundation and a member of Trump’s National Security Council during his first administration, said she hopes the administration sticks to keeping sanctions relief contingent on Iran following through with no nuclear weapons. “That has to come first and the burden has to be on them, otherwise, I worry we’re going to get into another one of these situations, as the president said, where they’re tap-tap-tapping us along,” Coates told The Hill. A number of Senate Republicans said Monday they were withholding comment on the deal until they knew more about its terms. “I hope we get more details about it before Friday,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters. “My understanding of what it entails — again, not having seen anything — I think the issues are going to be compliance and how you’re going to enforce that and what are the financial incentives the Iranians are going to have from our country,” Thune said. Iran has said it would only enter the next phase of negotiations if assets were unfrozen, according to reports, but U.S. officials maintain that zero dollars have been unfrozen. U.S. officials have maintained that no money would be released to Iran without commitments made by Iran. “The more that the Iranians are willing to work with us on their nuclear program, on verifying that they’re not building a nuclear weapon, on not funding radicalism and terrorism in the region, the more that they’re going to be welcomed into the world economy through a combination of sanctions relief and other economic measures,” an official said. While another said the U.S. is “prepared to release frozen funds [and] relieve sanctions.” “And we’ll do some small gestures of that in the beginning, if they make some small gestures to us that show that they’re willing to meet their commitments as well,” the U.S. official said. Still, the deal would reportedly waive U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil exports at least through the 60-day negotiating window, offering crucial income for the cash-strapped regime. Reopening the Strait of Hormuz will also help alleviate the soaring energy costs in the U.S. and elsewhere, which were set to get worse with global inventories of oil and gas quickly dropping.

Vance Says US-Iran MOU Has Already Been Signed 'Digitally' - Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that a Memorandum of Understanding to end the war between the US and Iran had already been signed “digitally” on Sunday night and that the text would be released in the coming days, though an official signing ceremony is still expected to take place this Friday in Geneva.An unnamed US official also told reporters on Monday that the agreement was signed by Vance, President Trump, and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, though so far that hasn’t been confirmed by Tehran.In a series of interviews, Vance denied Iranian media claims that Iran would immediately gain access to $12 billion in its frozen funds, but he did suggest Tehran could eventually have access to a major Gulf-funded reconstruction fund.“That’s the sort of thing they could have access to, funded by the Gulf coast coalition, so long as they honor their end of the obligation,” Vance said in an interview on CBS News when asked about reports of a potential $300 billion reconstruction fund.The message from Iranian officials on Monday was that the deal is a “victory” for Iran, though they stressed that fulfilling the MOU hinges on whether there is an end to Israel’s war in Lebanon, where Israeli attacks continued on Monday.The Friday signing ceremony is expected to start a 60-day period during which the US and Iran will negotiate other issues, including Iran’s nuclear program. Vance said the US would lift sanctions on Iran if a nuclear deal is reached, though the two sides still appear to be far apart on the terms.“If the Iranians are willing to give a long-term commitment — along with proper verification — to giving up that nuclear weapon, we’re willing to welcome them into the world economy to lift some sanctions and to turn over a new leaf in that relationship,” Vance said on Good Morning America.

Vance: Lots of Iran deal details to figure out, U.S. has the 'cards' -  Vice President JD Vance on Monday said after the U.S. and Iran struck a preliminary deal that “a lot” of details remain to be ironed out, but he expressed confidence that America has “all the cards” in subsequent talks. Vance told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to be involved in those upcoming discussions — as well as its parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a hard-liner whose participation could signal that the regime’s conservative faction is on board with the deal.The agreement reached Sunday would extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire for 60 days and set up a framework for future negotiations about Tehran’s nuclear program and other key issues. The text of the preliminary deal has not been released.   A senior U.S. official told reporters later Monday that President Donald Trump, Vance and Ghalibaf have already signed the deal in the form of a memorandum of understanding. An official signing ceremony is set for Friday in Geneva. The details of the agreement will be made public within 24 to 48 hours, another U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss deal terms that haven’t been made public. But Trump, after traveling to France for the annual G7 summit, said he expected the MOU text to come out “sometime after Friday.” Vance told CNBC on Monday morning that the deal’s two major prongs are reopening the Strait of Hormuz and clinching a long-term commitment that Iran will never develop a nuclear weapon. Trump has repeatedly stated that the war was started in order to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuke. Vance indicated that if Iran abides by the deal’s commitments, it will be rewarded with loosened economic sanctions or other barriers, allowing Tehran “to be reinvited into the world economy.” “I think it’s a great day for the American people,” said Vance, who has been involved in negotiations with Iran throughout the war that began Feb. 28. Iranian state media on Monday reported that Araghchi said a meeting will “probably” take place on Friday in Switzerland, where the two sides will officially sign the MoU and hold the first round of negotiations. The vice president told CNBC earlier Monday morning that despite the deal’s 60-day timer, “our expectation is that the strait is going to be opened in a toll-free way for the long term.” “That’s the sort of thing that we’re going to figure out in these technical negotiations,” he said. “There are a lot of very important details to figure out that we’re actually going to sit at the table and discuss together and figure out a path forward on these details,” Vance said. Those to-be-determined details aren’t limited to the strait. Vance said that while Iran has “committed to destroy and dispose of their stockpile of highly enriched material,” the process for doing so has not been established. “And what we’ve said is, ‘OK, let’s talk about how exactly we’re going to do that,’” he said. “They want access to an unsanctioned economy. We’ve talked about, ‘OK, we’re open to that,’ but that would require a long-term commitment to the inspection and verification regime” imposed under the deal, he went on. “So, a lot of these details are going to be figured out during those 60-day talks,” he said.

Araghchi Says Nuclear Talks With US To Begin After MOU Signing Ceremony in Geneva on Friday - Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday said that talks with the US on Iran’s nuclear program and the lifting of US sanctions on the Islamic Republic will begin in Switzerland on Friday after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) meant to end the conflict in the region.US officials said on Monday that the MOU has been signed “digitally,” but it will be formalized this Friday during a ceremony in Geneva that will be hosted by Pakistan, which served as a mediator between the two sides.“On Friday, a meeting between the heads of the delegations of the two sides is likely to take place in Switzerland, and an MOU between Iran and the US will be signed, followed by the first round of subsequent negotiations,” Araghchi said, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.The formal signing of the MOU will begin a 60-day period of negotiations, which can be extended. Araghchi said that Iran is going into the talks with caution due to the US history regarding agreements with Iran.“We have a history of broken promises, non-compliance, and the tearing up of agreements,” the Iranian diplomat said. Iran had been bombed twice, in June 2025 at the start of the 12-Day War, and on February 28 of this year by the US and Israel, while engaged in negotiations with the US.Araghchi, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and US Vice President JD Vance are expected to attend the ceremony in Geneva, though the delegations haven’t yet been confirmed by either side.The main obstacle to sealing the MOU and starting the negotiations appears to be Israel, as it refused to withdraw from southern Lebanon and continued attacks there on Monday, despite an end to the Israeli war in the country being included as part of the agreement.

Iran’s army: Any violation of MoU will be met with swift response -- As Iran advances the implementation of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) reached with the United States, the Islamic Republic’s armed forces have reaffirmed their commitment to national security and regional deterrence, promising to maintain and even enhance their high level of readiness throughout the process. Iran’s army spokesperson General Mohammad Akrami-Nia said on Monday evening that the country will “maintain the level of readiness of the armed forces more than ever before” as the agreement is put into effect. “We will increase our defence capabilities during the agreement period,” the spokesperson said. “If the enemy violates the agreement or memorandum of understanding, we will quickly and forcefully return the military situation in the region to the conditions before the agreement,” he added. The spokesperson further emphasized that while Iran supports any understanding or agreement that protects the rights and interests of the Iranian people, the fulfillment of commitments by the other side requires continuous vigilance and power. “We have full readiness; if the enemy breaches the provisions... we will swiftly and powerfully return the regional military situation to the pre-agreement conditions and make the enemy regret its action once again,” he noted, adding that repeated violations would result in even greater defeat, regret, and humiliation for the aggressors. This came after the secretariat of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) early on Monday confirmed that Tehran and Washington have finalized the text of an MoU on ending the imposed war, bringing an immediate and permanent halt to US-Israeli hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, and terminating the US naval blockade against Iran.

Israel is alarmed by Trump’s deal with Iran —President Trump’s deal to wind down the war with Iran set off alarm bells in Israel, where top officials are wrestling with the consequences of easing the pressure on Tehran and the risks of opening a rift with the U.S. over the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.The tension has been heightened by the lack of certainty about what exactly Trump has agreed to in the deal, which is expected to be signed later this week.. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was urgently trying to set up a meeting with the president to sort out the competing issues, a person familiar with the matter said. An Israeli strike on Beirut over the weekend in response to Hezbollah attacks on Israel almost derailed the agreement and set off a last-minute scramble by the White House and mediators to keep the deal on track. Trump criticized the strike in an interview with The Wall Street Journal and said on social media that Israel had to stop its attacks across Lebanon. That was at odds with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement earlier in June that only required Israel to end the fighting if Hezbollah also stopped. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the U.S. was on the hook to end Israel’s attacks and aggression in Lebanon, state media reported. Defying those claims, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military would hold its so-called security zone in Lebanon indefinitely, saying it was needed to protect communities in northern Israel. He also said Israel would act independently to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons if necessary. At a news conference Monday, Netanyahu declined to criticize the emerging U.S.-Iran deal and said his country’s war aims in Iran had largely been achieved. He said Iran’s war-production capacity had been damaged, its economy was in tatters, and its nuclear program set back. “People ask what we have achieved, and the answer is: we have pushed away the immediate threat of annihilation,” Netanyahu said. “The struggle is not over and done. We will need to continue to stand guard and defend ourselves as necessary.” Privately, Israeli officials are concerned that Trump has agreed to a deal that could provide Tehran with the financial relief it needs to rebuild its economy but doesn’t include a commitment to turn over its enriched uranium. It is a harsh comedown from Israeli hopes that the war would bring fundamental change to the region by toppling or crippling the Iranian regime and paving the way to diplomatic relations with more of Israel’s Arab regional counterparts under an American security umbrella, said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington. “If Iran receives sanctions relief of billions of dollars in assets, it will rebuild its military capabilities and proxies, and the blow to U.S. prestige in the region will be immense if not irreversible,” Oren said.

Trump, Netanyahu tensions reach new high, complicating Iran deal - Tensions have never been higher between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to end the war they started together, threatening the viability of a U.S.-Iran peace deal signed over the weekend. Trump is claiming victory in cutting off the Islamic Republic’s pathway to a nuclear weapon, while the deal also reopens the Strait of Hormuz, eventually letting oil and gas flow unhindered to the global market. But Netanyahu is facing major backlash in Israel, with critics across the political spectrum arguing the reported terms of the deal are too weak in reining in threats from Iran — not only regarding its nuclear program but its ballistic missile capability and its support for terrorist proxies. And Netanyahu has defied Trump’s demands to halt retaliatory attacks against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon, risking Iran’s pullout from talks. Trump cursed Netanyahu publicly over the weekend, claiming that Israel nearly collapsed the deal with Iran because of fighting with Hezbollah. Hours later, Trump announced that the memorandum of understanding was signed with Iran. “Why did Bibi have to do a f‑‑‑ing attack? I was so pissed off. I let him know. He has no f‑‑‑ing judgment. I let him know that,” Trump told Axios, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname. The tensions between Trump and Netanyahu are unlikely to lead to a major rupture in the U.S. and Israel relationship, said Daniel Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration. Trump is not willing to risk damaging U.S. and Israeli military and intelligence cooperation that is fundamental for American national security. But “there’s a real divergence of interests” on the way forward with Iran and Lebanon, said Shapiro, now a distinguished fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative. “Trump wants the war to end because he sees the global economic chaos that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused, and he’s not making progress on any of the other goals that were originally mentioned when the war was launched,” he added. Over 100 days of war, Iran’s surviving clerics have withstood the U.S. and Israeli military pressure, preserved the regime, demonstrated their ability to close the Strait of Hormuz, and used their stockpiles of drones and missiles to hit back at Israel and U.S. allies across the Persian Gulf region. Iran has also done major damage to U.S. bases in the Middle East and killed 13 American soldiers. Trump is under immense pressure to resolve the global energy crisis, which is also driving up gas prices in the U.S. But Israel, largely shielded from those energy shocks, is more concerned about threats from Iran’s missile and drone capabilities and its funding of terrorist proxies. “Most of the rest of the world wants the war to end. Most Americans want the war to end,” Shapiro said. “Netanyahu wants the war to continue because he wants to do more damage to the regime and its nuclear and missile programs, and so there’s a real divergence of interests.” Israelis head to national elections in October, and Netanyahu’s political foes — and even some coalition partners — are feasting on his spat with Trump, concerns over the deal with Iran and any limits on striking Hezbollah. “Trump’s agreement does not bind us. Israel is not subject to the United States, and we are an independent and sovereign nation!” Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security and head of the far-right political party Otzma Yehudit, posted on social platform X. On the other side, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized Netanyahu for alienating the U.S. and framed Iran as reaping benefits in the deal — the exact terms of which are not yet public. “Netanyahu promised us a historic victory — and we got a crisis with the Americans, Hormuz open to the Iranians, money for the Revolutionary Guards, ballistic missiles aimed at Israel, and Israel waiting in the corridor like a scolded child,” he posted on X. Israelis are souring further on Netanyahu’s leadership, with a recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute showing 61 percent of Israelis think the prime minister should not run in the upcoming elections.

Trump Suggests Syria Should 'Take Care' of Hezbollah in Lebanon -  The Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters on Tuesday called for Israel to halt its continued attacks in Lebanon, warning there would be a “harsh response” if it doesn’t.The headquarters said in a statement that Israel has violated the ceasefire deal between the US and Iran, which calls for an end to Israel’s war in Lebanon, 84 times over the past two days, and that Israel had been continuing “crimes and the killing of the oppressed people of Lebanon.” “If the child-killing army of the Zionist regime does not end its evil acts in southern Lebanon, it must await a harsh response from the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Iranian military command added.While there’s been a decline in Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon since Sunday, they haven’t stopped, and at least four people were killed by Israeli drone strikes in the country on Tuesday.Also on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that continued Israeli attacks and Israel’s continued occupation constitute a violation of the Memorandum of Understanding between Washington and Tehran, which is scheduled to be formally signed in Geneva this Friday.“The end of the war includes the end of occupation. Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories they occupied during this war, the war will have not been fully brought to an end,” Araghchi said.Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have vowed that Israel won’t withdraw from southern Lebanon, and a senior Trump administration official speaking with reporters on Monday appeared to back the Israeli position, saying an Israeli withdrawal wasn’t a condition of the deal.

Pezeshkian: Israeli anger over MoU with US ‘clear sign’ of Iran’s victory - President Masoud Pezeshkian says Israel’s anger over a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Iran and the United States clearly signals the success and victory of the Iranian nation. Pezeshkian made the remark in an address to a nationwide conference on Monday, a day after Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) announced the finalization of the text of an MoU between Tehran and Washington aimed at ending the war. The MoU is expected to bring an immediate and permanent halt to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and end the US naval blockade against Iran. It is scheduled to be officially signed in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 19. "The concern and anger of the Zionist regime (Israel) over this process is a clear sign of the success and victory of the Iranian nation. With divine grace, this path will continue with strength,” he said. The president commended great efforts made by the members of the Iranian negotiating team including, top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and said the diplomatic breakthrough represents a major achievement for the Islamic Republic. He said the diplomatic success was the result of exemplary cohesion, empathy, and coordination among the three branches of the government and the armed forces. Pezeshkian added that the full implementation of the agreement and the opposite side’s adherence to its commitments could pave the way for “resolving many regional problems and create a new situation on the international arena.” He reiterated the negotiating team’s full obedience to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, saying the negotiators will not deviate under any circumstances from the frameworks and policies set by the Leader. "All actions will be carried out within the framework of national interests and the red lines drawn by the Islamic establishment." The president said the Leader’s guidelines and support played a decisive role in achieving the diplomatic success. "Without the Leader’s directives and backing, it would not be possible to achieve such an accomplishment.” He said the Iranian people, government and all the relevant bodies are duty-bound to strengthen the country in various fields through solidarity and cooperation and to accelerate the path of growth and progress. "As long as we stand together, no power will be able to harm or cripple the country," Pezeshkian said. The enemy, he added, had assumed that any military action against Iran would distance the people from the country but the Iranian nation defended the Islamic Revolution, Islamic establishment and their country through their epic and rare display of support. “These people deserve the highest level of gratitude, and officials must serve them with honesty and sincerity," he said.

Iranians greet deal to end war with relief, suspicion and uncertainty -- Iranians have reacted with relief, suspicion and uncertainty after US President Donald Trump announced a deal to end the months-long US-Israeli war on Iran. "Has it really ended? I can’t believe it," Sepideh, a 32-year-old Tehran resident, told Middle East Eye on Monday. "Thank God. I still can't believe it's over. I just hope everything goes back to normal. We were exhausted. I'm so, so happy." Sepideh, who sells handmade jewellery online, said the past few months had left her business hanging by a thread. Like many small business owners in Iran, she watched sales collapse as conflict, uncertainty and internet disruptions reshaped daily life. "Most of my sales came through Instagram," she said. "When the internet was cut off, everything was frozen. Besides that, nobody was in the mood to buy things like jewellery." Now, with Iran and the US reaching a preliminary understanding after weeks of conflict and diplomatic contacts, Sepideh says she is allowing herself to think about the future again. She hopes the agreement survives and eventually leads to a broader deal that could improve economic conditions and allow her small business to grow. Across Iran, reactions to the announcement have ranged from excitement and relief to anger, distrust and deep scepticism. While many people say they are simply happy to see a pause in the cycle of military escalation, others doubt the agreement will last. Some believe it represents a dangerous concession. Others see it as the only realistic alternative to another war. For Darya, a 28-year-old from the northern city of Sari, the agreement could affect a life-changing decision. She has been accepted to a university in France and has spent months waiting to complete her visa process. Now she believes there is finally a chance that things will move forward. "It feels like a miracle," she told MEE. "I know almost nothing about politics, but for months all I did was follow the news." The uncertainty took a heavy toll on her. She said she was particularly alarmed by Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Sunday, fearing they could derail the diplomatic process. "I was sure [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu was trying to sabotage everything," she said. "When I heard about the new Israeli attacks on Lebanon, I thought it was over. I thought we were back to square one. Iran would respond, then Israel would respond again, and eventually the United States would get involved." Despite welcoming the agreement, Darya still plans to leave Iran, at least temporarily. "Yes, I want things to improve in Iran," she said. "I want sanctions to be lifted. Most of our problems come from sanctions. If sanctions are removed, jobs, businesses and the economy will improve too." She said she still wants the experience of studying abroad and living in Europe. But she hopes that by the time she finishes her studies, Iran will be in a much better position than it is today. Not everyone shares her optimism. Mohammad, 43, says the announcement has done little to convince him that a lasting agreement is within reach. "Just look at how long it took them to reach this small understanding, which is really more of a ceasefire extension than anything else," he said. "During that time, the United States attacked, Israel attacked and Iran attacked. "All of that makes it difficult for me to be optimistic," he continued. "People want to believe all their problems are over, but I don't think Iran and the United States will be able to reach an agreement on difficult issues like the nuclear programme and sanctions relief." The announcement has also produced frustration among some opponents of the Islamic Republic who had hoped external pressure would eventually lead to political change inside Iran. Among them is Amir, a 19-year-old from Karaj. "We were fooled," he told MEE. "We were lied to. Reza Pahlavi said he was on his way to Tehran. Trump said help was coming soon. Netanyahu said he would change the situation in Iran. Was this the help Trump promised? To make a deal with the clerics?" Amir said the agreement has left him feeling more hopeless than before. "I could not have imagined worse news," he said. "Once the agreement is in place and the Islamic Republic no longer worries about war, it will turn its attention back to the people. More repression will follow." His frustration reflects a broader disappointment among some opposition activists who believed the recent conflict could fundamentally weaken the Iranian system. Instead, they now find themselves watching Tehran and Washington return to negotiations. The strongest criticism, however, has come from some hardline supporters of the Islamic Republic. Over recent weeks, opposition to negotiations had become increasingly visible at rallies and public gatherings organised by conservative groups. Some participants openly described the negotiators as traitors. Emad, a 38-year-old from Tehran, is one of them. "God curse Araghchi and Ghalibaf for throwing us into another trap like the nuclear deal," he said. “Only 10 years have passed since the disgraceful agreement between Rouhani and Obama. How can people fall for this again? Especially when the other side is led by the man responsible for killing our leader." Emad remains deeply pessimistic about the negotiations and believes another confrontation is likely. "Look at the timing," he said. "Why two months from now? Because Trump wanted peace of mind during the World Cup. After that, he will come back for us. And under what conditions? We reopened the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices returned to normal, and the United States and Israel have had time to update their plans for another attack on Iran." Still grieving the death of Ali Khamenei, Emad said he sees the entire diplomatic process as a coordinated effort between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Do you really believe Netanyahu drinks a glass of water without American approval?" he asked. "This whole good cop, bad cop act was designed to fool us into thinking Israel opposed the agreement." He argued that Israeli leaders are actually among the biggest beneficiaries of the understanding reached between Tehran and Washington because, in his view, they knew another war would be difficult to sustain. "They knew they could not continue resisting Iran and the groups that make up the Axis of Resistance forever," he said. Others argue that it is simply too early to reach any conclusions. Maryam, a 59-year-old political science graduate, said public reactions have become overly emotional on both sides. "When you read the commitments made by both sides, you realise we have basically returned to where we were before the 40-day war," she said. "But was it really necessary for so many innocent civilians to die? Did schools, universities and hospitals need to be destroyed just so the Strait of Hormuz could return to normal and the American military could end its siege of Iran?" For Maryam, the agreement raises broader questions about the role of Israel in shaping US policy towards Iran. "I remember reading a book years ago by Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer about the influence of the Israel lobby on American foreign policy,” she said. “Nothing has illustrated the arguments in that book more clearly than what we have seen in Gaza and in the two wars fought by the United States and Israel against Iran." That belief also makes her sceptical about the future of negotiations. "Israel, Aipac and pro-Israel lobbying groups will not allow a final agreement between Iran and the United States unless the Islamic Republic changes its approach towards Israel," she said. For now, that outcome appears unlikely. In the meantime, many Iranians are simply trying to process what has happened. Some see a chance for economic recovery. Others expect disappointment. Some fear another war is only being postponed. For Sepideh, however, the politics can wait. After months of uncertainty, she said she is focused on something much simpler. "I just want life to feel normal again."

Iran says talks with US to start right after signing of MoU in Switzerland - Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the first round of negotiations with the United States aimed at resolving outstanding disputes between the two countries will take place immediately after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Switzerland later this week, which permanently ends the US-Israeli aggression against Iran. “On Friday, a meeting between the heads of the delegations of the two sides is likely to take place in Switzerland, and a MoU between Iran and the US will be signed, followed by the first round of subsequent negotiations,” Araghchi said on Monday. The minister made the remarks after a meeting with members of the Economic Committee of the Iranian parliament, where he discussed the potential economic benefits of the MoU signed with the US. Araghchi said the MoU, which was virtually signed on Sunday, would create economic benefits for Iran although he insisted the country would not rely on those benefits for all of its needs. He said discussions about the lifting of US sanctions on Iran and the country’s nuclear program will be held during the 60-day period of negotiations, which he said could be extended. The top diplomat warned, however, that Iran would pursue the talks with the US with mistrust and caution because of Washington’s history of breaking its promises in previous rounds of negotiations. “We have a history of broken promises, non-compliance, and the tearing up of agreements,” said Araghchi. He said the MoU signed late on Sunday sets obligations for both Iran and the US, some of which will be implemented from Monday and the rest after the final and actual signing of the agreement on Friday.

Vance: Iran ‘could have access to’ $300B reconstruction fund --Vice President Vance on Monday said Iran could have access to a $300 billion reconstruction fund under its peace agreement with the U.S. if Tehran upholds its obligations outlined in the deal. When asked about the fund by CBS News’s Ed O’Keefe during a Monday morning interview, Vance said, “Well, Ed, that’s the sort of thing they could have access to, funded by the Gulf Coast Coalition, so long as they honor their end of the obligation.”“I think that one of the things you’re going to see, Ed — and people have to be skeptical of this — is that the hard-liners in the Iranian system will overemphasize the benefits that Iran gets, while underemphasizing all the things that they have to concede, and all the things they have to provide, in order to get these benefits,” the vice president added.  Conditions of the peace agreement have not been released, but details on the memorandum will be issued Tuesday or Wednesday, according to senior U.S. officials.The Trump administration also said it would publish the full text of the agreement on Friday, touting concessions made by its counterparts overseas.  Vance told O’Keefe that Iran agreed to turn over its stockpile of enriched uranium, allow routine inspections of its facilities, and not pursue the creation or purchase of a nuclear weapon.   Former President Obama, who reached a nuclear agreement with Iran in 2015 that President Trump later exited, said he’s “doubtful” that the new deal is “significantly different” than the prior terms Tehran agreed to uphold. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) shared concerns about the deal, noting that “Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming.”U.S. officials have said Iran agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz permanently without tolls, while Tehran said the agreement is to allow free passage for the next 60 days during another period of negotiations led by Vance. When asked about the confusion during a Monday appearance on CNBC, Vance said “Well, our expectation is that the strait is gonna be opened in a toll-free way for the long term, and that’s the sort of thing that we’re gonna figure out in these technical negotiations.”He later added, “You know that there are a lot of very important details to figure out, that we’re actually gonna sit at the table and discuss together and figure out a path forward on these details.”

Trump says $300B fund to rebuild Iran is 'Fake News'  -- President Trump on Monday sought to cast doubt on Iran getting $300 billion in reconstruction funding as part of a peace agreement with the U.S. if the Middle East country upholds its obligations.“Iran has agreed to never have a Nuclear Weapon! Also, the story that the U.S. is paying Iran 300 million Dollars is Fake News, put out by the Dumocrats!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, concluding the post with “President DJT.” Trump’s rebuke comes after a U.S. official told reporters earlier Monday, “We discussed the possibility of releasing frozen funds, sanctions relief, you know, a big $300 billion fund to rebuild their country, and all of these things are going to be tied to performance.” Vice President Vance appeared to confirm the possibility in an interview with CBS News on Monday morning. When asked about the potential $300 billion to rebuild Iran, the vice president said, “that’s the sort of thing they could have access to, funded by the Gulf Coast Coalition, so long as they honor their end of the obligation.” Vance is likely referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council, which consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Aram Emirates.The New York Times previously reported the agreement included a provision for a $300 billion reconstruction investment fund for Iran, citing information from an Iranian official and a diplomat.But senior U.S. officials also told reporters Monday that the memorandum of understanding (MOU), signed digitally over the weekend, is only the first step and that “real technical discussions” will begin later this week and be led by Vance.Before the MOU was signed over the weekend, the vice president said Tehran would not be “receiving any cash” under the agreement with the U.S.“First, the Iranians are not receiving any cash, and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting,” Vance wrote on the social platform X. “The deal is structured to ensure that the US and its allies concerns are prioritized, and that if the Islamic Republic of Iran meets its obligations, then economic benefits will flow to them and to the entire region.”

Trump signals he could send details of Iran deal to Congress - President Donald Trump on Tuesday signaled that he’s open to sending details of the agreement with Iran to members of Congress, as lawmakers from both parties are raising questions, asking to see the accord and saying they should vote on any final deal. Arriving at a bilateral meeting in France with United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Trump said he wouldn’t mind sending the memorandum of understanding to Congress for review. He did not indicate when Congress might receive the details. The framework was announced and signed digitally on Sunday and could bring an end to the hostilities between the U.S. and Iran that began in February. “What I would like to do is send it to Congress and say ‘you shouldn’t approve it.’ And they will approve it,” Trump said, apparently joking. He is in Évian-les-Bains, France, for the 2026 G7 summit. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said at a press conference Tuesday he hadn’t been briefed on the agreement. “I certainly have not yet, although we are requesting that, and I assume we at some point will hear from the administration with greater specificity about what’s in that memorandum,” Thune said. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the Senate floor Tuesday for congressional briefings and more information to be shared with the public. “Americans need to know what Trump has promised to Iran and what the United States will get out of it,” Schumer said. The preliminary deal would extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire for 60 days and create a framework for future negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program and other issues. The text of the agreement has not been released, though Trump has said he would unveil details on Friday. The news of a deal received lukewarm reactions on Capitol Hill this week, including from some key Trump allies. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he was “pleased” about a deal to potentially open the Strait of Hormuz, which was effectively shut down this spring amid the conflict, disrupting international supply chains and sending gas prices soaring. But he said Congress should have an opportunity to weigh in. “I am somewhat concerned that Iran’s view of the agreement seems different than what the American negotiating team is claiming,” Graham wrote in a post to X on Sunday. “Under our law, any nuclear deal with Iran will be sent to Congress for review and a vote. I look forward to reviewing the final product and I believe it is imperative that the architect of the deal, Vice President [JD] Vance and his negotiating partners, be part of the process in presenting the final deal to Congress.” Asked Tuesday about Graham’s comments, Trump said: “I have to talk to Lindsay. He will be in big trouble.” But Graham was not alone in his skepticism. “I mean, from what I’ve heard about it, it sounds like it’s just a deal to try to reach a deal, and the only immediate impact will be opening up the strait,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters on the Hill on Tuesday. Sens. John Curtis, R-Utah, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., both said Congress should not only review, but also sign off on any deal. “I think it makes more sense because I’ve said repeatedly [President Barack] Obama made a mistake when he didn’t do the work to have it rise to a level of a treaty, and I believe we should here,” Tillis said, referring to Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was not formally codified by Congress. “Otherwise, it’s only good for 2½ years. How does [the] market price in any certainty with the uncertainty of the next president accepting the JCPOA in the same way that this president rejected the JCPOA?” said Tillis, who is retiring at the end of this Congress. Others questioned some of the rumored provisions in the deal they haven’t seen, including a $300 billion Iran reconstruction fund that Vance and other senior administration officials have said is possible and the release of frozen Iranian assets. Vance, however, said reports that Iran could receive up to $24 billion in frozen assets are false. And Trump on Monday posted to TruthSocial that any claims of the U.S. paying Iran $300 billion to rebuild were “Fake News, put out by the Dumocrats!!!” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he was concerned the deal could contain too many concessions to the Iran. “I think this peace agreement could well be a surrender in effect,” Blumenthal said. “And the president is very reluctant to make it public. He wants to keep it secret as long as possible, so that he can frame perceptions and potentially deceive people about what’s in it.”

Senate Fails To Advance Iran War Powers Resolution - The Senate on Tuesday failed to advance a War Powers Resolution that would direct President Trump to end hostilities against Iran that haven’t been authorized by Congress and prevent the president from restarting the full-scale war against the Islamic Republic. A motion to discharge the resolution out of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee failed on a 47-48 vote, with four Republicans joining most Democrats in supporting the bill. Sen. Jon Fetterman (PA) was the only Democrat to oppose the effort, and he also voted against all eight previous efforts to advance the legislation.The Republicans who voted in favor of the bill include Senators Rand Paul (KY), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Susan Collins (ME), and Bill Cassidy (LA), who all voted in support of a previous procedural step to advance a War Powers Resolution, which passed the Senate in a vote of 50-47.In both votes, if all senators had been present, it would likely have been a 50-50 tie, which could have been broken by Vice President JD Vance, who previously cast a tie-breaking vote to kill a Venezuela War Powers Resolution.The War Powers Resolution that failed in the Senate on Tuesday was a joint resolution, meaning it could be vetoed by President Trump. But a War Powers Resolution that has passed the House is a concurrent resolution, which cannot be vetoed, and is the specific type of legislation Congress is meant to use under the 1973 War Powers Act to reassert the Constitution, which gives Congress, not the Executive, the authority to declare war.Section 5(c) of the 1973 War Powers Act states that “at any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution.”It’s unclear when the Senate might take up the House’s concurrent resolution, as the US and Iran announced they had reached a Memorandum of Understanding to end the conflict, which will be formally signed on Friday, though it’s unclear whether the agreement will hold.

Trump says ‘no rush’ on destroying uranium, Vance denies U.S. will send funds to Iran --What to know about the Iran war today:

• President Trump said Wednesday that the U.S.-Iran agreement is not a final deal, and he warned that the U.S. could resume bombing Iran "if they don't behave."
• Israel has continued carrying out limited strikes in Lebanon since Mr. Trump announced the agreement with Iran. Tehran has said that if Israel keeps troops in Lebanon and continues attacks in the country, it would be considered a violation of the agreement with Washington.
• Iranian tankers are crossing the U.S. naval blockade line, adding to confusion for shippers after Mr. Trump said the blockade would only lift after the memorandum of understanding with Tehran is signed on Friday. Shipping firms say clarity and security guarantees are needed before normal operations can resume.

President Trump said on Wednesday the memorandum of understanding is not final and that he would resume fighting if Iran doesn't "behave."Speaking to reporters in France at the G7 meeting, Mr. Trump said: "If ⁠I don't like it, we'll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head. If I don't like it, ⁠if they don't behave, we'll go right back to dropping bombs right ‌smack in the middle of their head."The president also said the deal does not include immediate sanctions relief for Iran, adding that he would clarify this matter at a later date. Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday on "CBS Mornings" that the text of the U.S.-Iran deal would be released Friday "at the latest," adding that the White House is pushing to release it sooner. Vance said Qatari and Pakistani negotiators, who helped mediate the agreement, "asked us not to release the full text for a little while." "We're actually trying to push them to get it out today, because we want to tell the American people what's in this deal," Vance said. The vice president called it "a good deal for the American people," and said he had seen it being misrepresented. Vance said the agreement would reopen the Strait of Hormuz "immediately" and provide a framework "whereby if the Iranians give us what we need on stopping the funding of terrorism, on no longer pursuing a nuclear weapon, then they can get some benefits, be reinvited into the world economy." "When I say benefits, I'm talking about sanctions relief on their economy," he said. "We've destroyed their nuclear program, but one of the things the president is trying to do is give them the incentive not to try to rebuild that program for the long haul." Pressed on whether the deal includes reconstruction financing of at least $300 billion for Iran, along with the release of all of Iran's frozen financial assets, as some reports have claimed, Vance said "none of those things flow to Iran unless Iran fundamentally changes how it behaves with the world." "What the president is really saying is, if Iran fundamentally transforms how it deals with the United States and the region, the rest of the world, then Iran can get some economic benefits," said the vice president.

Iran to define Hormuz future with Oman, Gulf states: U.S. officials -Iran and Oman will define how the Strait of Hormuz is administered in discussion with other Persian Gulf states under the agreement to end the war in the Middle East, senior U.S. officials told reporters Wednesday.Tehran and Washington are expected to formally sign a memorandum of understanding to end the war on Friday in Geneva. The U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the terms that hadn’t been made public, read the contents of the MOU to reporters on a conference call.Under the MOU, Tehran will allow the safe passage of commercial ships without tolls for 60 days only. Iran will then “conduct dialog” with Oman “to define the future administration and maritime services” in Hormuz in discussion with the other Gulf states, according to the agreement.President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that the strait be un-tolled after the war ends. There were no tolls imposed by Iran or any other entity before Trump began the war.The discussions on to how administer Hormuz should be “in line with the applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz,” according to the MOU.A senior U.S. official acknowledged that the Iranians will likely “assert their rights as aggressively as they can” in the regional discussions on how to administer Hormuz. But the official said the other Gulf states “will never agree to an arrangement that doesn’t permit toll-free access.”The U.S., meanwhile, will begin to lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports immediately after signing the MOU and will completely end the blockade within 30 days, an official said.Ships transited Hormuz freely without any fees or conditions before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. But Tehran has sought to impose its control over strait since the war began.Traffic through Hormuz has changed little since the U.S. and Iran announced they reached a deal on Sunday. Six tankers were among 13 commercial ships that transited Hormuz on Tuesday, according to data shared by Kpler. More than 100 vessels sailed through the strait daily before the war.The Joint Maritime Information Center on Tuesday downgraded the threat level to ships crossing Hormuz to “substantial” from “severe” previously. It warned shippers still face a strong possibility of attack, but the behavior of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard “has become less volatile.”The center is a maritime security organization led by the U.S. and headquartered in Bahrain that coordinates among allied navies and merchant ships in the Middle East.Here is the full memorandum of understanding as read by a U.S. official:

Trump takes 'least bad option': Ambassador weighs in on U.S.-Iran deal - CNBC video  William Roebuck, Executive Vice President at Arab Gulf States Institute and former US Ambassador to Bahrain, weighs in on the US-Iran peace deal signing set for Friday - and evaluates Trump to begin it in the first place. He also says an escalation in Lebanon might be a potential stumbling block, but he believes this would not entirely derail the deal signing.

Trump says U.S. will resume 'dropping bombs' if he doesn't like Iran deal - President Donald Trump said Wednesday at the G7 conference that the U.S. will “go right back to dropping bombs” if he doesn’t like the Iran deal. Trump said that the proposed agreement to bring the Middle East conflict to an end, which is set to be formalized at a signing ceremony in Geneva on Friday, is “not final.” “It’s a memorandum of understanding, and if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their heads. I don’t like it if they don’t behave. We’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head,” the president said at the summit in Évian-les-Bains, France. The signing of the memorandum of understanding would extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire for 60 days and set up a framework for future negotiations about Tehran’s nuclear program and other key issues. At least three Iranian oil tankers passed through the U.S. Navy blockade in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday — the first such outbound shipment in two months — further signaling a potential breakthrough. On Monday, Vice President JD Vance told CNBC that “a lot” of details remain to be ironed out, but he expressed confidence that America has “all the cards” in subsequent talks.

Live updates: Trump says U.S.-Iran deal "not final," threatens to resume bombing "if they don't behave"

• While attending the G7 summit in France, President Donald Trump today slammed Israel’s handling of its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, citing deaths caused by Israeli strikes. He suggested Syria should “take care of” the militant group.
• CIA Director John Ratcliffe and acting national security adviser Marco Rubio told Trump and other top administration officials that, based on intelligence collected by U.S. agencies, they doubted Iran would agree to the nuclear steps Washington sought in the agreement, a U.S. official with knowledge of the matter told MS NOW.
• Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance today pushed back on the idea that the U.S. would send payments to Iran as part of the preliminary peace agreement between the two countries. At the G7 summit, Trump called the idea of investments a “ridiculous” rumor but said the U.S. has the right to do so.

While Israeli leaders and Trump continue to offer conflicting views on Lebanon’s role in the memorandum of understanding, the country’s death toll in the war continues to rise.According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, the number of people killed has risen to 3,783 while the number of wounded has grown to 11,699.The figure continued to climb despite a ceasefire extension reached with Israel last week.U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Israel’s war against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah is not part of the agreement, while Israeli leaders have doubled down on their intention to maintain a military presence in southern parts of the country. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Monday press conference vowed to remain in “security zones” in southern Lebanon, despite announcement of the MOU.Iranian officials, meanwhile, have underscored that Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon is a red line in a peace deal.Lebanon was drawn into the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran after Hezbollah launched attacks against Israel in March in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Trump Says Iran 'Has To Have Some' Ballistic Missiles -President Trump said on Wednesday that Iran has to be able to have “some” ballistic missiles when discussing future negotiations for the potential US-Iran deal. The president told reporters that after the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding is signed, the US will work with its Gulf allies on “non-nuclear” issues, including ballistic missiles. “I mean, they have to have some because other people have some, you gotta have some,” the president said at the G7 summit in France. Iran’s ballistic missile program was frequently cited by senior US officials as one of the reasons why the US launched the war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was standing alongside Trump at the G7 summit, told reporters in the first days of the bombing campaign that one purpose was to “destroy Iran’s missile capability,” something Trump also vowed to do when announcing the first wave of airstrikes. “We’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated,” Trump said on February 28 after the first wave of US-Israeli airstrikes. But now the president appears to have realized the goal isn’t achievable as Iran’s missile capability withstood the heavy US-Israeli bombing campaign. According to recent media reports, US intelligence estimates say that Iran retains more than 70% of its missiles and missile launchers. In his remarks on Wednesday, the president appeared to make fun of his aides who were still insisting that Iran must give up its ballistic missiles. “I have guys, I like some of these guys, but I don’t think they’re smart. ‘Sir, you shouldn’t let them have any missiles.’ I say, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can’t have any? … It doesn’t work that way,” he said. When reporters later asked about the comments, Trump doubled down. “I’m saying that ⁠if other countries have ​them, it’s a little bit ​unfair for them not to have some. If ​Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and ​they all have some, I would ‌say ⁠in relative proportion, I think it’s okay,” he said. The idea of Iran giving up its ballistic missile program as part of a deal with the US is a long-standing Israeli demand meant to sabotage the chances of a deal, since Tehran’s missiles and drones are its only way to strike back at the US and Israel. Any efforts to impose limits or restrictions on Iran’s missiles would almost certainly fail since they are now Iran’s primary deterrent to more US and Israeli attacks.

Trump and Iran's Pezeshkian Sign US-Iran MoU - President Trump signed the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran while in France on Wednesday night, and Iran confirmed that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had also signed the agreement.  Esmaeil Baghaei, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said there will no longer be a formal signing ceremony in Geneva, which was initially scheduled for Friday. He said that the agreement is now officially in effect, which should mean an end to the US blockade of Iran and an increase in the number of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz in the coming days and weeks. The US and Iran are also set to begin nuclear negotiations for a period of at least 60 days. Baghaei stressed that the MoU includes an end to Israel’s war in Lebanon, where Israeli strikes continued on Wednesday. “For us, the ceasefire and end of war in Lebanon were as important as in Iran. In the first article of the MoU, Lebanon is mentioned three times. Respect for Lebanon’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty is included,” he said.Earlier on Wednesday, President Trump said that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Washington and Tehran was “not final” and warned the US could return to “dropping bombs” on Iran if the country “didn’t behave.”“It’s a Memorandum of Understanding. If I don’t like it, if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head, okay? Because they’ve misbehaved for 47 years,” the president told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France while meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, according to The Associated Press. Trump said the deal is a “great deal for a lot of reasons” and appeared to suggest that what has been published in the media is not the actual text by saying that “nobody knows what it is,” though later, US officials released the full MoU text, and it was very similar to what was published in Al Arabiya a day earlier.The president also acknowledged in his remarks that if the US continued the blockade on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz remained closed, it would cause a “worldwide depression.”Iranian media reported on Wednesday that since the announcement of the MoU, 11 ships have been able to “break through the US blockade,” including eight that departed Iranian ports and three that arrived in Iran. The US military issued a notice to mariners on Monday, saying the blockade was still in place and advising ships not to cross the area “until explicit direction is given.”

MoU Released by the US Says Enriched Uranium Will Be Downblended Inside Iran - -  The 14-point US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding, which US officials detailed to reporters on Wednesday, says that under the potential deal, Iran’s enriched uranium will be downblended “on site,” as the US has backed off on its demand to take it out of the country.The MoU states that the “have agreed to resolve the disposition of stockpiled enriched material pursuant to a mechanism that will be mutually agreed upon in accordance with the schedule mentioned in paragraph seven with the minimum methodology to be down-blending on site under the supervision of the [International Atomic Energy Agency].” Iran had offered to downblend its uranium enriched at the 60% level before the US launched the war, something Oman’s foreign minister, who was mediating US-Iran negotiations, told US media the day before the first US-Israeli strikes hit Iran. “There is agreement now that this will be downblended to the lowest level possible. And converted into fuel and that fuel will be irreversible. … I think we have agreement on that in my view,” Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi said on “Face the Nation” on February 27, 2026. Despite the offer being on the table before the war, Trump administration officials are selling the downblending as a “major win,” as the deal is under intense scrutiny from hawks in the US and Israel. “They’re saying: ‘We will destroy the enriched stockpile, and this is how we’re going to do it, at a minimum,” a US official told reporters on Wednesday.President Trump also signaled he was backing off on his demand for the US to obtain the enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried deep under rubble at nuclear facilities the US bombed in June 2025. “You could make the case, why even bother? It’s not very valuable stuff.” Trump said at the G7 summit on Tuesday.

Iran's Supreme Leader Says He Approved US-Iran MoU Despite Having a 'Different View' - Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that he approved the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran despite having a “different view” on the deal.Khamenei said that Iranian officials, including Masoud Pezeshkian, wanted to reach the deal “out of sincere concern and goodwill” and said that it was brought about by the “desperation” of President Trump.“I, as a matter of principle, held a different view; however, out of the commitment that the esteemed president—as the head of the Supreme National Security Council—gave to me on his own behalf and on behalf of the other members regarding the safeguarding of the rights of the Iranian nation and the Resistance Front, and his explicit acceptance of that responsibility, I granted my permission,” Khamenei said in a written statement published in English on X.  The Iranian leader said that Pezeshkian told him that “if the American side seeks to make excessive demands, they will not submit to them” and added that “in-person negotiations in the future will not mean acceptance of the enemy’s position.”Under the MoU, which was signed by Trump and Pezeshkian on Wednesday, negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program and other issues are set to begin for at least 60 days with the option to extend the negotiation period by mutual consent. The immediate effect of the MoU is that the US will end the blockade on Iranian ports and Iran will allow more traffic to transit the Strait of Hormuz.The MoU also calls for the immediate end to Israel’s war in Lebanon, which could be a major stumbling block to implementing the deal, as Israel is refusing to withdraw from southern Lebanon, and Israeli attacks have continued. Iranian officials have maintained that any deal with the US hinges on the end of the Lebanon war, and the Iranian military has warned of a “harsh response” if Israel continues its strikes and occupation.

The $300 Billion Wager: Inside The Private Fund At The Center Of The U.S.-Iran Framework - A proposed $300 billion investment fund has emerged as one of the most consequential-and politically explosive-features of the U.S.-Iran framework agreement, turning what began as a war-ending diplomatic effort into a test of whether private capital can be used as a substitute for reparations, sanctions relief and state-to-state reconstruction aid. This, of course, is the part where we 'give' Iran $300 billion - though what it actually is and does hasn't been disclosed until now. This isn't unfrozen Iranian assets, and is separate from parallel talks over sanctions relief. Read on and decide for yourself whether Reuters is simply polishing a turd. According to Reuters, the fund is not designed as a direct U.S. payment to Tehran, nor as a government-backed reparations program. It is described instead as a private investment vehicle intended to unlock large-scale capital for Iran once a final U.S.-Iran deal is signed. More than half of the $300 billion has already been committed, a source with direct knowledge of the arrangement told Reuters, with pledged financing spanning companies and investors from the United States, Gulf Arab states, Asia, South America and Africa. The fund, reportedly to be called the Reconstruction and Development Fund, would target sectors central to Iran’s postwar recovery and long-term economic reintegration: energy, logistics, manufacturing, transport and broader infrastructure. It would not become operational immediately. Instead, the current memorandum of understanding is expected to structure a 60-day negotiating period during which fund administrators, Iranian officials and prospective investors would scope projects and establish terms. That timing is crucial. The fund is not the deal itself. It is a prize held behind a series of political, nuclear and security conditions. The financial mechanism appears to have emerged from a failed demand for compensation. Reuters reported that Tehran initially sought $400 billion from Washington for war damages, a request the United States rejected. The compromise was to shift the discussion away from U.S.-paid reparations and toward a private investment structure that could be sold differently to each side. For Iran, the fund offers a path to reconstruction and economic revival after years of sanctions and months of war. For Washington, it creates a performance-based incentive without requiring Congress or U.S. taxpayers to finance Iran’s recovery. For Gulf states and multinational firms, it could create controlled access to one of the Middle East’s largest and most underdeveloped markets. That distinction-investment, not indemnity-is the political heart of the arrangement. The White House can argue that Iran is not being handed American money. Tehran can argue that it extracted a massive reconstruction pathway from a conflict it says it survived. Investors can argue that they are not subsidizing Iran’s state but positioning themselves for a potential opening of a long-isolated economy. But that structure also creates ambiguity. A private fund of this size cannot function in a vacuum. It would depend on sanctions relief, banking access, legal clarity, security guarantees and a durable political settlement. Without those, pledged capital remains theoretical.

CENTCOM Announces End of US Blockade on Iran - US Central Command announced on Thursday that the US military was lifting its blockade of Iranian ports in line with the Memorandum of Understanding signed by President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to bring an end to the conflict between the two nations.“Today, US forces lifted the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas, in accordance with the President’s direction. American forces are not impeding the transit of vessels to or from Iranian ports. All US military blockade enforcement efforts have ceased,” CENTCOM said.The command said that US forces will remain in the area, as US officials have said the blockade can be re-imposed if it deems that Iran isn’t fulfilling its commitments under the deal.“Our great Naval Ships will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to, obeyed and in full force and effect,” CENTCOM said.The US had been enforcing the blockade on Iran for over two months, which involved at least nine attacks on civilian commercial vessels, including a missile strike last week that killed three Indian mariners, an incident President Trump expressed no regret about when meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G7 summit in France on Wednesday. It’s expected to take some time for traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to return to anywhere near pre-war levels, but oil prices have been dropping since the US and Iran signed the MoU.

Netanyahu Reaffirms Israel Won't Withdraw From Lebanon Despite US-Iran MoU - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday reaffirmed his position that Israel won’t withdraw from southern Lebanon and end its war in the country despite the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding that calls for an end to the conflict. “We will restore security and prosperity to northern towns,” Netanyahu said. “That requires maintaining the security zone in southern Lebanon; it requires that we not leave there, as long as Israel’s security needs require it.” The Israeli military on Thursday also made clear it was not withdrawing from Lebanon and published a new map showing an expanded occupation zone.“The IDF is deployed in the Security Zone, ~10 km inside Lebanese territory, due to operational requirements,” the IDF said in a post on X that showed the map. “IDF soldiers will continue to remove threats and strengthen the defense of Israel’s northern residents.”An Israeli official told Reuters that Israel was holding “stubborn negotiations” with the Trump administration on maintaining its occupation of Lebanon, but so far there’s no sign that President Trump is willing to leverage US military aid to end the war.Israel Hayom reported that Netanyahu is bracing for pressure from President Trump over the war in Lebanon, but that there is currently no US demand for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the country.Iranian officials have maintained that Israel must end the war and withdraw from Lebanon as part of its deal with the US, and the Iranian military has warned of a “harsh response” if Israel continues its attacks. Israeli strikes in Lebanon haven’t stopped, and at least three people were killed on Thursday.

Report: Netanyahu Aims To Influence US-Iran Deal Through US Media Figures, Senators -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is aiming to influence the terms of the final US-Iran deal through pro-Israel “right-wing” media figures, CNN reported on Thursday, citing an Israeli official. The only media figure mentioned by name in the report was Mark Levin, a long-time radio broadcaster and Fox News host, who is extremely pro-war and pro-Israel and has been harshly critical of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding to end the conflict. Levin suggested in a post on X on Thursday that the US should pursue a different strategy to get through the midterm elections and then restart the war. Time for a change in strategy. We should consider slow walking the enemy, building up our munitions, our oil reserves, get the price of gasoline down, get through the midterms, then knock them out,” Levin said. “Instead of rushing to a deal, building up their oil industry, transferring billions to them, etc.”During the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, Trump defended Levin from criticism from other conservative commentators who opposed the war. “Mark Levin, a truly Great American Patriot, is somewhat under siege by other people with far less Intellect, Capability, and Love for our Country,” Trump said in a long post on Truth Social in March. The CNN report said that Netanyahu will also aim to lean on pro-Israel senators to influence the deal, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who maintains close contact with the Israeli leader.Graham said in a post on X on Wednesday that he supported the US signing the MoU with Iran but expressed skepticism that a final deal could be reached.“Whether or not the United States can reach an acceptable, verifiable deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program and other issues is yet to be determined, but I see little downside to trying,” Graham said.

Vance: Israeli Officials Need To Realize Trump Is the Only Head of State Still 'Sympathetic' to Israel - Vice President JD Vance said at a press briefing at the White House on Thursday that members of the Israeli government should realize that President Trump is the only head of state in the world who is still “sympathetic” to Israel. The vice president made the comments when discussing Israeli officials who have been harshly critical of the Memorandum of Understanding President Trump signed with Iran on Wednesday. “I guess my message to them would be twofold. Number one, Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world’s superpower. If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” Vance said. Vance also pointed to the fact that Israel is extremely reliant on US military support. “The other thing that I would say is that over the last three months, two-thirds of the defensive weapons that have protected your homeland have been built by American hands and paid for by American tax dollars,” he said. In an interview with The New York Times, published on Thursday, Vance specifically called out Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, both of whom have rejected the US-Iran MoU. “And I guess my response to them would be: What is your exact proposal? You’re a country of nine million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have,” Vance said. The US vice president added that the Israeli ministers should “give a little bit of credit to the United States of America, which I think has been an incredible partner for the Israeli government for a long time.” While Vance had some harsh words for Israeli officials, there’s still no sign that the Trump administration is willing to leverage military aid to Israel or threaten to cut it off to get Israel to end its war in southern Lebanon, which has continued, though at a lower intensity, since the announcement of the US-Iran MoU, which calls for a complete halt to the conflict. Iranian officials have said that the MoU hinges on ending the Lebanon was and an Israeli withdrawal from the country. “The end of the war includes the end of occupation. Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories they occupied during this war, the war will have not been fully brought to an end,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said earlier this week.

Trump hits back at critics as Iran peace deal fuels debate over U.S. concessions -- President Donald Trump on Thursday lashed out at criticism over the terms of the interim U.S.-Iran peace deal, saying those who think he hasn’t been tough enough on Tehran were either “jealous, bad people or stupid.”His comments come shortly after the U.S. and Iranian president signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire, including in Lebanon, and reopen the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.The deal sees both sides commit to further talks to reach a final agreement over the next 60 days and includes a $300 billion plan for Iran’s reconstruction as well as the removal of “all types” of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.The agreement has prompted some to conclude that the terms appear to have strengthened Tehran’s hand.“These fools, who think I haven’t been tough enough on Iran, when the Stock Market Just Hit A RECORD HIGH, and Oil prices are ‘tumbling’ down, are either jealous, bad people, or stupid,” Trump said Thursday via his Truth Social platform.The U.S. stock market recently notched a fresh record high and oil prices have fallen on news of the Iran peace deal, although they remain significantly higher than prewar levels.Iranian leaders have broadly sought to frame the agreement as a strategic victory. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian described the memorandum of understanding as an opportunity to tackle Iran’s economic and political problems, saying it could help to create “a different world” in Iran and the Middle East.“This is a historical document and a message from a powerful Iran: Peace will be realized in the shadow of mutual respect,” Pezeshkian said in a social media post, alongside images of the signed agreement.“I think it is fair to say, at least what has been given to us in terms of the 14-point plan, the language is quite favorable or heavily favorable towards Iran,” Amrita Sen, founder of Energy Aspects, told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on Thursday.“There are a lot of details that still need to be worked out. For instance, the pace at which the ships are going to be allowed, right?” Sen said, referring to language in the memorandum of understanding about the U.S. removing its naval blockade and Iran making arrangements for the safe passage of commercial vessels.Under the agreement, Iran says it will allow the safe passage of commercial ships without tolls for 60 days only. The country will then hold talks with Oman “to define the future administration and maritime services” in the Strait of Hormuz in discussion with the other Gulf states.In justifying the interim peace deal with Iran, Trump reaffirmed his view that Tehran should never be able to acquire a nuclear weapon.He did say, however, that Iran should have the right to enrich uranium, receive access to billions of dollars in frozen funds and be allowed to develop ballistic missiles. All of these issues test what has up until now been red lines for the Trump administration. Trump’s interim deal with Iran has raised questions over whether his peace agreement with Tehran was worth nearly four months of war. It also invited comparisons to former U.S. President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Tehran.Trump scrapped the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was agreed to in 2015 under the Obama administration, during his first term in office, calling it “an embarrassment” to him as a U.S. citizen. Speaking to ABC News in an interview Sunday, ahead of the new deal being announced, Obama said he was “doubtful” any agreement with Iran put forward by the Trump administration would be “significantly different” from the JCPOA.

Trump claims Iran deal is 'unconditional surrender': Axios U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that he has unlimited power and insisted the deal reached with Iran amounts to “unconditional surrender” by Tehran, in an interview with Axios. The U.S. and Iran signed the agreement on Thursday, after three and a half months of conflict that shut the Strait of Hormuz and rattled global energy markets. Trump said he negotiated the agreement to prevent the conflict from triggering a global economic depression, speaking in the interview Thursday evening stateside. The memorandum of understanding includes a 60-day negotiating period to reach a final deal, a reopening of the critical Strait of Hormuz and a framework for nuclear negotiations. Several key details remain unresolved and will be addressed in subsequent negotiations. Asked what he had learned from the war about the limits to his power, Trump said that “I haven’t learned that lesson yet. I know there are, but there are no limits.” Shipping activity through the Strait of Hormuz began picking up as the agreement took effect, with cargo ships and oil tankers resuming transit through the narrow artery. At least 18 transits were recorded during the June 17-18 period, the highest count for any comparable timeframe since the conflict started, according to maritime intelligence firm Windward. U.S. Central Command said Thursday that American forces had lifted all blockade enforcement on maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian coastal areas. “All U.S. military blockade enforcement efforts have ceased,” CENTCOM said in a social media post, adding that U.S. naval forces would remain in the general area to ensure all aspects of the agreement are followed. A White House spokesperson said U.S. Vice President JD Vance canceled a planned trip to Switzerland on Friday, where he had been expected to begin the 60-day negotiations with Iranian officials, citing logistical reasons. “The plans for the upcoming technical talks have not been finalized, and the U.S. delegation has been prepared to depart at the first available opportunity. But the logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable,” the spokesperson said. The deal has drawn criticism from lawmakers who argue Trump was not tough enough on Iran, with terms of the interim agreement falling short of what the president set out to achieve at the start of the war. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters that Trump did a “very poor job of negotiating” and said the U.S. was worse off than before the war started. “This will be regarded as one of the biggest American disasters, and it’s because Trump started this war,” Schumer said. Senator Peter Welch, D-Vt., said Iran retained leverage through its control of the Strait of Hormuz and said the conflict failed to achieve key objectives, including regime change and ending Iran’s missile and nuclear program. Welch estimated the war cost an estimated $100 billion and called the outcome “a failure.”  Trump on Thursday pushed back at the mounting criticism, saying those who think he was soft on Tehran were either “jealous, bad people or stupid.”  During the Axios interview, Trump again bristled at the idea that he should have pressed harder, asking what additional weeks of bombardment would have achieved while the strait remained closed. “This is the kind of thing that could cause a worldwide depression,” he said.

Iran delays Swiss meeting, links US talks to MoU implementation amid Israel’s Lebanon strikes - Talks between Iran and the United States in Switzerland on a recently inked memorandum of understanding (MoU) have been postponed, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says, as Israel keeps up its attacks on Lebanon in violation of the MoU. The talks were set to take place in Switzerland on Friday under the ‘Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding’ signed between the US and Iran a day ago, after the two sides agreed on a 14-point accord on Monday. Under the deal, Washington and Tehran have agreed on a framework to end the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and negotiate on key issues within 60 days. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Baghaei outlined the procedural roadmap for the next phase of Iran-US talks, emphasizing that “necessary consultations” are already underway through intermediaries. "Necessary consultations are being conducted through mediators for this purpose. If the required conditions for the start of negotiations are met, an announcement will be made,” he said. The spokesperson underscored that the MoU sets clear prerequisites for moving toward a comprehensive agreement. "According to the text of the memorandum of understanding, the commencement of final agreement negotiations is contingent upon the initiation of the implementation of provisions outlined in clauses 1, 4, 5, 10, and 11 of the MoU and its continuation," Baghaei emphasized. He noted that the scheduled Iran-US talks have been delayed as its original purpose had been largely fulfilled through alternative means. "One of the main objectives of the Switzerland meeting on Friday was the signing of the text of the memorandum on ending the imposed war," he said. On the sidelines of the signing ceremony, he added, it was also planned that discussions would be held regarding the arrangements for final agreement negotiations. "Given that the signing of the memorandum of understanding was carried out digitally in the early hours of June 18, holding the meeting in Switzerland is not urgent," Baghaei explained. "However, we are planning to hold a meeting in the coming days," the Iranian spokesperson said. The 14-point “Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” was formally signed by the presidents of both countries early on Thursday, with the text finalized and the agreement officially in effect. It was finalized on Sunday, following months of intensive negotiations mediated by Pakistan, with support from other regional countries. Under the MoU, the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, should immediately end. Also US needs to lift its illegal naval blockade against Iran. It also provides for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. Despite a reported ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, which comes into effect at 4:00 pm local time on Friday, new Israeli airstrikes were reported in southern Lebanon at the moment the truce was said to begin. Israeli strikes targeted vast areas in southern and eastern Lebanon on Friday, kiling more than 30 people, including women and children. Defending the aggression, Hezbollah forces launched attacks on invading Israeli troops earlier in the day, killing 4 and wounding more than a dozen other Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.

U.S.-Iran accord hits early snag after Swiss talks fail to proceed as planned - News that the U.S. and Iran had reached an interim deal may have brought some initial relief to markets, but fresh uncertainty emerged on Friday after planned follow-up talks in Switzerland were called off, underscoring the challenges of turning the agreement into a lasting peace settlement. Switzerland’s foreign ministry said U.S.-Iran talks scheduled to take place at Bürgenstock on Friday would not proceed as planned. The White House also said that Vice President JD Vance was no longer traveling to Switzerland, citing unresolved logistical issues surrounding the negotiations. “The plans for the upcoming technical talks have not been finalized, and the U.S. delegation has been prepared to depart at the first available opportunity,” a White House spokesperson said. “But the logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable.” The developments came a day after President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at developing a permanent peace deal to end the months-long conflict. Analysts cautioned that the agreement represented only an initial step toward a broader settlement. “While an important breakthrough, this agreement marks really the beginning rather than the end of the process to try to end the war and address Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” UBS said in a report. Several “sticky points” still need to be resolved, such as Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, Adel Abdel Ghafar, a senior fellow of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told CNBC’s “The China Connection.” “Otherwise, there is a scenario we potentially may go back to a conflict, although both sides at this stage want to avoid that,” he said. Despite lingering uncertainty, the agreement has helped ease disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping had been affected both by Iranian attacks and the U.S. Navy’s blockade of Iran’s ports and coastal areas under Trump’s direction. The easing of shipping disruptions could benefit economies that rely heavily on imported oil, as lower oil prices may help contain inflation and reduce pressure on central banks to raise interest rates, David Roche, a strategist at Quantum Strategy, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia”. “Beyond that, this is a really bad deal,” Roche said, noting that it puts the Iranians in a stronger position in the Gulf and limits external interference in the country’s domestic affairs. “Iran is going to make the Middle East very unstable, that’s bad in the long term,” Roche said. He added that Israel was unlikely to accept the agreement. “Iranians, I will predict you confidently, will never, never abandon their nuclear ambitions,” he added. The interim agreement has also drawn criticism from some who argue that the U.S. conceded “too much” to Iran, prompting both Trump and Vance to defend the deal. “The United States isn’t giving up a cent of money to Iran,” Vance said in defense of Trump’s approach. Trump also pushed back against critics on Truth Social on Thursday. “These fools, who think I haven’t been tough enough on Iran, when the Stock Market Just Hit A RECORD HIGH, and Oil prices are ‘tumbling’ down, are either jealous, bad people, or stupid,” Trump wrote.

Swiss signing canceled as U.S.-Iran talks stall -CNBC - It’s official — the much-touted signing of the U.S.-Iran deal in Switzerland has been cancelled. The Swiss town of Bürgenstock was meant to play host to the next phase of negotiations on the path toward a final peace agreement. But on Friday, the Swiss Foreign Ministry announced that the talks would not go ahead, after U.S. Vice President JD Vance said he would not be traveling in for the meeting.During a White House news conference on Thursday, Vance defended President Donald Trump’s interim peace deal, while insisting the United States is not paying the Islamic Republic.“The United States isn’t giving up a cent of money to Iran,” Vance said.In an interview with Axios, Trump said his deal amounted to “unconditional surrender” by Tehran.Asked what he had learned from the war about the limits to his power, Trump said that: “I haven’t learned that lesson yet. I know there are, but there are no limits.”  Crude prices have steadied after steep declines, amid signs that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is beginning to recover.In an exclusive interview with CNBC, OPEC Secretary General Haitham al-Ghais has dismissed concerns of a supply glut.He told CNBC’s Dan Murphy that “sometimes it’s best not to make such assumptions when they are not really based on facts and figures.”“What does the IEA see that OPEC and the rest don’t see?” he said. ”[We focus] on fundamentals and not putting many ifs and buts in our forecasts, but rather focusing on actual numbers.”In currency markets, the yen has fallen toward a 40-year low against the dollar, reviving concerns of currency intervention. Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama reportedly said at a recent G7 meeting that Japan was “prepared to take decisive action on speculative moves” in the foreign exchange markets.

Vance leaves for Switzerland with Strait of Hormuz status unclear - Vice President JD Vance departed for Switzerland on Saturday ahead of technical-level talks on an interim ceasefire deal between the U.S. and Iran that aims to permanently halt fighting, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin nuclear negotiations.The discussions were initially scheduled to begin on Friday but were delayed due to an escalation in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that threatened to upend the fragile U.S.-Iranian ceasefire.Vance is set to lead a delegation that includes special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kusher, the pair tasked with spearheading U.S. diplomacy efforts in the president’s second term.The vice president said during a Fox News interview on Saturday morning that Witkoff and Kushner had already been on the ground in Europe for several hours “dealing with some of the technical elements” of the impending negotiations and that “things are going well.”The 14-point memorandum of understanding signed electronically earlier this week extends the ceasefire and restores unrestricted navigation through the Strait of Hormuz for a 60-day period.“One of the things the President has set us out to do as a high priority is to open the strait. That’s now happened,” Vance told “Fox & Friends” hosts, claiming that a “record” 16 million barrels of oil had flowed through the waterway over the past 24 hours.The interim deal also establishes a framework for broader talks to resolve remaining sticking points in the conflict, including Tehran’s nuclear program and its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.“The second thing the President has asked us to do, of course, is to get the enriched stockpile of uranium to ensure that we make it effectively impossible for the Iranians to rebuild their nuclear program, even over a very long period of time,” Vance said. “The program is destroyed, but we’re, of course, trying to take away as many of the cards where they may try to rebuild it if they don’t behave under this agreement.”

Hormuz Traffic Stalls as U.S.-Iran Talks Collapse -   A day after a rush to exit the Strait of Hormuz started, tanker traffic at the chokepoint is dwindling again as shippers pull back from immediate passage amid the collapsed U.S.-Iran talks before they even began.On Friday morning, no tanker was observed to have moved outbound from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Donald Trump said, "We didn’t meet out of desperation, Iran did. They are FINISHED! We’ll play out the 60 days. They get no money, not ten cents!" Inbound into the Gulf, one Norway-flagged products tanker and one Iran-linked LPG carrier made the crossing on Friday, according to observable data of tankers that haven’t gone dark. The thin Friday traffic compares to dozens of vessels that left the Gulf outbound from the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, which marked the reopening of the chokepoint.A total of 18 transits were recorded across the June 17 to 18 window, the highest single-window count of the conflict, according to data from maritime intelligence firm Windward. Chinese-affiliated, Chinese-linked, European, Japanese, and Saudi tonnage were among the early departures.Three Saudi-flagged supertankers carrying approximately six million barrels of crude transited the Strait dark in the hours following the signing of the U.S.-Iran deal, Windward noted.In addition, tankers carrying a total of 80 million barrels of crude were preparing to move through the Strait of Hormuz.But this reopening was put into question by the collapse of the U.S.-Iran talks even before they began. The talks were set to begin in Switzerland on Friday after the memorandum of understanding started the 60-day countdown for negotiations for a deal.The U.S.-Iran deal has raised hopes that the oil supply disruption in the Middle East could be nearing its end, but the biggest international tanker operators aren’t rushing to return to the Strait of Hormuz.“Given the experiences in the last couple of months, I think it’s reasonable to assume that it may take at least a couple of weeks or if not a month,” Jotaro Tamura, chief executive officer at Mitsui OSK Lines, the world’s largest tanker operator, told the Financial Times in a recent interview.

Trump says US will begin charging tolls in Strait of Hormuz if final Iran deal not reached in 60 days -- President Trump threatened on Saturday afternoon to impose tolls in the Strait of Hormuz if a deal with Tehran is not completed within 60 days, a warning that comes as U.S. and Iranian officials offer differing accounts of who controls the strategic oil corridor.Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that there would be “NO TOLLS” in the waterway during or after the ceasefire period unless the two sides fail to reach a final agreement by then.“…there will be NO tolls after the 60 day period has expired, unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America, should the deal not be completed, for services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East for purposes of both past, present, and future reimbursement of costs,” the president wrote from Camp David, where he is spending the weekend. Trump may be referring to the U.S. military initiative that has helped safely guide commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, including an early June operation that he said secretly moved over 100 million barrels of oil and 200 ships.  The Gulf channel, which transports about 20 percent of the world’s daily oil supply during peacetime, has served as Iran’s main point of leverage in the conflict.

JD Vance touts ‘record-breaking’ oil flow in Strait of Hormuz as Iran announces closure -Vice President Vance said Saturday there was no evidence that Iran had blocked off the Strait of Hormuz even as the Middle East country’s top joint military command announced that it would shutter the key waterway. In an interview with “Fox & Friends Weekend” early Saturday, Vance responded to reports saying Iran’s naval forces were blocking ship traffic in the strait, saying the passage was still open. He pointed to what he described as a record-breaking amount of oil moving through the critical trading corridor over the last 24 hours, suggesting that the strait was not closed. “One of the things the president has set us out to do as a high priority is to open the Strait. That’s now happened,” Vance said in the interview. “We actually got 16 million barrels of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz yesterday. That is a record going back to even before the conflict started,” he added. “So you’re seeing those ships move.” Vance also confirmed in the interview that special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are currently in Switzerland ahead of planned talks on Sunday to reach an agreement to end the war. But Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said Israel’s targeted attacks on the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah breached a ceasefire agreement that went into effect hours before. “In view of the United States’ bad faith and its clear breach of its commitments by failing to implement the first article of the memorandum ending the war, and in response to the continuous and ongoing violation of the ceasefire by the Zionist regime in southern Lebanon… It hereby announces that the Strait of Hormuz will be closed to the passage of vessels,” the military command said in a statement broadcast by Iranian state media. Days earlier, President Trump signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding with Iran that reopened the strait, which was closed for months during the war band caused energy prices to surge. Israeli strikes targeting southern Lebanon killed at least 16 people and wounded 12, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense. The Israeli military confirmed the overnight attacks in Lebanon, citing retaliation after “Hezbollah launched 50+ projectiles toward” Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers “operating in southern Lebanon.” “In order to remove threats & in response to Hezbollah’s blatant violations, the IDF struck dozens of Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites & terrorists in southern Lebanon throughout the night,” the IDF said in a statement.

US strategic oil reserve hits lowest level since 1983 --The U.S. supply of emergency oil has hit its lowest level since 1983, according to newly released federal data. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is down to 340.3 million barrels, according to the data released on Monday.The last time that levels were this low was 1983, when the Reagan administration was filling up the reserve for the first time. The U.S. established the emergency oil reserve in 1975 after an oil producer embargo against the country triggered an energy crisis.  The low SPR level is not a shock — the Trump administration announced in March that it would release 172 million barrels from the reserve over the course of 120 days.Levels were also lowered recently after the Biden administration released 180 million barrels in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent oil prices spiking. The administration said in 2024 that it had replenished the reserve. The reserve can hold up to 714 million barrels of oil. The U.S. consumes about 21 million barrels of oil on any given day. Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Gulf Oil, told The Hill ahead of the data’s release, “I’m not really worried about the SPR,” adding that the U.S. appears to be in decent shape.The news comes as the U.S. and Iran say they’ve reached a deal that’s expected to end the war and allow more ships into the Strait of Hormuz, which has been a key oil shipping chokepoint since the war’s start.

War drains oil inventories to critically low level at US hub (Bloomberg) -- Customers desperate for oil are draining so much of it from giant storage tanks in Oklahoma that producers are having trouble keeping up. Inventories at Cushing, the largest commercial crude oil storage hub in the US, have fallen for eight weeks in a row and now stand at about 20 million barrels, according to government data published Wednesday. That’s the equivalent of less than two days of American crude production, and a level that most traders consider an operational minimum. Even though Washington and Tehran are on the cusp of a peace accord that could fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the loss of so much Persian Gulf crude supply during the Iran conflict — equal to about 20% of global shipments — has left global supply chains extremely stretched.  The US has stepped in as the seller of last resort to the global oil market during the past three months and has seen its exports surge to a record. But that’s come at the cost of severely depleted domestic buffer against future supply shocks. The broadest measure of inventories in the US - a total that includes not just barrels stored in Cushing but the nation’s strategic stockpiles, plus oil that’s been refined into fuel - is now the lowest according to data going back to 1985. Earlier this week, data showed the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, created after the 1970s Arab oil embargo, dropped to roughly 340 million barrels, the lowest since 1983. The Trump administration is releasing 172 million barrels from the reserve to help ease fuel prices driven up by the war. Cushing is a massive complex of oil tanks west of Tulsa that’s the most important physical storage hub in the US crude market. It sits at the confluence of dozens of inbound and outbound pipelines that fan out across North America, connecting oilfields in Canada, Texas, North Dakota and elsewhere to Gulf Coast and in Midwest refineries. Its nickname is the “Pipeline Crossroads of the World.” Storage levels at Cushing play a crucial role for traders to determine the value of benchmark US oil futures. West Texas Intermediate futures, in turn, help underpin pricing for millions of barrels of crude traded around the Americas. The slump in inventories at Cushing is set to take a toll on the storage facility. Pulling oil out of tanks when levels fall below the so-called “suction line” of around 20 million barrels is difficult and expensive, and the quality of crude can be compromised by water and sediment. Cushing’s role in global oil markets has diminished since the US lifted its export ban in 2015. Barrels now flow straight from oilfields in Texas and elsewhere to the coast, where they’re shipped to overseas buyers. Still, the drawdown in Cushing crude stockpiles helped support the spread between the nearest two US crude futures contracts. The so-called backwardation in the spread indicates near term supplies in the region remain tight. Refineries in the Midwest, which rely on crude supplies from Cushing, processed a record volume of oil last week, according to the EIA, highlighting that demand is high domestically even if exports wane following a peace deal.

Iran World Cup team ordered out of US right after opener, coach says - The coach of the Iranian soccer team said that his team had to leave the U.S. shortly after its 2-2 draw against New Zealand to open the FIFA World Cup.Amir Ghalenoei said that officials did not give his team time to “recover” from the match before ordering them to return to Tijuana, Mexico. The Iranians are staying in Tijuana, which is a short flight from southern California — where the team played on Monday and will compete in its second game against Belgium on Sunday.“After the game today, they said to us, ‘You have to leave immediately.’ It’s very important for us to have time for recovery, [but] we are asked to get on a plane and return to our camp in Tijuana, and we are really troubled by that,” Ghalenoei said through an interpreter, according to The Associated Press (AP). Ghalenoei did not say who ordered his team to depart the U.S. back to Mexico. While all 31 Iranian players and their coaches received visas, multiple members of the team’s traveling party did not. The World Cup is taking place against the backdrop of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which may be coming to a close if a tentative agreement to end hostilities holds. Andrew Giuliani, President Trump’s World Cup czar, said Sunday that the U.S. government allowed the Iranian team into the country early as a “goodwill gesture” ahead of its match against New Zealand.“We want them to be able to compete,” Giuliani told Politico. “Even just coming in the day before the match, I think, is another example of the goodwill gesture to the team.”But Mehdi Taremi, the captain of the squad, said after Monday’s match that the quick turnaround will impact he and his teammates’ rhythm. His remarks came after Iran, the 23rd-ranked team in the world according to FIFA, played to a draw against New Zealand, the 82nd-ranked team in the world.

US Launches Airstrike in Venezuela, Claims Tren de Aragua Leader Killed -   President Trump on Friday announced the US launched an airstrike in Venezuela that he claimed killed Guerrero Flores, the leader of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, marking an escalation of the expanding US military campaign in Latin America.Trump said that the strike was launched in coordination with the Venezuelan government, and the cooperation was confirmed by Venezuela’s communications ministry, which said the attack was carried out in the southeastern part of the country’s Bolivar state.Video of the strike released by the US. The US released a video of the strike showing a building being blown up, and it’s unclear how many total casualties were caused by the bombing. “At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Nino Guerrero, the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet Earth,” the president added.Venezuela’s communications ministry said that the attack was “carried out through mechanisms of cooperation and exchange of intelligence information between the authorities of both countries.”During the lead-up to the US attack on Venezuela, one of the many pretexts put forward by the US was the claim that Tren de Aragua was under the control of the Maduro government, which was contradicted by a declassified US intelligence memo that said the “Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States.”While Maduro has been abducted by the US and removed from power, his government remains intact, with Decly Rodriguez, his vice president, now serving as acting president.Tren de Aragua was one of the criminal gangs designated by the US as a “terrorist organization” last year, as the Trump administration has merged the War on Terror with the War on Drugs, which has included the bombing campaign against alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The boat strikes have killed more than 200 people, all civilians, and the Pentagon has not once provided evidence to back up its claims that the small vessels were carrying drugs.

‘A bit of FOMO’: Oil companies give Venezuela a second look amid Mideast chaos - President Donald Trump’s policy misfires in the Middle East are having one unexpected beneficiary — his policy goals in Venezuela.  Oil companies large and small are showing new interest in committing to drill in Venezuela, after months of reluctance following the Trump administration’s call for them to do so in the wake of the U.S. removing its former president, industry lawyers and consultants familiar with the issue said. One of the largest deciding factors, they said, is the newly exposed fragility of the Middle East as an energy supplier that the fighting between the U.S., Israel and Iran have put on full display. “You see this view industry-wide, right or wrong, that there’s a long-term disruption going on all over the market,” said Jason Bennett, global projects director at law firm Baker Botts. Venezuela is “looking pretty good right now, despite their historical problems.”While the White House has in the past several months highlighted nonbinding agreements that some smaller companies have signed to develop Venezuelan oil fields, industry officials are saying they expect big contracts to land soon. Formal, binding deals would be a big win for the White House, which has tried with little luck so far to cajole the industry to get into Venezuela even before it captured the country’s former president, Nicolás Maduro, in January. Larger international companies are now giving Venezuela — and its South American neighbor Argentina — a closer look as oil supply out the Strait of Hormuz remains all but shuttered, Bennett said. Trump announced a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran on Sunday that he said would “fully authorize the toll-free opening” of Hormuz.The Venezuelan government’s reforms to its laws regulating the industry are still not perfect but are going enough in the right direction to assuage the worst fears of U.S. industry executives, Bennett added.Companies are in discussions with White House officials about committing to develop specific oil fields in a country with the world’s largest crude reserves. The mood is becoming more serious as companies are overcoming their earlier worries about working with Venezuela’s government and oil prices remain higher than the $67 a barrel they were before the fighting with Iran started, the industry officials said. The Venezuelan government has started to hold aside fields for companies that sign non-binding memorandums of understanding, essentially allowing those companies to informally claim areas as long as their deal-making continues, people familiar with the talks said. “I’ve signed up probably as many new clients over the last few weeks than I did when things first ‘opened up,’” said an industry lawyer whose clients have talked to the White House about the possibility of drilling in Venezuela and who was granted anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press.“Fields and opportunities are essentially getting ‘allocated’ in the engagement with the White House and with PDVSA,” this person said, referring to Venezuela’s state-run oil company.“Certainly the diversity [of operations] outside of the Middle East is a factor, especially as the industry is realizing that the uncertainty in the Persian Gulf may linger much longer than originally expected.”White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement that Trump was “right” that oil companies would flock back to Venezuela. “The Trump administration is successfully fostering productive relationships with the Venezuelan authorities while facilitating much-needed changes to the country’s laws and contracts,” Rogers said. “Now, thanks to the President, companies are rushing back to invest billions, Venezuela’s oil exports have jumped to the highest levels since 2018, and oil is flowing into the United States.”Jarrod Agen, executive director of the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council, said at POLITICO’s Energy Summit last week that Venezuela is moving from the MOU phase to binding contract phase. Small independent firms like Hunt Oil, HKN Energy and Crossover Energy have signed MOUs, essentially pledging to keep discussing the possibility of more permanent deals to drill in a country with the world’s largest oil reserves but also a history of appropriating industry assets. Companies are also growing fearful of missing out on prime Venezuelan real estate as the Trump administration and Caracas are promising fields to companies who sign memorandums of understanding, the industry lawyer said.

US Bombs Alleged Drug Boat in Eastern Pacific, Killing at Least One - - US Southern Command said on Tuesday that its forces launched another attack on an alleged drug-running boat in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, as the US continues conducting extra-judicial executions at sea.As usual, SOUTHCOM offered no evidence to back up its claim that the boat was running drugs, something the Pentagon has never done since the campaign began on September 2, 2025.Video of the strike released by SOUTHCOM. SOUTHCOM said that the strike killed at least one male “narco-terrorist,” a term the Trump administration uses to justify executing people for an alleged crime that doesn’t receive the death penalty in the US. It said that another two people survived and that rescue operations had begun, though survivors of the strikes often drown at sea.According to a count from The Intercept, the bombing campaign has involved at least 64 strikes and has killed 208 people, all civilians, since they were operating civilian vehicles and weren’t engaged in combat with the US at the time of their execution.The US has continued to expand military operations across Latin America, recently launching an airstrike in Venezuela that it claims targeted and killed Guerrero Flores, the leader of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The attack that was launched in cooperation with the Venezuelan government, which has been led by Acting President Delcy Rodriguez since the US attack on the country that resulted in the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro.The Pentagon has also been building up forces for a potential attack on Cuba, which the Trump administration has been threatening for several months as it has ramped up its oil embargo on the country, causing a devastating humanitarian crisis.

Putin, Zelenskyy speak with Trump by phone as drone strikes kill 2 in Russia and UK detains tanker - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy each spoke by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday, as Trump marked his 80th birthday and the war in Ukraine remained a flashpoint ahead of this week’s G7 summit. Putin’s call with Trump lasted just under an hour, according to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, who briefed reporters afterward. On Ukraine, Ushakov said Trump emphasized the need to end hostilities and stated his readiness to influence European allies and Kyiv toward that goal, including at the upcoming G7 summit. Trump also said that recent strikes on civilian targets in Russia complicate a settlement — though the White House has not confirmed that, nor commented on the call — and said that ending the war quickly could open the door to “a truly new quality of U.S.-Russian relations,” Ushakov quoted him as saying. Putin, for his part, argued that attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure by Kyiv would not change Ukraine’s position on the battlefield, and said that if Zelenskyy wants a meeting with him, “let him come to Moscow,” according to Ushakov. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to travel to Russia soon, Ushakov said. The leaders also discussed Iran, where Trump said a U.S. agreement with Tehran was close and that he hoped the results of the talks could be made public today, Ushakov said. Zelenskyy said in a statement on Telegram Sunday that he had a “wonderful conversation” with Trump. Beyond congratulating Trump on his birthday, the Ukrainian president said he thanked the U.S. president for supporting Ukraine. He said they discussed “what could help bring peace closer now,” without providing details. Zelenskyy also informed Trump about how Ukraine’s position along the eastern front line has improved and strengthened. “We agreed to discuss more during our meeting at the G7 summit,” he said. The calls came as Trump prepared to mark his birthday with a UFC fight on the White House lawn Sunday evening, an event without precedent in American history. Once it concludes, Trump is set to fly overnight to France for the G7 summit, where Ukraine is expected to be a major topic of discussion Tuesday and Zelenskyy is due to join the gathering. Russia’s war in Ukraine has long frustrated Trump, who as a candidate claimed he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office. He has since stopped making such claims and tends to pivot away from the topic when pressed. He has also grown increasingly vexed by the war between Israel and Iran, which has driven up gas prices, rattled financial markets and stoked concerns about inflation. The diplomatic exchanges came against the backdrop of continued fighting. Ukrainian drone attacks killed one person and wounded nine others overnight in a residential building in the regional capital of Russia’s Oryol region, Gov. Andrei Klychkov said Sunday. Another drone attack killed one person Sunday in Russia’s Bryansk region, local authorities said. A separate drone strike hit fuel storage facilities in Russia’s Yaroslavl region, around 440 miles from the Ukrainian border, sparking fires. Zelenskyy said the strike had hit “an oil facility that was important for the reserve of the aggressor state.” Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian oil and gas infrastructure in recent months, arguing the sector funds Moscow’s invasion. Separately, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Sunday that the U.K. is investigating a sanctioned tanker, the Smyrtos, suspected of belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet” of vessels used to evade sanctions tied to the war. British forces boarded and detained the vessel in the English Channel, in what the Defense Ministry called the first U.K.-led operation of its kind, carried out in coordination with French authorities. “This operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that they cannot hide,” Starmer said.

Hegseth attacks NATO allies and announces a review of US forces in Europe (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at NATO allies on Thursday as he announced a six-month Pentagon review of American forces in Europe whose outcome will depend on how fast the Europeans take responsibility for their own security.The review was yet another surprise for European allies and Canada as they learn to deal with an increasingly unpredictable ally. U.S. officials and senior military officers had promised to coordinate closely with the Europeans as America draws down.In recent months, U.S. President Donald Trump and the Pentagon have sent conflicting signals about whether America is reducing or increasing its military footprint in Europe, as well as threatening to annex Greenland, a semiautonomous island that is part of ally Denmark. Just weeks ago, the Trump administration said that it would no longer provide as much military support should any NATO member come under attack.“This will be a real review. It will be designed to ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defense of Europe,” Hegseth told his NATO counterparts. “It’s a review that some countries will fail and others will pass with flying colors.”German Chancellor Friedrich Merz later said the allies have long been aware of U.S. plans to pull troops from Europe at some point and that they must take care of their own security.“We know that we must do more and we are doing it,” Merz said. In a fiery speech at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Hegseth lambasted European allies for failing to provide U.S. forces access to bases in Europe to launch attacks on Iran, calling it “shameful.”“These allies, they put America’s sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, at risk by denying them the predictable access, basing and overflight that never should have been in question at all,” he said. The review would also assess whether the U.S. has full access and overflight “when we need it.”While defense ministers and military officers sat in silence, Hegseth railed against migration and gender equality policies in Europe, in remarks reminiscent to those of Vice President JD Vance in February last year that angered many Europeans.“Instead of tanks and fighters and air defenses, the focus has been on gender equity and climate change and defense austerity. Europe’s borders flew wide open, welfare states expanded, defense budgets cratered, along with Europe’s belief in itself and its civilization,” Hegseth said.Hegseth's comments largely mischaracterized European policies today. On defense, European allies and Canada have launched an unprecedented effort to boost defense spending and expand their armed forces. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte noted on Thursday that they spent $90 billion more on defense last year, a 20% increase over 2024. And while Europe accepted large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers more than a decade ago, most countries have tightened their borders since.It was a rare visit to NATO by Hegseth, his first this year after skipping a meeting in February. The Pentagon chief did not stay long, leaving well before the gathering was over and hours before Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to press allies for more weapons for his country.Speaking to reporters at Brussels airport before flying home, Hegseth said, “It was great to hear country after country say, ‘We’re going to meet our target. We’re going to meet our target.’ There are still a few outliers, and we will be clear with them as we do this review.” NATO’s supreme allied commander, an American, is working on backup plans to defend Europe after the U.S. signaled on June 3 that it would no longer supply an aircraft carrier and support ships, aerial refueling planes and dozens of fighter jets, among other military assets, in a crisis.The Trump administration insists that it needs to be able to plan for two simultaneous conflicts and wants more military resources at hand should it clash with China in the Indo-Pacific region.Under NATO’s collective security guarantee – Article 5 of its founding treaty – the 32 allies pledge that an attack on one of them will be considered an attack on all. It does not oblige them to provide military support, although many likely would.In essence, the United States is scaling back how it might help should an ally trigger Article 5.

Hegseth warns NATO allies that some nations will 'fail' U.S. defense review - Defense Secretary ​Pete Hegseth announced a Pentagon-led review of American forces in Europe on Thursday, and criticized some NATO allies over defense spending and reluctance to participate in the Iran war. “It’s a ​review that some countries ‌will ⁠fail, and others will pass with flying colors,” Hegseth ​told ​NATO ⁠defense ministers in Brussels, Reuters reported. Hegseth added that the six-month review is designed to “ensure that NATO is moving fast and irreversibly” toward taking primary responsibility for the defense of Europe. He also said it was “shameful” that European allies refused to give U.S. forces access to bases to strike Iran. Hegseth’s comments reflect increasingly fraught relations between the U.S. and allies in the trans-Atlantic alliance. NATO member states committed to hiking defense spending last year, following pressure from the Trump administration for Europe to shoulder a greater responsibility for its own security. Hegseth said in May that the U.S. demands a minimum defense spending commitment of 3.5% of gross domestic product from its allies and partners, adding that Washington will prioritize working with these “model allies.” Last month, he praised countries such as the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore for stepping up and sharing the burdens of defense and alliances, while continuing to lambast Europe. President Donald Trump has remained critical of NATO, threatening to withdraw the U.S. from the alliance over its reluctance to assist with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. In dollar terms, the U.S. remains the alliance’s biggest spender on defense by far. NATO data shows that the U.S. spent an estimated $845 billion on defense last year, dwarfing the $559 billion spent by the rest of the alliance combined.

Meloni slams Trump's claim she begged for a photo with him as Italy's top diplomat cancels US trip (AP) — The Italian government closed ranks on Friday to slam U.S. President Donald Trump over his claim that Premier Giorgia Meloni had “begged” for a photo with him during the recent G7 summit, a pushback that suggested the longtime U.S. ally had had enough of Trump’s boasting. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani abruptly cancelled a planned trip to the United States this weekend, calling Trump’s claims “serious and offensive” toward Meloni and all of Italy. Meloni for her part posted a video calling Trump’s claims “completely fabricated" and expressing astonishment that he would invent such things about an ally. She concluded: “Italy and I do not beg.” Trump had made the comments in an interview broadcast Friday morning on the La7 network. The La7 correspondent had asked Trump about Ukraine, but Trump raised Meloni and the conversation turned to their meeting during the just-concluded G7 meeting in Evian-les-Bains, France. Meloni and Trump were filmed speaking at several moments, including alone on a small sofa. According to La7, Trump said Meloni had “begged” him for a photo-op. Trump said he wasn’t obliged to do it but that he felt sorry for her and agreed, La7 said. The broadcaster has a dubbed version of the conversation online, not the original English audio. In her video, Meloni said she was responding to Trump’s claims because “certain things deserve an immediate response." “Donald Trump’s statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly stunned,” she said. “I don’t know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his own allies. After all, this isn’t the first time this has happened.” It was an apparent reference to an interview Trump gave to Italian daily Corriere della Sera in April in which he criticized Meloni's refusal to back the U.S.-Israel war in Iran. Meloni didn't respond publicly at the time. By Friday, it appeared she had had enough of his boasts and broadsides. “I can only say that it’s a shame he doesn’t show the same resolve toward the enemies of the West, toward the enemies of the United States — toward leaders with whom he, on the other hand, is much more accommodating," Meloni said Friday. "But there’s one thing he must remember: Italy and I do not beg.”

Donald Trump insults Italy's Giorgia Meloni again over G7 photo claims  -- President Trump is digging in on his criticism of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, repeating his accusation that she “begged” him for a photo at the Group of Seven (G7) summit earlier this week.  The two heads of state, who previously enjoyed a friendly relationship, have butted heads over the Iran war. They both traveled to Évian-les-Bains, France, this past week for the annual conference and participated in discussions with other foreign leaders about global conflicts and joint initiatives.“Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni asked, over and over, for a picture with me during the G-7 meeting in France,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday morning, repeating his previous accusation about the Italian leader. The president accused Meloni of “doing poorly” in popularity ratings in her country “because she turned down” his administration’s calls for European allies to aid its military efforts against Iran. The Italian prime minister previously raised concerns about an attack on an Iranian school and defended the Vatican’s criticism of the conflict. “Now, after the United States defeated Iran militarily, she wants to be friends again in order to get her ‘numbers up.’ No thanks!!!” Trump wrote in the post. On Friday, Meloni called Trump’s characterization of their interaction at the G7 summit “completely fabricated,” and she said in a video posted to social media that she was “astounded” by his comments. “I do not know why the president of the United States behaves this way toward his allies — it is certainly not the first time this has happened,” Meloni said. “I can only say it is regrettable that he does not show the same determination against the enemies of the West and the United States — against leaderships with whom he actually proves to be much more accommodating,” she continued.

Defense contractors would be barred from buying back their stock in bill approved by Senate panel - The Senate Armed Services Committee approved a must-pass bill with a provision that could bar some defense contractors from executing stock buybacks or paying dividends unless they have Defense Department approval.The measure, an annual bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act, was approved 18-9 in a closed-door committee meeting last week. The stock buyback provision’s inclusion in the committee’s bill greatly increases its chances of becoming law and sets up a potential sea change in how the Pentagon interacts with some of the country’s largest businesses. Its bipartisan nature also underscores how Republicans under President Donald Trump have abandoned some of their free-market orthodoxy to join with more interventionist Democrats. The mandate is expected to face fierce blowback from the companies to which it would apply, such as Lockheed Martin , Northrop Grumman and Boeing . Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a committee member, helped secure the measure’s inclusion in the committee’s bill. In an interview, she said it’s intended to “bring a small amount of discipline to these defense contractors who have been running wild for years.” “These giant defense contractors buy back their own stock for the sole purpose of plumping up the stock price and improving the pay of the corporate executives,” she said. “The restriction in the NDAA says if you’re a company that’s not even performing on your government contracts, you don’t get to do that.” The provision in the bill, Section 815, specifically would prohibit the Pentagon from entering into contracts with contractors unless the contractor agrees in writing not to “purchase an equity security of such entity, or any parent entity of such entity, that is listed on a national securities exchange” or “pay dividends or make any other capital distribution with respect to the equity securities of the entity.” The provision would take effect June 15, 2027. The defense secretary could agree to waive the limitation if the contractor provides a “qualifying defense investment plan.” The Pentagon would be required under the bill to start a review process to find out which contractors are violating the provision by engaging in stock buybacks or paying dividends without a waiver. Waived contractors could also be in violation if they are “underperforming with respect to prioritization, investment, or production.” Contractors who are in violation could be whacked with a number of penalties for noncompliance, including suspension of contract payments and loss of eligibility for contracts and competitive grants. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the provision was included in the NDAA on a bipartisan basis. “It was generally bipartisan,” he told CNBC. “We establish contractual requirements and when they can’t meet them, to then turn around and buy back stock rather than reinvesting in their production facilities and other aspects is wrong.” Asked whether he thinks the measure will make it through negotiations in the House, he said he hopes the lower chamber will “appreciate” that “if we sign a contract, we expect that it will be fulfilled.”

B-52 bomber crashes after takeoff at Edwards Air Force Base - A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber crashed shortly after departing Edwards Air Force Base in California on Monday, prompting an immediate response from emergency personnel. The aircraft went down at approximately 11:20 a.m. local time, according to a statement posted by the base on social media. Officials said first responders were dispatched to the scene shortly after the incident.  Images shared on social media showed a large column of smoke rising above the base following the crash.Authorities didn't immediately provide details on the cause of the accident, the condition of any crew members, if nuclear weapons were involved. or the extent of the damage. An investigation is expected to follow.

8 people onboard B-52 bomber that crashed in California -A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress, a nuclear-capable strategic bomber, that crashed on Monday shortly after taking off from an air base in California was carrying eight people on a “routine test mission.” “Initial indications are that the crash was not survivable,” Edwards Air Force Base said Monday evening. The long-range bomber, which can perform a variety of missions and is produced by Boeing, crashed on the Edwards Air Force Base at 11:20 a.m. local time, the base said earlier in the day. The base said emergency crews “immediately” responded to the scene and the “situation is ongoing. More information will be provided as it becomes available.” A subsequent post said the airfield has been closed and all inbound aircraft are being diverted as emergency crews continue to respond to the ongoing situation. The aircraft typically carries a crew of five. “All non-commercial visitor passes have been suspended until further notice to allow the installation to focus entirely on emergency response operations,” according to the statement. The majority of the base is located in Kern County. The base sits about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert. The B-52 bomber, around since 1955, can fly high subsonic speeds at altitudes of 50,000 feet, carry a payload of up to 70,000 pounds, and can provide close-air support, strategic attacks, offensive counter-air and maritime operations

Senate Republicans in no hurry to deliver Trump’s next reconciliation bill - President Donald Trump is calling for Republicans to pass a $350 billion bill to fund the military while notching conservative policy victories — and GOP senators aren’t exactly scurrying to action. House Republican leaders and committee chairs have been meeting for weeks about what to include in a new party-line reconciliation package. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has also had conversations about the House’s vision with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). But the Senate has taken no concrete steps toward advancing a bill, and GOP senators and aides said this week it was becoming clear any “Reconciliation 3.0” would be a House-led effort. Multiple Senate Republicans — including members of leadership — say they don’t currently see a path that could marshal 50 votes behind such a measure on their side of the Capitol just months before the midterms.

President Delays Clayton’s Nomination to Pressure Congress on Voting Bill - The New York Times - President Trump said on Wednesday that he was pulling back his own nominee to be the nation’s top intelligence official as he again tried to pressure Congress to pass a strict voter identification law that does not have enough support among Republicans to advance.Mr. Trump announced last week that he would nominate Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, to be the director of national intelligence, after senators in both parties condemned his earlier decision to install Bill Pulte, a loyalist and his top housing official, to the post.Senate leaders had sought to quickly confirm Mr. Clayton, hoping to clear the way for a bipartisan agreement to renew a surveillance law that expired last week. The bill to extend it collapsed amid the furor over Mr. Pulte, who has no national security experience and drew withering bipartisan criticism. And some Democrats had indicated they might be willing to fast-track his confirmation, eager to block Mr. Pulte from the post.But Mr. Trump torched that plan in his social media post early Wednesday morning, just hours before Mr. Clayton was scheduled to have a confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said he would delay the proceedings, all but guaranteeing that Mr. Pulte would take the job at the end of this week as the acting director of national intelligence.And Mr. Trump threatened to block the extension of the powerful spying statute, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA, which expired on Saturday, unless a measure to reauthorize it was attached to elections legislation that would impose national requirements on voter identification and registration.Senator John Thune, the South Dakota Republican and majority leader, has said repeatedly that the elections measure does not have sufficient votes to advance and warned this week that appending it to the surveillance legislation would “tank” the FISA bill. The president cannot cancel a Senate hearing, which is set by the panel holding it. But Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas and chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said in a social media post that Mr. Clayton’s hearing would be postponed after Mr. Trump directed Mr. Clayton “not to appear.”Mr. Trump’s statement adds to the challenges for Mr. Thune, who has faced intense pressure from right-wing lawmakers to push through the president’s long-sought election bill.  Mr. Thune said that senators would “just have to take it a day at a time until we get more clarity on what the White House position is” on Mr. Clayton’s nomination. Asked why Mr. Trump was trying to cancel it, he responded, “Good question.”

Trump upends careful compromise on intel chief, plunging GOP into disarray - Republicans on Capitol Hill believed they’d found a way to dump President Donald Trump’s controversial pick for temporary intelligence chief — while defusing a major fight with Democrats over a significant national security bill. Then came Trump’s middle-of-the-night missive from Switzerland. “I will not approve FISA without THE SAVE AMERICA ACT going along with it. Not complicated, actually, the Republicans fell into a trap,” the president wrote early Wednesday. “We are cancelling the Senate Hearing RE: DNI today, and will not be going forward until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney,” he added. “In the meantime, Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence.” Trump’s Truth Social post on Wednesday blew up weeks of careful party strategy to usher in a compromise pick, Jay Clayton, to oversee the nation’s intelligence agencies. Instead, Trump made clear he’s now seeking to keep that contentious nominee — MAGA loyalist Pulte — in an interim position for even longer. Further complicating matters, the president also demanded the passage of his signature voter ID bill attached to the must-pass national security bill, which is already days overdue. The move stunned Senate Republican leaders, who were just hours away from a key committee hearing for Trump’s pick. Clayton informed some members of the committee he was asked by the president to not show up for the hearing, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Senate GOP leaders were ultimately forced to cancel that afternoon hearing just ahead of its start, after initially vowing to hold it. In response, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s chairman issued a rare statement of disapproval at Trump’s move, calling it “regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing today.” It’s not yet clear when GOP leaders might try to hold another hearing for Clayton. But so far, it appears that Trump will succeed in his attempt to slow-walk the nomination — which would allow his hand-chosen temporary chief, Pulte, to formally begin the role Friday. The situation has flummoxed many Republicans and left Congress in an uncomfortable limbo over the status of Trump’s nominee, as well as the lapsed security measure, known as section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which authorizes the nation’s foreign spying powers designed to thwart terrorist attacks. Even Senate Majority Leader John Thune was unable to answer questions on Wednesday morning about Clayton’s fate — and instead said he is still “awaiting clarity” from the White House about next steps. Canceling a Senate hearing would typically be decided by the committee holding the hearing — in this case, the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was not immediately clear whether Trump had spoken to the panel’s chairman, Sen. Tom Cotton, before posting his message, but the Arkansas Republican initially said the hearing would proceed Wednesday afternoon without formal intervention by the president. (He was forced to backtrack later just hours later.) “We’ll just have to take it a day at a time until we get more clarity on kind of what the White House’s position is on this,” Thune said, met by a crush of reporters as he entered the US Capitol. Thune did not answer questions about whether he’s spoken with the president since the move. When asked why Trump was connecting the issues of voter ID to his intelligence nominee, Thune answered: “Good question.” Democrats, meanwhile, were irate over Trump’s move. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Senate Intelligence Committee Democrat, described Trump’s intervention as “an extraordinary display of dysfunction from a president who seems determined to turn America’s national security into a political bargaining chip” — a key signal that the party won’t lend any votes to reauthorize the lapsed surveillance bill anytime soon. Trump posted that he wanted the Senate to cancel the nomination hearing for Clayton. Later, Cotton – who had first held his ground, noting Clayton was a “pending nominee” before his panel – said that Trump had ordered him not to show, a highly unusual move. CNN has reached out to the White House for more on Trump’s decision. One of Trump’s allies in Congress, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, defended Trump’s move, arguing that the public wanted to see the president’s voter ID bill become law. “If we actually voted up here based on what the American public wanted, this would pass in a heartbeat. We’d pass it by noon today,” Scott said. But he wouldn’t say whether he’d encourage Trump to veto the spy powers bill if his voter ID bill isn’t attached, as the president suggested overnight: “I’ll let him decide that.” Asked if Trump was complicating Congress’s ability to govern with his last-minute demands, Scott said: “He’s talking about stuff that the American public wants. … He’s talking about what we ought to be doing.” Senate GOP leaders had spent the last week trying to quell tensions in their party, and from Democrats, after Trump announced Pulte, who has no demonstrated national security experience, as the temporary intelligence chief. Pulte, notably, has used his current position atop a federal housing agency to go after Trump’s perceived rivals. Ultimately, party leaders and the White House reached an agreement last week — Trump picked Clayton, Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, as the agency’s permanent successor. But Trump never withdrew Pulte, whose tenure was slated to begin June 19. And Democrats never backed down on their demands, saying Trump needed to dump Pulte for good, or they would not help reauthorize the nation’s spy powers.

Senate postpones confirmation hearing for intel chief after Trump's call to delay - The Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee says that the confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton to serve as director of national intelligence has been postponed after President Trump called on Republicans to hit pause on the nominee. The announcement from Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., followed an overnight post from President Trump, who said he is delaying the nomination and blocking the renewal of a surveillance tool at the center of the U.S. intelligence apparatus in order to pressure the Senate to advance a long-stalled voting bill and also advance another of his nominees for a separate position. "It's regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing today. Mr. Clayton is a patriot and a highly qualified nominee, as the president has said repeatedly. While today's hearing is now unfortunately postponed, I look forward to proceeding with his confirmation in the near future," Cotton wrote. A little more than two hours earlier, Cotton had said the committee would move ahead with the hearing "unless the president directs him not to appear or withdraws his nomination." The confirmation hearing had been set for Wednesday afternoon. Trump's attempt to derail the confirmation came as a surprise social media post in the middle of the night less than 12 hours before Clayton was scheduled to appear before his confirmation hearing. Trump, who is currently at the G7 Summit in France, issued his demands in a post just before 4 a.m. eastern on Truth Social. In the post, Trump said the plan to quickly approve Clayton was part of a deal with Democrats to derail his previous, temporary pick, Bill Pulte, who has no intelligence experience and has been criticized as a political attack dog for the president. He went on to say he is demanding that reauthorization of the surveillance tool known as FISA Section 702 must be tied to passage of the SAVE America ACT, a GOP voting bill that would require voters to show a document proving their U.S. citizenship, like a passport or a birth certificate, when they register to vote. The legislation failed in the Senate earlier this month. "Regarding the approval of our Great Patriot, Jay Clayton, we are cancelling the Senate Hearing RE: DNI today, and will not be going forward until Jamie McDonald is approved to be U.S. Attorney. In the meantime, Bill Pulte will remain as the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Trump concluded. It is a dramatic reversal for a nomination that had the potential to speed through the Senate, possibly with bipartisan support, and exposes a notable rift between the Republican-controlled Senate and president of the same party.

FBI says it disrupted alleged plot targeting UFC event at White House -The FBI disrupted an alleged plot targeting Sunday’s UFC cage-fight event at the White House, FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday. Newly unsealed court documents detailed a plan investigators said involved explosive-laden drones and shooters targeting crowds fleeing the event.Tycen Proper, a 19-year-old Ohio man, has been charged with multiple felony counts in connection with the alleged plot, including conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S. and attempted murder of an officer or employee of the country, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.. The complaint was signed June 12, two days before President Donald Trump hosted the UFC showcase on the White House South Lawn as part of his 80th birthday celebration. A preliminary search of Proper’s iPhone revealed encrypted group chats that “laid out detailed plans to conduct an attack in Washington, D.C. with several unidentified confederates,” according to the complaint. Investigators said the alleged plan involved flying small drones carrying explosives near the UFC arena, forcing spectators and “high value targets” to evacuate. Members of the group would then shoot at the fleeing crowd, according to court documents. “According to Proper, this attack was designed to ‘jumpstart’ a revolution in the United States,” an FBI affidavit said. Patel revealed the alleged plot in a post on X Tuesday morning. “On June 10, FBI and our law enforcement partners became aware of a potential threat to the UFC America 250 event in Washington, D.C. involving individuals outside of the National Capital Region,” Patel wrote in the post. Patel said the FBI, the Justice Department and other law enforcement partners moved quickly in a multistate operation, putting “multiple individuals” in custody and stopping “allegedly planned attacks” before they were carried out. Patel’s post on X angered some Secret Service officials, who believed he “jumped the gun” by disclosing details of a sealed and ongoing criminal investigation, MS NOW reported, citing three people familiar with the matter. Secret Service and FBI agents had been working together on the case and had discussed unsealing it and making a joint announcement later Tuesday, according to the report. But when Patel posted about the alleged plot, the case was still under seal and roughly 10 suspects had not yet been arrested, the outlet reported. “We all woke up this morning to see this on Twitter,” one administration official told MS NOW, speaking anonymously to discuss a sensitive law enforcement matter. Investigators said the case began when Proper’s mother contacted law enforcement June 10 out of concern over her son’s conduct, including firearms purchases and online communications with certain individuals, according to the complaint. When law enforcement went to the family’s home in Ohio, they found thousands of rounds of ammunition, an assault-style rifle and a bullpup rifle that had been purchased June 5 and painted with an American flag, according to court documents. Proper’s family voluntarily turned over the equipment, investigators said. Proper had allegedly joined a TikTok messaging group called “Vanguard of the Old” in March, according to the complaint. Members of the group believed the U.S. was headed in the wrong direction and “needed to be torn down so that it could be rebuilt,” the complaint said.According to investigators, the group shifted communications to encrypted apps like Signal. Proper allegedly discussed targeting lawmakers he believed received donations from pro-Israel political action committees.. “I got a possible target Marsha Blackburn is senator for Tennessee,” Proper allegedly wrote in a May message, according to the complaint. Asked by an unnamed co-conspirator why he was planning to target Blackburn, a Republican, Proper allegedly replied, “she’s taken money from the Israel pro Israel lobby and supports them.” In other messages, Proper allegedly listed Republican lawmakers from West Virginia’s congressional delegation as “the people we’re going to focus on,” including Sen. Jim Justice, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Rep. Carol Miller and Rep. Riley Moore, all of whom are Republicans. Proper also allegedly made sympathetic comments about Adolf Hitler in the group chat, according to the complaint. Asked about the alleged plot Tuesday at the Group of Seven summit in France, Trump said, “I haven’t heard about it.” “The attack that I watched was the fighters,” he added. A spokesperson for the FBI referred CNBC to Patel’s post. The Justice Department declined to comment.

Senators take up FEMA nominee, other Trump picks -  The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will question a roster of President Donald Trump’s nominees this week, notably Cameron Hamilton to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency.Hamilton will testify after months of turmoil at an agency the administration once considered scrapping. Indeed, Hamilton ran FEMA for a time last year before getting fired and would be the agency’s first permanent head of Trump’s second term.  The nominee enjoys the support of Homeland Security Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who called Hamilton “a great pick” when Trump nominated him last month. “I will move his nomination quickly through our committee,” Paul wrote on the social media site X. Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Disaster Management, said in a statement about Hamilton’s nomination, “It is critically important we get to work on reform legislation that sets FEMA and our country up for success.”

US Budget Bill Seeks to Block Transfer of Afghan Allies From Qatar to High-Risk Countries - Khaama Press - A draft US defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2027 contains measures aimed at protecting Afghan nationals who previously worked with American forces and are currently awaiting resettlement in Qatar, according to advocacy group AfghanEvac. AfghanEvac President Shawn VanDiver said the preliminary versions of the National Defense Authorization Act being considered by the US Senate and House of Representatives include provisions related to former Afghan partners of the United States. According to VanDiver, one provision would restrict the transfer of Afghans housed at a processing center in Qatar to Afghanistan or other countries considered high-risk from a security perspective. Another section proposes the preservation and protection of records related to Afghans who assisted US military operations. The draft legislation also includes a proposal to extend the mandate of the Afghanistan War Commission, allowing additional time for completion of its final report on the two-decade US involvement in Afghanistan. AfghanEvac warned, however, that uncertainty remains over implementation timelines. The organization noted that the processing facility in Qatar, which hosts more than 1,000 Afghans who previously worked alongside US forces, is expected to close by September 2026. The issue comes as thousands of Afghans linked to Western governments and military missions continue to await relocation to the United States and other countries under special immigration and humanitarian programs. Advocacy groups have repeatedly warned that delays in processing applications leave many former interpreters, contractors and support staff in prolonged uncertainty. The debate also coincides with a worsening humanitarian situation inside Afghanistan. International aid agencies report that millions of Afghans remain dependent on humanitarian assistance amid economic hardship, restrictions affecting women and girls, food insecurity and limited access to essential services. Humanitarian organizations have further expressed concern over the growing influx of Afghan returnees from neighboring Iran and Pakistan. Since late 2023, millions of Afghans have returned or been deported from the two countries, placing additional pressure on already strained communities, public services and aid resources across Afghanistan. Many Afghan refugees also remain in Pakistan while awaiting resettlement decisions, while others are being processed through temporary facilities in Qatar. Rights groups have urged Western governments to accelerate relocation programs, arguing that former Afghan allies face significant security risks if returned to Afghanistan before their cases are resolved. If approved by Congress and signed by the US president, the proposed legislation would become law and could provide additional safeguards for vulnerable Afghans still seeking permanent resettlement.

Jamaica in Talks With U.S. on Hosting Deported Third-Country Migrants - Khaama Press  Jamaica is in discussions with the United States about accepting third-country migrants deported from the U.S., Deputy Prime Minister Horace Chang has said, according to Reuters. Speaking on Tuesday, Chang said no final agreement has yet been reached, but confirmed ongoing talks over a possible arrangement under which Jamaica would serve as a transit location for migrants removed from the United States. The discussions are part of a broader U.S. effort to secure agreements with partner countries willing to receive deported migrants from third countries. Similar arrangements have reportedly been explored with several nations, often involving financial or logistical support from Washington. The issue has drawn attention among Afghan refugees and asylum seekers after reports that some Afghan nationals who assisted U.S. forces and were awaiting resettlement could be transferred to third countries rather than being admitted directly to the United States. Recent reports have indicated that Washington is considering relocating certain Afghan evacuees currently housed in Qatar to third countries, including destinations in Africa, as part of efforts to manage refugee processing and immigration backlogs. The development comes as Western governments continue to reassess migration policies toward Afghan nationals. Germany this week deported 32 Afghan citizens convicted of serious crimes to Kabul on a charter flight, marking one of the latest removals carried out since the return of the Taliban to power in 2021. Human rights groups have raised concerns about deportations and third-country transfers involving Afghans, citing Afghanistan’s ongoing humanitarian crisis, economic hardship, and restrictions affecting large segments of the population. International agencies have repeatedly warned that millions of Afghans remain dependent on humanitarian assistance. While U.S. officials have not announced any final decision regarding Afghan evacuees, the debate highlights growing international efforts to balance immigration enforcement, refugee protection obligations, and regional migration management.

Senate releases NDAA with permitting amendment - The Senate Armed Services Committee released its defense authorization for fiscal 2027 on Tuesday with a provision to curb the Pentagon’s delay in processing wind project permits. The panel approved its National Defense Authorization Act behind closed doors last week — including an amendment on Pentagon reviews of energy projects — but had yet to release the text. Passage of the amendment from Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, shows bipartisan support for checking the Trump administration move to stymie renewable energy. “It needs to be resolved and there’s bipartisan support for that,” Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said after releasing the defense authorization bill.

Senate panel sets vote on bill to create State Department energy office - The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will mark up legislation this week to establish a State Department office tasked with shoring up energy and minerals abroad to counter China’s grip on global markets. The committee will take up an amended version of S. 4392, the “Energy Security Pacts Act,“ from Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.). It would set up an Office of Energy Security Pacts to be led by someone appointed by the secretary of State. The office would be required to coordinate with other parts of the federal government — including the Energy, Interior and Commerce departments — to establish 10-year pacts with low- and middle-income partner countries to develop their energy and electricity sectors. The bill also calls on the president to appoint a council to oversee the creation of those pacts. The goal, according to the legislation, is to increase U.S. and the host country’s access to energy and electricity, as well as critical mineral supply chains that Beijing currently dominates.

Energy and Commerce lawmakers to introduce data center bill - House Energy and Commerce lawmakers from both parties will introduce legislation Thursday to make sure ratepayers don’t foot the bill for data center expansion.Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) is pitching the “Ratepayer Protection Act” as the panel’s answer to growing political and regulatory concerns about the electricity and infrastructure demands of the artificial intelligence boom.“Families and small businesses across the country shouldn’t be left to foot the bill for this new development, though the benefits of these innovations will be felt by all of society,” Guthrie said. “The Ratepayer Protection Act is a bipartisan effort which would ensure that the costs of grid upgrades are appropriately paid for according to demand.”The legislation will be introduced by Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) and co-sponsored by Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), ranking member of the Energy Subcommittee.

Push for high-ethanol fuel hangs by a thread in the Senate -A yearslong campaign for higher ethanol fuel is facing a now-or-never moment, the Senate’s leading advocate said Tuesday. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) gave that stark scenario for E15 — the gasoline blend that’s 15-percent corn-based ethanol — in a conference call with reporters as lawmakers search for a legislative path to lift summer restrictions on its sale. “If we don’t get E15 this year, we’re never going to get it,” Grassley said on a weekly call with agriculture reporters. The opportunities are narrowing for Grassley and other E15 advocates who say they’re on the cusp of the long-sought goal, which could spur millions of acres of additional corn production by some estimates.

Solar manufacturers blitz Capitol Hill to save tax credits - Top domestic solar manufacturers will make the rounds on Capitol Hill this week to urge lawmakers to preserve Inflation Reduction Act tax incentives they say are essential to building a U.S. supply chain. The fly-in, organized by the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition, will focus on extending the solar investment tax credit and a domestic content bonus that advocates argue have fueled a recent boom in U.S. manufacturing. Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act would begin phasing out both incentives July 4. “We had a trajectory where we were showing we could rebuild this industry at scale and compete on price point with China,” said Mike Carr, executive director at the SEMA Coalition. “But we got to let it play out, and we really only had the full force of the tools for about a year.” The lobbying push will include companies with major U.S. manufacturing investments, including Qcells, Corning and Hemlock Semiconductor. Executives are expected to meet with lawmakers and staff on the House Ways and Means, Senate Finance, and Senate Energy and Natural Resources committees.

Mike Lee sets markup on Outdoors Act reauthorization - The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will vote this week to reauthorize expired portions of the landmark 2020 Great American Outdoors Act. The committee will mark up S. 1547, the “America the Beautiful Act,” on Wednesday. It is a straightforward bill to inject new funding into the Legacy Restoration Fund to address a lengthy backlog of repairs at the National Park Service and other public lands. The LRF — established in the Great American Outdoors Act signed into law by President Donald Trump during his first term — has generally had bipartisan backing. The reauthorization bill, led by Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Angus King (I-Maine), has over 60 bipartisan co-sponsors. But Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) opposed the original 2020 outdoors law and said in January that he was concerned that “the deferred maintenance backlog has ballooned to over $23 billion due to poor management and unchecked federal land acquisitions.”

Momentum grows for Outdoors Act reauthorization - The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved legislation Wednesday that would reauthorize expired portions of the 2020 Great American Outdoors Act. Now that both chambers have similar compromise bills on securing funding for parks and public lands, sponsors are eyeing an accelerated timeline for getting President Donald Trump’s signature. The Senate panel cleared an amended version of the “America the Beautiful Act,”S. 1547, by voice vote. The bill from Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Angus King (I-Maine) would revamp the Legacy Restoration Fund, which addresses a lengthy backlog of repairs at the National Park Service and other public lands. Daines said he’d like it to become law by Independence Day. House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) — who has his own reauthorization bill, the “Great American Outdoors Act 250” — said he was willing to proceed with the Senate version to meet the deadline.

Conservatives rattled by Trump DOJ’s Supreme Court climate brief - Conservative backers of the Trump administration’s climate deregulation push say they worry that delayed rulemaking and faulty lawyering may harm efforts to end greenhouse gas regulation. Right-wing advocates including Steve Milloy and Myron Ebell, both of whom served on President Donald Trump’s first-term transition team, said in interviews Tuesday that they were particularly concerned about a recent Department of Justice brief that appeared to contradict EPA’s repeal of the so-called endangerment finding for greenhouse gas emissions. In a May 21 amicus brief in Suncor v. Boulder — an important climate case the Supreme Court will decide next term — DOJ argued that the Clean Air Act reserves to EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The administration is joining red states and industry groups in urging the court to block local governments such as Boulder, Colorado, from suing fossil fuel producers over their contribution to climate change. Milloy, a senior policy fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, told POLITICO’S E&E News that the arguments DOJ made to demonstrate federal preemption of state and local climate action are “the exact opposite” of what EPA argued in its February repeal of the 2009 scientific finding that underpinned most Clean Air Act climate regulation. “They could both wind up at the Supreme Court, and the court could say, ‘Justice Department, you’re on both sides of this issue,’” said Milloy. In a thread on the social media site X over the weekend, Milloy argued that DOJ’s Suncor brief “threatens a successful defense” of EPA’s endangerment repeal because that rollback rests on an assertion that the agency “does not have the requisite legal authority to regulate greenhouse gases.” DOJ told the Supreme Court in the Suncor brief that Colorado’s greenhouse gas emissions standards would “disrupt EPA’s regulation of stationary sources.” “As this Court has concluded, the Clean Air Act reflects Congress’s choices to make EPA — not States — the ‘primary regulator of greenhouse gas emissions,’ and to address emissions by regulating stationary sources, such as factories and power plants,” DOJ said in its brief, citing the Supreme Court’s 2011 decision in American Electric Power v. Connecticut. DOJ wrote in a footnote that EPA had recently concluded in the endangerment finding repeal that it lacked authority to set greenhouse gas standards for motor vehicles based on climate concerns. But DOJ argued in the Suncor brief that EPA’s conclusion did not apply to the section of the Clean Air Act that covers stationary sources — “the decision-making scheme that AEP interpreted in ways that conflict with Boulder’s claims.” Richard Lazarus, an environmental law professor at Harvard University who has represented green groups and governments in numerous Supreme Court cases, agreed in an email that there was a ”tension” between DOJ’s brief and “the broadest legal arguments now being made by EPA in support of the endangerment determination repeal.” But he said the change was all on EPA’s side — not DOJ’s arguments about federal preemption of state regulations. “The only reason that same-old-same-old argument now presents a tension is the EPA in the endangerment repeal is now effectively arguing for an overturning of” Massachusetts v. EPA, he said, referring to the landmark 2007 Supreme Court decision that said greenhouse gas emissions qualify as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. Milloy and Ebell both questioned whether the Suncor brief might be a deliberate attempt by career DOJ attorneys to undermine the defense of EPA’s endangerment finding rescission in the face of challenges by environmental groups and blue states.In his X thread, Milloy mused that “the DOJ Deep State” may have drafted it, aiming “to tank” EPA’s endangerment finding rollback and the repeal of power plant carbon standards, which are now undergoing White House review.DOJ did not comment for this story, but Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris and Adam Gustafson, interim leader of DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, are both named on the Suncor brief. Both were tapped by Trump. The department has shed career environmental lawyers at a historic rate since the second Trump administration began 16 months ago.. Ebell said in an interview Tuesday that the brief “concedes things that would undermine the case for the endangerment finding” repeal. He noted that the administration has yet to nominate a permanent head of ENRD, which is responsible for defending EPA regulations. “There’s a lack of political appointees at the Justice Department,” he said. “Was it just careers doing this to try to sabotage the Trump deregulatory efforts on climate? “I think some questions need to be asked, and some people at the administration need to give some answers about how this happened and then what they’re going to do about it,” said Ebell.

Trump DOJ wants to sideline citizens in pollution fights - The Trump administration is making the case that the federal government can quash citizen Clean Air Act lawsuits against polluters, a move environmental lawyers warn would rewrite decades of enforcement law. If successful, the argument, made by the Department of Justice in a court filing supporting Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, would dramatically undermine the power of U.S. residents to fight pollution at tens of thousands of industrial sites across the country. “It would be a pretty sweeping change in the way enforcement works for the federal pollution control statutes,” said Tom Mariani, former chief of environmental enforcement at DOJ. The Clean Air Act allows citizens and environmental groups to sue alleged polluters. Typically, the federal government or a state can move to intervene if it has plans to step in and take over enforcement of the case. The act itself only limits citizen suits once the government has “commenced and is diligently prosecuting a civil action.” But now, DOJ says it can intervene if it does not want to prosecute a case and prevent citizens from taking actions themselves. The department says the Clean Air Act gives the government a “right of dismissal” that “entitles the United States to dismiss the entire action” and that preventing the government from dismissing citizen suits would violate the Constitution. “Ultimate responsibility for enforcing federal law belongs to the Executive Branch, not private interest groups,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr., DOJ’s No. 3 official, in a press release supporting the motion. “The Department of Justice is committed to maintaining that constitutional order while protecting national security and promoting American energy and innovation.” Legal experts say DOJ’s approach is the opposite of how things are supposed to work. “This is the government saying we can intervene for the purpose of not prosecuting and making sure nobody else can either,” Mariani said. Pat Parenteau, an emeritus professor at the Vermont Law and Graduate School, agreed. He said DOJ’s position “is insane” and incorrectly interprets the law. Still, it could have sweeping implications for environmental challenges beyond the Clean Air Act. “When you invoke Article 2 of the Constitution to say that citizens have no rights to enforce the law, that sweeps across everything — that’s what’s at stake here,” he said. Similar arguments have recently been deployed by a conservative law firmin a Clean Water Act case, but this is the first time the federal government has co-signed the position. DOJ’s filing comes amid controversy over Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, and the way it has powered its data centers near the Tennessee-Mississippi border. The NAACP, Earthjustice and the Southern Environmental Law Center sued the company in April. The groups allege xAI has been running at least 59 polluting turbines at its gas plant without first obtaining permits or installing pollution controls required by the Clean Air Act. Such turbines can emit cancer-causing chemicals and ones that cause respiratory illnesses. The groups sued, in part, because Mississippi environmental regulators have told xAI the company does not need permits for turbines that operate for less than a year. DOJ says that means no one else can sue. “The best interpretation of the Clean Air Act — which ensures the Executive Branch retains its primacy over the enforcement of federal law — is also necessary to avoid grave constitutional problems with the statute’s citizen-suit provisions,” the department told Chief Judge Debra Brown, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama to the federal court in Mississippi that is handling the xAI case.

Social Security’s looming insolvency sparks alarm in Congress - Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) call for Republicans to act on Social Security reform if they keep control of Congress in 2027 is getting pushback from Senate Republicans who warn it’s a bad political message heading into November. Yet, a trustees’ report that the popular retirement program will become insolvent sooner than expected has lit a fire under lawmakers in both parties to call for reforms such as raising the cap on payroll taxes, “means testing” beneficiaries, raising the retirement age, and creating personal accounts to invest in the stock markets. “I’m sending a letter to our leadership. … I’m sending them an official letter saying we should set up a bicameral, bipartisan [committee] — equal number of Republicans, equal number of Democrats — and the sole goal is to discuss how to make Social Security and Medicare solvent,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he’s going to hold the Speaker to his promise to address Social Security’s future fiscal trajectory if Republicans keep control of Congress. “We were promised … if we retain the majority, we’re definitely going to tackle this. I’ll try and hold them to this,” he said. The Wisconsin Republican said he wants to “plus up” Social Security benefits by slashing federal spending more generally to create more fiscal space to fund Social Security without adding to the deficit. But some Republicans are wary of Johnson’s call for action because they remember the brutal political lesson from 20 years ago when former President George W. Bush tried to reform Social Security without Democratic buy-in and it blew up in Republicans’ faces. “That sounds like wealthy people who want to have all of their tax breaks and loopholes and their carried interest deductions and so forth but they want working people who paid into all of those programs for years to take less,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said when asked about the Speaker’s statements about the need to tackle big mandatory spending programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Hawley says he gets nervous when policymakers talk about the need to “address” or “reform” Social Security. “Addressed? Reformed? That’s usually code for ‘cut.’ I’m not in favor of that,” he said. The Speaker warned in a radio interview that Congress needs to tackle the ballooning cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which account for three-quarters of federal spending. “The reason we’re in trouble is because over 74 percent of federal spending is on autopilot — mandatory spending, that is your entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and things like Social Security — they have to be adjusted and fixed,” Johnson said on the “Moon Griffon Show.” “We have a plan to do that next year, and it’s critical, because we’re at $40 trillion-plus in debt. At some point you get into a hole so deep you can’t climb out of it, so desperate times call for desperate measures,” he warned. Some Senate Republicans think that kind of talk before a midterm election when GOP candidates are facing big headwinds in November is politically tone deaf. Asked about Johnson’s comments that Social Security needs to be addressed, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) merely said the Speaker is “entitled to his opinion.”

HHS asks for expedited appeal of court ruling on US vaccine policy  - The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has filed a motion to expedite its appeal of a court ruling that temporarily blocked changes to vaccine recommendations for US children. In a post on X late last week, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the appeal seeks to restore the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) so that the group, which has not met since last December, can issue vaccine recommendations ahead of the fall flu season."A functioning ACIP is essential to ensuring that vaccine recommendations remain grounded in evidence and available to the families and providers who rely on them," Kennedy wrote.The March 16 ruling by US District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy was in response to a lawsuit filed against Kennedy and HHS by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other medical organizations. The suit argued that changes to childhood vaccine recommendations that were directed by Kennedy and adopted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had not followed proper administrative procedures. Those changes included ending the recommendation for COVID vaccines for healthy children and reducing the number of vaccines recommended for US children from 17 to 11.   Murphy's ruling also temporarily blocked ACIP, whose membership has been overhauled by Kennedy, from meeting and froze all recommendations the group had made. Murphy concluded that 13 members tapped by Kennedy after he fired all 17 previous ACIP members had no vaccine-related expertise and were not qualified under the group's original charter. ACIP has been in limbo since then, though HHS recently issued a revised charter to re-establish the group. The CDC website still lists the next ACIP meeting as June 24-26. Kennedy said the court's order "has left ACIP unable to carry out its core responsibilities.""As a result, the committee cannot issue new recommendations, review newly approved vaccines, or complete important work ahead of the fall flu season," he said.   In a statement today, AAP President Andrew Racine, MD, said the government "has had and continues to have the power to restore a lawful ACIP and schedule a meeting at any time.""In fact, this is what AAP has long urged: a functioning ACIP led by experts who have the specialized knowledge to make evidence-based vaccine recommendations," Racine said.

OMB nominee touts plan to give Trump appointees power to kill grants - President Donald Trump’s nominee for the No. 2 post at the White House budget office told lawmakers Wednesday that the administration will stop federal cash from flowing to “divisive ideologies” under new grant rules in the works.Hal Duncan, who is seeking Senate confirmation to serve as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, said during his confirmation hearing that the White House will ensure federal grants are aligned with Trump’s priorities by changing the way more than $1 trillion is approved each year. “The ultimate deciders of these grants will be the political employees at the agencies,” Duncan noted in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.The White House proposed changes last month that would put political appointees in charge of blessing or nixing awards to state and local governments, community groups, education institutions and nonprofit organizations.

What Trump’s latest Education Department move actually means for teachers - The Trump administration on Tuesday moved to shift key functions out of the Department of Education, transferring civil rights enforcement and special education oversight to other federal agencies. The move accelerates President Donald Trump’s broader push to dismantle the department without congressional approval, fundamentally reshaping how federal education oversight is carried out.Teachers, students and families could see shifts in how discrimination complaints are handled and how special education programs are overseen as responsibilities move to agencies with different mandates. For teachers, the changes reflect a rapidly evolving federal role in education that could reshape how schools engage with Washington.Under the plan, the Department of Justice will take over enforcement of civil rights in schools and student privacy protections, while the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee special education programs that have long been administered within the Education Department.The changes affect two of the department’s most critical offices. The Office for Civil Rights, which investigates complaints of discrimination in schools and colleges, is being shifted toward Justice, while the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, which manages billions in federal grants and ensures compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, will move to HHS. “The Trump Administration has been clear: as we scale back federal micromanagement when it hinders success, we are equally committed to bolstering the efficacy of federal oversight where it is essential,” McMahon said in a written statement. The restructuring builds on more than 10 earlier agreements that have already shifted education programs to agencies such as Labor, State and HHS, as part of a strategy to reduce federal involvement in schools. The administration has framed the changes as an efficiency measure, arguing that civil rights enforcement belongs with the Justice Department and that disability programs can be better managed by a health-focused agency. For educators, the shift could mean navigating a more fragmented federal system. Civil rights investigations, including cases involving race, sex and disability discrimination, have traditionally flowed through the Education Department, which also worked directly with districts on compliance. Special education services, meanwhile, have been overseen by an office dedicated to education policy and school systems. Moving those responsibilities may introduce new bureaucratic processes and points of contact. McMahon said in a statement, “IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) predates the Department of Education and will continue to exist long after. Likewise, the government’s obligation to enforce civil rights law predates the existence of the Department of Education and will continue to exist long after.” Advocates warn that dispersing these responsibilities could complicate enforcement and weaken accountability. Some have raised concerns that agencies without a central education focus may not respond as quickly to school-based issues, particularly those involving classroom practices and student services.

Congress out of time to roll back Biden-era monument plans - Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee said Friday that lawmakers can no longer use a rule-busting law against Biden-era land use plans for the Grand Staircase Escalate National Monument Lee, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-Utah), introduced resolutions of disapproval in March under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress and the president to undo administration actions by simple majority within a certain time frame. The resolutions of disapproval in the House and Senate would have repealed plans that govern recreation, grazing and mining and drilling on the southwestern Utah site. Environmental and conservation advocates supporting the Biden plan said Lee ran out of time Thursday to call up the legislation. It’s unclear why Senate Republicans did not schedule a vote.

Judge blocks Trump national park history purge - A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to cease removing historical content at national parks, dealing a temporary blow to the White House’s yearlong effort to recast the nation’s history in a loftier light. Judge Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts also ordered the Trump administration to restore historical material that parks altered or removed, to include signage and exhibits mentioning issues like slavery and climate change. The court order sets a sweeping task for parks across the country amid preparations to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary. National parks preserve the “good, the bad, and the ugly” of American history, said Kelley in her decision Friday to grant a preliminary injunction, which temporary hobbles the Trump administration’s park changes until the judge issues a final ruling. “The Government’s stewardship of these park sites thus carries a responsibility to present history in full rather than in favored fragments,” Kelley wrote. “Unfortunately, the Government has disregarded these principles.” The Interior Department said Monday that the administration is considering its appeal options and noted that Kelley was appointed by Biden. Kelley’s decision grants a temporary victory to park advocacy groups challenging the Trump administration’s influence over how the National Park Service tells U.S. history. President Donald Trump last year ordered parks to ensure their historic material does not “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living … [a]nd instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”What followed was a sweeping internal review by parks ordered by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, which revealed hundreds of potential conflicts with Trump’s mandate, including references to slavery, Japanese-American incarceration during World War II and other historical abuses. Interior has noted that not all flagged material is being removed.The National Parks Conservation Association and six other advocacy and history groups sued the Trump administration in February after a smattering of high-profile removals of historic content at parks. The most expansive action was the agency’s deconstruction of an installation on slavery at the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, a former residence of George Washington.The slavery exhibit, which explored the lives of nine enslaved people the Washington family brought to Pennsylvania when Washington was president, was the most comprehensive park memorial to be taken down under the Trump order. The exhibit was partially reinstalled under a separate court ruling, and the administration was barred from installing a replacement exhibit, but the judge has not issued a final decision in that case.. Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit, said Friday parks should not be “propaganda tools nor should they be used for partisan purposes.” “They exist to preserve and interpret the full American story, not just the parts that make some politicians comfortable,” she said. “This ruling is an important step to help ensure that remains the case.”

Appeals court clears Trump to remake slavery exhibit - An appeals panel ruled Thursday that the Trump administration can take down an exhibit on the enslaved servants of George Washington at a Philadelphia national park, a win for the White House as it tries to reframe the nation’s sins into uplifting stories of progress across national park sites.The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously concluded that a lower court lacked authority when earlier this year it ordered the National Park Service to mostly restore the slavery exhibit removed from Independence National Historical Park and blocked efforts to install a revised installation.The Trump administration in January removed the outdoor exhibit dedicated to nine enslaved African Americans that Washington brought to the executive residence in Philadelphia when he served as president. The move was the most public display of Trump’s order for national parks to eliminate exhibits and education material that “inappropriately disparages Americans past or living.”Following a lawsuit from the city of Philadelphia, District Judge Cynthia Rufe forced the park service to mostly reinstate the panels — while the case was being heard — and blocked an effort by the Trump administration to put up a new installation that replaced much of the material about the individual enslaved people at Washington’s house with general education about slavery and abolition.In a decision written by Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman, a George W. Bush nominee, the three-judge panel ruled that Philadelphia failed to prove that it suffered “concrete injury” when NPS took down the exhibit without consulting the city.Hardiman argued that Philadelphia’s rights were limited within the national park site and did not include the President’s House site. He argued that a 2006 cooperative agreement between the park service and Philadelphia had expired, noting that the federal agency now owns the property.“The City attempts to leverage language in the Cooperative Agreement that obligates NPS to ‘maintain’ the President’s House after it is finished,” Hardiman wrote. “The duty to ‘maintain’ is better understood as a general management obligation that accompanies ownership, not a promise that the exhibits will forever remain in place regardless of the owner’s wishes.”

Trump’s statue garden heads to federal court - A coalition of advocacy and historical organizations sued the Trump administration Monday to block plans to build a National Garden of American Heroes on Washington’s National Mall. The groups are challenging the Interior Department’s plan to repurpose West Potomac Park, a green space dotted with cherry trees in between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial, for the president’s garden, which would include 250 statues of the country’s former presidents, civil rights leaders, artists, entrepreneurs and military generals. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Democracy Forward, argues that the garden proposal violates several federal laws, including the Commemorative Works Act, which requires congressional approval of any new monuments or commemorative works on the National Mall. The mall is the central civic space in the nation’s capital, originally envisioned by Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s design of the city in 1791.

Lawmakers caution Burgum, NPS they have ‘no power to build’ Trump’s arch -A group of six lawmakers sent a letter on Monday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Acting Director of the National Park Service (NPS) Jessica Bowron and one other official alerting them that they have “no power to build” a triumphal arch without approval from Congress. “We oppose this project in the strongest terms and object to execution of the draft Programmatic Agreement. The National Park Service (NPS) is assessing the effects of an undertaking that Congress has never authorized and that two federal statutes squarely prohibit,” Sens. Angus King (I-Maine), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Democratic Reps. Jared Huffman (Calif.), Maxine Dexter (Ore.) and Yaasmin Ansari (Ariz.) wrote. “Section 106 [of the National Historic Preservation Act] consultation cannot supply that missing authority, and no programmatic agreement can resolve the adverse effects of a project the NPS has no power to build,” they added. Five representatives and one lone senator said that efforts to erect a 250-foot triumphal arch violate the Height of Buildings Act under its current dimensions and the Commemorative Works Act, which requires congressional approval to erect structures on federal land. “A departure of this magnitude from the capital’s settled vertical order is precisely the kind of decision the law reserves to Congress,” lawmakers wrote. “Beyond its illegality, the Arch would deface one of the most deliberate and historic sightlines in America,” they added. Their concern for the project comes amid a lawsuit from Vietnam War veterans, who shared objections to the project on the same grounds as members of Congress. Two House Democrats also introduced a bill in an attempt to block Trump’s project located in between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. However, last month, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts approved a modified design for the arch set to be located in Memorial Circle on Columbia Island. The Trump administration has also maintained that projects on land owned by the Interior Department aren’t subject to congressional approval. “In America’s 250th year, President Trump wants to fulfill this vision and build the Triumphal Arch to celebrate the triumphs of the American people, inspires patriotism and love of country, and beautify our nation’s capital,” a department spokesperson told The Hill. “The arch will also enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, the families of the fallen, and all Americans alike, serving as a visual reminder of the noble sacrifices borne by so many American heroes throughout our 250-year history so we can enjoy our freedoms today,” they added. However, lawmakers warned the White House and slated contractors of the project’s illegality in their Monday letter. “No valid authority has been conferred here. Every official who directs this work, and every firm that performs it, proceeds at their own peril,” lawmakers wrote.

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool: Algae returns post-Trump renovation Images of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool show that green algae have returned to the site on the National Mall despite President Trump’s renovations.  The project, which cost more than $13 million, included the addition of nanobubbler technology that has “successfully destroyed the algae,” according to the Interior Department.  A spokesperson told The Hill that “due to deploying the advanced nanobubbler technology” the algae are “dead” and “being vacuumed up as we speak.” “We thank President Trump for fixing the Reflecting Pool for good,” the spokesperson added.  A federal contract between the Interior Department and Green Water Solutions says the new technology is intended to help weed out the algae by cutting down on its food supply.  The photosynthetic plant has been present at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool since it opened in 1922 and has plagued the site dating all the way up to 2012, when renovations were completed under the second Obama administration. Katie Martin, a spokesperson for the Interior Department, told CNN the recent algae flare-ups were expected and are a “part of the normal startup process.”   “What you are seeing is residual algae from the supply lines, which have been sitting dormant for eight weeks while construction has been taking place,” she told CNN. The National Park Service is set to be in charge of maintaining the site. As a part of Trump’s renovations, the bottom of the pool was painted “American Flag” blue and leaks throughout the 2,028 foot-long site that holds approximately 6.75 million gallons of water were repaired. An Interior Department spokesperson previously said the pool used to leak up to 16 million gallons of water per year.In addition to repairing leaks in the structure, the Trump administration is preparing to fix leaky pipes in the fall, as reported by The New York Times.

See blue paint peel away in Lincoln Memorial’s iconic Reflecting Pool - Photos appear to show peeling of the “American Flag Blue” paint in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, as the National Park Service works to control and remove an algae bloom that turned the water green following the Trump administration’s $16 million repair, resealing and painting project. A combination of pictures of the renovations of the Reflecting Pool taken May 2, May 28, June 7, June 12, June 16 and June 18, 2026, which was painted blue at the directive of President Donald Trump, ahead of the 250th anniversary of U.S. Independence, in Washington, DC. Paint peels from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after recent renovations following a directive from U.S. President Donald Trump to paint it blue ahead of the 250th anniversary of U.S. Independence, in Washington, DC, on June 18, 2026.

Trump says 'multiple arrests' made at Reflecting Pool amid vandalism claims - President Trump claimed on Saturday that multiple individuals have been arrested for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as he seeks to deflect blame for ongoing water quality and maintenance problems stemming from a recent multi-million renovation project.“The United States Park Police have arrested multiple individuals for vandalizing our Nations magnificent Reflecting Pool,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Who would do such a thing? These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments. Years in jail!”The president also noted that work would begin “immediately” on repairs.The National Park Service (NPS) did not immediately return The Hill’s request for comment.Trump announced plans to repair and renovate the 2,028-foot-long reflecting pool at the base of the Lincoln Memorial in late April, describing its condition as “terrible” and “filthy.” The $14.2 million remodel, which included waterproofing the pool’s bottom, resealing leaking joints and repainting it “American Flag blue,” was completed in the first week of June.But it didn’t take long for issues that have long plagued the iconic fixture of the nation’s capital to return. Within days, a green hue spread across the water as clumps of algae once again returned to the surface.Crews deployed by the Interior Department soon began using hydrogen peroxide and nanobubble technology in an attempt to combat the algae blooms.The pool’s custom paint job — handpicked by the president — didn’t last, either.  Photos taken in recent days showed blue paint peeling from bottom and floating to the top.  It was one of those paint chunks that reportedly led to the arrest of 67-year-old David Hearn on Friday. Hearn, a former U.S. Olympian who competed in slalom canoe racing, was detained for nearly five hours on a charge of destruction of government property, according to the Washington Post.The Bethesda, Md., resident denied any wrongdoing, telling the newspaper in an interview on Saturday that he “reached in there” and grabbed the end of a piece of a paint that was already peeling.“I didn’t vandalize anything,” Hearn said. “I didn’t destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.”

Gavin Newsom says Trump ordered DOJ to investigate him and his wife - California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday accused President Donald Trump of ordering the Department of Justice to investigate the Democrat and his wife. Newsom said in a post on X that Trump was motivated to target the governor and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom with the probe because of the fact that “I am considering running for President.” The governor did not say what he understands the DOJ to be investigating, or if he even knows what it is. ″One by one, anyone who has challenged Donald Trump has ended up on his hit list,” Newsom said in a video statement. “And today, I proudly join that list.” “After calling for my arrest last year, Donald Trump directed his Department of Justice to investigate me,” Newsom said. “They have not found a crime — they are simply trying to find one.” But MS NOW on Monday reported that an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento, Calif., is investigating Newsom and Siebel Newsom, and that the probe is largely focused on her tax filings. That probe dates to early 2025 and is just one of several investigations that have encircled Newsom, his office and his family, according to two sources cited by MS NOW. The DOJ’s public integrity section had been looking at potential tax fraud and evasion by Siebel Newsom, and had partnered with the U.S. Attorney’s office on that inquiry, the sources said. Siebel Newsom has been interviewed by investigators in that probe, which is focused on evidence suggesting personal use of nonprofit funds, MS NOW reported. Newsom, in his statement, said, “Donald Trump picked the wrong target. We have nothing to hide.” Newsom compared himself to other Trump foes who have found themselves targeted by the DOJ in the president’s second term in the White House, among them former FBI Director James Comey, former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Lutnick’s Anthropic crackdown claims new power over AI models- The Trump administration’s push to rein in Anthropic PBC, outlined in a recent Commerce Department order, relies on an unprecedented use of export control laws and raises legal questions about whether the US can dictate who can access artificial intelligence systems. In ordering Anthropic to obtain US approval for foreign nationals to use its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expanded the boundaries of laws governing transfers of sensitive technology to target the mere usage of cutting-edge AI models. That’s fueling concerns among developers and their customers about the government’s willingness to intervene in their operations on national security grounds. Before last week’s directive, the technology industry had operated under the assumption, based on past official advisory opinions, that export controls did not apply to usage of cloud-based programs, even if US restrictions applied to transfers of the software code itself. In the wake of Lutnick’s letter, “you can’t say that any more,” said Kate Koren, a deputy director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Now that the Commerce Department has done it, no company can rule out that they’re going to do it again,” added Koren, who previously worked at the Commerce Department. “Until or unless this is challenged, any customer has to assume this could happen for any model at any time.” The order marked the government’s most significant intervention in the AI industry, prompting Anthropic to immediately disable access to both models. It represented a major shift from plans to vet AI models based on companies’ voluntary participation spelled out by an executive order from President Donald Trump a little more than two weeks ago. Lutnick’s letter to the company, seen by Bloomberg News, has raised questions over whether simply using an AI model now counts legally as a technology transfer. That position, which is required to make the order’s restrictions enforceable, runs counter to past practice regarding access to software capabilities, according to export control analysts and trade lawyers. The Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees US export control programs, has long enforced rules requiring companies to gain US approval before sharing certain sensitive technologies, including with foreign employees, a process it calls “deemed exports,” but its application to AI usage is uncharted territory. “For the provisions cited in the letter, it matters a quite a lot what Commerce means by ‘model,’” said Chris Chamberlain, a former Commerce Department adviser and partner in the law firm Morrison Foerster’s national security group. “The baseline interpretation is that providing cloud access to software is not an export or deemed export of that software.” In his letter, addressed to Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei, Lutnick cited two codified export control authorities that he said give the US the ability to impose license requirements. Those powers, however, remain relatively untested and may only be applicable for specific countries, rather than on a worldwide basis. The first statute gives the US the ability to identify emerging technologies and enact interim restrictions over them. The second allows the government to quickly impose license requirements to defuse a risk of controlled technologies reaching a military intelligence end user in an adversarial nation like China or Russia. While the administration has yet to comment on the reasons for its decision, the company says it believes the government issued the order after discovering that it’s possible to “jailbreak,” or bypass the guardrails, of Fable 5, a recently released version of Mythos that Anthropic had blocked from carrying out cybersecurity tasks. “The US has solved a problem,” Koren said, referring to the jailbreak risk. “But they’ve opened a can of worms by doing it this way.” Since last week, the company’s technical staff and administration officials have been holding discussions in a bid to resolve the government’s national security concerns, though so far, there’s been little public sign of progress. When asked Wednesday at the Group of Seven summit in France about the status of the talks, Trump said they were “going fine” but gave no additional details. At the G-7, the US crackdown on Anthropic took center stage, with French President Emmanuel Macron leading discussions on ways to deploy advanced AI models through so-called trusted partners. Broadly, the US move has “renewed worldwide calls for technological sovereignty and independence from the American ecosystem,” said Michelle Nie, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security. For now, the Commerce Department’s measures require Anthropic to obtain a license to offer those models to anyone who’s a foreign person. The company doesn’t currently require citizenship verifications for its users, and it counts foreign nationals among its own employees. The move means the rest of the AI industry will be forced to take heed of the authority asserted by Lutnick, and BIS can invoke other powers if the specific provisions used against Anthropic are contested. That raises the risk of service interruptions for companies that run afoul of US government requests.

Amazon voiced concerns about Anthropic AI models before US government's crackdown, source says (Reuters) - Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was among tech leaders who raised concerns to senior Trump administration officials this week about security risks in Anthropic’s most advanced AI models, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. Jassy's involvement sheds light on the extraordinary move by Anthropic on Friday to shut down its latest models globally in response to national security orders from the Trump administration. The San Francisco-based AI startup, which has confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, had previously warned about the hacking capabilities of its Mythos model and held it back from wide release, but earlier this week Anthropic rolled out a public version, called Fable, with what it described as cybersecurity safeguards. That brief release ended on Friday. In a blog post, Anthropic said the U.S. government told the company it believes there is a method of bypassing, or "jailbreaking," a safeguard against using the model to find cybersecurity holes. The bypass found only "minor" security flaws that other publicly available models can also find, Anthropic said in its blog post. The Trump administration ordered Anthropic to block any foreign nationals, whether inside or outside the U.S., from using both its latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, the company said. In response, Anthropic said it would disable access to the models globally. Amazon did not confirm whether it spoke to government officials about Anthropic's models. "As a leading cloud provider that serves a large number of private and public sector customers, it’s not uncommon for governments to seek our counsel on potential security risks," an Amazon spokesperson told Reuters. "When they occur, we don’t share the details of these discussions." The Information, a technology news outlet, earlier on Saturday reported Jassy's concerns. The Information, citing a U.S. official, later reported that the administration was unlikely to force other AI firms to abide by restrictions similar to those placed on Anthropic. Reuters could not immediately verify the Trump administration's plans for regulating other firms. The U.S. government restrictions came in the form of an export control, Anthropic said in its blog post. The U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees export controls, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Some experts who favor export controls on advanced AI models found the Trump administration's action puzzling because it affects allied nations as well as adversaries. “This was not well thought-out," said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior fellow at the University of California's Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation. "It even bans Canadians and Brits employed at Anthropic from doing research and development.” The order came just as a previous dispute between Trump administration officials and Anthropic showed signs of easing across parts of the U.S. government. ​

Trump DOJ supports Musk-owned data center in suit by NAACP - The Trump administration urged a federal court on Monday to dismiss an environmental lawsuit against Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, saying the company’s Grok government model and the data centers that power it are crucial to national security.The NAACP alleges that xAI has rushed to build and continue expanding its Colossus Gas Plant in vulnerable and heavily Black communities near the Tennessee-Mississippi border without legally required permits or pollution controls.In court papers filed Monday, the Justice Department argued that the suit would impair the White House’s priority of promoting AI infrastructure, which it says the military needs to “meet its national security mission and keep pace with adversaries.” “Grok’s continued operation and availability ‘is a matter of paramount national security’” because it is one of only four cutting-edge AI models that can support national security applications, and one of just three suitable for “mission-critical operations across Secret and Top-Secret classified networks,” the department told U.S. District Judge Debra Brown, who is presiding over the lawsuit in federal court in Mississippi. The relief sought by “the NAACP threatens American national, economic, and energy security by seeking to shut off the power supply for artificial-intelligence innovation that supports the Department of War’s military operations,” the department said.  Brown is an appointee of former President Barack Obama. The DOJ noted that the military used Grok during Operation Epic Fury, the massive U.S. attack on Iran, to aid in the deployment of more than 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours. The administration added that the court should give priority to its position because the government remains the primary enforcer of federal environmental laws, despite provisions allowing for citizen suits. Officials’ decision to forgo enforcement in a particular case should therefore supersede any private actions, the Justice Department said.The Trump administration’s support for xAI comes as Americans are expressing increasing wariness about data centers — and their views fluctuate depending on whether President Donald Trump is associated with them. A February POLITICO Poll found that support fell by roughly 20 percent among Democrats and undecided voters when asked if they would support a Trump-led push to expand data centers, compared with a plan that does not mention the president. The NAACP contends that xAI has been running at least 57 polluting turbines at its gas plant in the Tennessee-Mississippi border area — enough to power an estimated 738,000 to 950,000 homes — without first obtaining permits or installing pollution controls required by the Clean Air Act.Last week, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency would not set nationwide environmental requirements or recommendations for data centers.Attorneys with Earthjustice and the Southern Environmental Law Center are representing the NAACP and its local branch in the lawsuit, which also names xAI subsidiary MZX Tech as a defendant. The companies and parent corporation SpaceX are also facing a public nuisance lawsuit by local residents alleging the power plant emits inescapable noise affecting their health and home values.

Google sues alleged AI scam ring behind 9,000 fake sites, 1 million domains, and 2.5 million texts - Google has filed suit over what it says is a sprawling scam operation that used AI to send deceptive text messages and funnel people to lookalike websites aimed at harvesting passwords and payment details. According to the company, the scheme operated on a large scale and affected hundreds of thousands of people.In the suit, Google accuses the outfit Outsider Enterprise of mounting phishing campaigns while posing as Google and other well-known companies, TechCrunch reported.Google linked the operation to 9,000 spoofed websites, roughly 1 million sham domains, and 2.5 million scam texts sent to Android users in about a two-week span.. Google said the scheme hit "hundreds of thousands of victims" and led to losses "estimated in the millions." Filed Friday, Google's complaint characterizes Outsider as a "turn-key, online software suite" that it says enables criminals, regardless of technical skill, to spin up phishing pages within minutes. The software package allegedly costs as little as $88 per week and comes with more than 290 ready-made templates that mimic financial institutions, retailers, telecom providers, and government agencies. Google further alleged that participants openly organized on Telegram and relied on AI tools, including Google's own Gemini, to produce fake pages more quickly. Why does it matter? Because the messages can appear to come from a familiar company, a recipient may hand over login credentials, multi-factor authentication codes, or credit card information before realizing it is a scam. Google said, "55,000 spam texts were flagged by Android users in just two weeks this past May — that's more than two text spam complaints a minute." The FBI told TechCrunch that Outsider Enterprise's platform, beginning in July 2023, enabled cybercriminals to steal "at least an estimated 3,870,000 stolen credit cards and a corresponding estimated $1.9B in losses." AI can help detect fraud, improve digital security, and even support the energy grid by forecasting electricity demand and helping distribute clean energy more efficiently. At the same time, the technology can be misused to automate scams at scale, while large AI systems can require significant amounts of electricity and water to operate, creating pressures that can strain infrastructure and even contribute to higher energy costs. Google said it is using "AI-powered tools to fight AI-powered scams," including systems that detect suspicious calls and texts and help block them before they reach users. The company said those defenses now intercept more than 10 billion scam messages each month. It also said it has been working with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to block malicious text campaigns while coordinating with the FBI. An FBI spokesperson told TechCrunch that, working with Google and Lumen's Black Lotus Labs, the bureau seized multiple domains tied to the cybercriminals, along with Shopify storefronts and accounts used to test the operation's phishing service.

Galbraith’s bezzle lurks beneath the AI frenzy - (Reuters Breakingviews) - In his book “The Great Crash 1929”, John Kenneth Galbraith coined the term “bezzle”. The economist defined the term as “an inventory of undiscovered embezzlement in – or more precisely not in – the country’s businesses and banks.” According to Galbraith, the bezzle grows “in good times [when] people are relaxed, trusting, and money is plentiful”. We are living through such times, once again. Enthusiasm for anything ​related to AI has made investors too relaxed and trusting about the financial activities of the leading companies involved in the technology revolution. The bezzle comes in various forms. It is found when ‌companies overstate their earnings and understate their expenses. Accounting shenanigans are a common feature. During the British railway mania of the 1840s, for instance, the “Railway King” George Hudson paid dividends out of capital and arranged dubious transactions between companies under his control. The bezzle often involves manufactured profits, such as the gains on stock trades by Japanese corporations in the late 1980s. During the tech boom at the turn of the century, telecom equipment providers, including Nortel and Lucent, boosted their earnings by providing loans to less creditworthy customers. Some telecom companies at ​the time engaged in sham swaps of network capacity to boost reported revenue. Liabilities are concealed.  The vendor financing trend of the dot-com bubble has been superseded by vendor-investing. Microsoft committed to large investments in OpenAI, which ⁠in turn agreed to use the software giant’s cloud services. Nvidia owns more than 10% of the neocloud firm, CoreWeave, which is a large customer for the $5 trillion chip giant’s graphics processing units (GPUs). When OpenAI secured commitments for $110 billion of ​new funding in February, $50 billion came from Amazon.com and $30 billion from Nvidia. Naturally, the ChatGPT-maker committed to using Amazon Web Services and Nvidia’s GPUs. That’s not all.  Unrealised gains on AI investments are already inflating the earnings of Big Tech companies. More ​than half the profits (reported as “other income” in the earnings statement) of Alphabet and Amazon in the first quarter came from the increased valuation of their stakes in the unlisted companies, principally OpenAI and Anthropic.  Related-party transactions in the AI ecosystem are the norm. Prior to its successful May IPO, chipmaker Cerebras Systems earned most of its revenues in Abu Dhabi, whose G42 AI venture was previously a shareholder. In February, Musk’s SpaceX acquired his xAI business at a valuation of $250 billion. Prior to SpaceX’s IPO, Google committed to pay the company nearly $1 billion a ​month to rent computing capacity. Google’s parent Alphabet was an early investor in Musk’s space-to-AI venture. Financial reporting of AI costs is another area deserving scrutiny. In recent years, big tech cloud computing firms – known as hyperscalers — have extended the ​depreciation schedules for their expensive AI chips from around 3 years to between 5 and 6 years. The investor Michael Burry claims that this has served to inflate profits. Others, however, argue that the change is justified because, while GPUs have a short useful ‌life training AI ⁠models, they can be profitably deployed elsewhere for longer periods. Data centres take up to three years to build. Hyperscalers that stockpile GPUs are not required to depreciate the chips until they are used. In the meantime, they are lodged on the balance sheet as “construction in progress”. At the end of last year, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Oracle reported nearly $220 billion worth of such assets. Balance sheets in the AI world don’t include many of the liabilities incurred by the leading players. Broadcom recently launched a $35 billion special purpose vehicle, supported by buyout giants Apollo Global Management and Blackstone, with the semiconductor giant providing computing capacity for Anthropic and OpenAI as well as a financial backstop. Prior to the financial crisis, another artefact of ​financial engineering, the Variable Interest Entity (VIE), was used to ​conceal banks’ subprime exposures. Meta’s planned $27 billion Hyperion data centre⁠is funded by a VIE operated by private credit operator, Blue Owl. . Since the Facebook owner only holds a minority stake in the platform, Hyperion’s liabilities will not be consolidated in its accounts. Analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate that a total of around $1.8 trillion worth of liabilities in the AI domain have been kept off hyperscalers’ balance sheets. This sum includes ​around $1 trillion worth of purchase commitments that don’t have to be reported unless the company expects a loss. Lease commitments, which amount to around $800 billion, also don’t appear ​on the balance sheet until the ⁠lease commences. These off-balance sheet risks have grown so large that the International Monetary Fund notes them as a concern.What’s clear is that businesses at the core of the AI system are bleeding cash. In the first quarter, xAI’s costs were around three times sales. Earlier this year, OpenAI projected that it would burn through $25 billion this year, The Information reported.. Though Anthropic expects to report its first quarter of positive adjusted operating profit, it is also likely to burn cash in the foreseeable future. By the end ⁠of this year, ​the hyperscalers’ once mighty free cash flow will have evaporated thanks to their continued capital spending, according to Gerard Minack of Minack Advisors. ​Alphabet has been raising vast amounts from creditors and equity investors. Nvidia this week is launching a $25 billion bond, despite reporting $72 billion of cash and marketable securities at the end of the last quarter. During the boom period, the bezzle increases rapidly. Few care to pay attention. “In depression all this ​is reversed,” writes Galbraith. “Money is watched with a narrow, suspicious eye… Audits are penetrating and meticulous.” The AI revolution has yet to meet its moment of reckoning. One day it will.

'Stop prompting, start delegating': Anthropic exec to banks -Anthropic's Head of Banking Katie McNamara urged banks to adopt agentic AI on Wednesday.  In a June 17 presentation at the 2026 New York Banking Summit — which was cohosted by Fitch Ratings and KPMG — McNamara argued that banks must move toward an agentic workforce operating alongside humans. She outlined where Anthropic has already observed that shift taking hold, and offered practical advice on how financial organizations should govern and lead through the technological transition.

• Key insight: McNamara broke down three types of agentic deployment she sees in the financial industry — internal productivity, faster workflows and net-new products — and argued the real ROI gap lies in the second and third areas. 
• Expert quote: "The biggest mantra I want you to take back: stop prompting, start delegating," Anthropic Head of Banking Katie McNamara said, adding that the shift in mindset is what separates banks that are merely experimenting from those actually accelerating.
• Forward look: McNamara cautioned against centralizing AI development in a single innovation team, instead urging banks to decentralize experimentation to the employees closest to the work while keeping governance, safety and security controlled.

Anthropic's head of banking told New York Banking Summit attendees that the future is agents that operate autonomously alongside employees.

Regulatory silence on generative AI isn't a license for inaction - Somewhere in your institution, three things are happening right now. Someone is using a personal AI tool on their work laptop without IT approval or compliance knowing it exists. Someone else has deployed the board-approved enterprise tool and moved on, assuming the hard governance work was done. A third person is doing the hard things: questioning the output, noting the deficiencies, and understanding how each output will shape a decision or reach a customer before it gets there. The distance between the first two and the third is the governance gap every financial institution faces.

• Key insight: Regulators' decision to avoid discussion of generative and agentic AI does not remove banks' obligation to face up to their risks.
• What's at stake: Financial institutions are among the most heavily targeted by bad actors, and the pace of AI adoption in adversarial contexts has outrun traditional governance frameworks.
• Expert quote: "Generative AI and agentic AI models are novel and rapidly evolving. As such, they are not within the scope of this guidance. Nonetheless, a banking organization's risk management and governance practices should guide the determination of appropriate governance and controls for any tools, processes, or systems not covered in this document. However, the principles described in this guidance apply to traditional statistical and quantitative models and non-generative, non-agentic AI models." —SR 26-2

Regulators have signaled that the speed of progress in generative and agentic artificial intelligence makes producing definitive guidance impractical. That does not remove banks' obligation to face up to their risks.

Banks aren't ready for AI agents moving money, experts warn | American Banker - -Chris Ward, head of enterprise payments at Truist, and Meena Athinathan, banking lead at consulting firm Cognizant, discuss how banks are keeping up with security threats at American Banker's Digital Banking conference in Orlando with panel moderator Chana Schoenberger (at left), American Banker's editor-in-chief.

• Key insight: Banks built their fraud and identity defenses for humans, not for AI agents transacting with a customer's own credentials, the panelists warned.
• Supporting data: U.S. consumers reported losing $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, up 25%, with investment scams the largest category at $5.7 billion (FTC); the FBI put total losses above $16.6 billion.
• Forward look: Robinhood's agentic accounts already isolate funds, set limits and include a kill switch while putting the risk on the customer; Athinathan urged banks to route agents through a controlled "choke point" until regulators set rules.

Overview bullets generated by AI with editorial review.

JPMorganChase blocks Hong Kong staff from using Claude | American Banker JPMorganChasehas cut off its Hong Kong-based employees from Anthropic's Claude AI model, citing licensing and terms-of-service issues, according to the Financial Times. The move follows a similar step Goldman Sachs took in April.

• Key insight: JPMorganChase has blocked Hong Kong employees from using Anthropic's Claude model.
• What's at stake: This incident is part of a growing trend of banks and AI vendors reacting to government concerns about national security.
• Forward look: Some experts say other banks should follow JPMorgan's and Goldman's example.

Fifth Third injects AI into its mobile app | American Banker - Fifth Third has added an AI-based navigational aid into its mobile banking app that the bank says helps customers find what they need and complete everyday financial tasks with fewer steps.The bank has built 150 pre-populated options into the model, such as "activate card," which the customer taps to be guided directly to the most relevant place, whether that is a mobile screen for task completion, an AI-based chatbot, or live support from a Fifth Third representative.

• Key insight: Fifth Third is adding AI-based navigation to its mobile banking app, though it is not a generative or agentic model.
• Supporting data: Fifth Third's mobile app has more than 2.4 million monthly users and supports more than 1 billion digital interactions each year.
• Forward look: The new model has begun rolling out to customers and will be fully available by the end of the month.

'It's lazy:' BMO's Milchanowski on AI-related layoffs | American Banker  -- Several tech companies, including Block, have announced AI-related layoffs recently. Kristin Milchanowski is not a fan."With some of the layoffs that we're seeing, I think it's quite frankly lazy," she said during a fireside chat at American Banker's Digital Banking Conference this week. "Productivity gains or losses are years in the working. They're not some overnight issue. So, a lot of the layoffs that we're seeing from the big tech firms are because they got bloated. They need to get rid of the bloat, and the easy blame right now is AI."

• Key insight: AI deployments need to be done with empathy, not with staff reductions, according to Kristin Milchanowski, chief AI and data officer at BMO.
• Relevant stats: Companies cited artificial intelligence for 54,836 planned layoffs in 2025.
• Forward look: Milchanowski says BMO will be able to grow while keeping headcount level, using AI.

Phishing now hits Americans 14 times a day, with AI making scams harder to spot -— “Phishing” scams, where cybercriminals impersonate a trusted entity—such as a bank, government agency, or delivery service—are the number one cyber threat faced by most Americans. These email and text messages, which are designed to trick you into providing sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers, passwords, or credit card numbers, are blamed for most cyber-enabled crimes, according to the FBI’s 2026 Internet Crime Report. The sheer volume of the attacks, via email and text messaging, is overwhelming. During the first quarter of 2026, Microsoft Threat Intelligence detected approximately 8.3 billion email-based phishing threats. Text-message phishing (called “smishing”) is now the primary means of attack, accounting for 30 percent of all observed cyber scams last year, according to the Cyber Readiness Report. Phishing attacks are no longer limited to email and text messages. Cyber-thieves are using instant messaging apps, social media, malicious advertisements, bogus QR codes, and copycat websites to target their victims.“The tactics that used to work back in the 2010’s are not the same today,” said Mark Beare, general manager for consumer business at Malwarebytes, a digital security firm. “They’re much, much, much more advanced.” Phishing has become so lucrative, Beare told Checkbook, that bad actors are “choosing to invest money to fool people, just like marketing companies will in customer acquisition.”The term “Phishing” was officially coined around 1995 to describe criminals who used digital “bait” to “lure” victims into sharing sensitive information.We’ve come a long way since the “Nigerian Prince” emails that claimed you’d get rich if you helped move millions of dollars out of Africa. Those emails typically were filled with typos and grammatical mistakes.Most phishing attacks still rely on social engineering tricks—using fear, urgency, curiosity, and emotional appeals to manipulate people into compromising their own security. They involve fake texts and emails claiming there’s a problem with a package delivery, warning that you owe a parking toll, or that there’s a problem with your tax return. They’re designed to get you to respond instantly, without thinking.The latest attacks have evolved into highly sophisticated campaigns that are difficult to spot. Here are two examples of the new threat: fake invites and corrupted CAPTCHA forms.Con artists know that most people will open an electronic invitation to a party or other social gathering. So they’re sending malicious invitations that appear to be from a well-known online invitation platform, such as Evite, Paperless Post, or Punchbowl.“While fear and urgency are common threads with a lot of scams, it’s not a requirement, said Eva Velasquez, CEO of the non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center. “With the Evite phishing attack, the fraudsters are using your desire for connection and to be social to get you to click on a link that you weren’t expecting.”If you click the link, bad things can happen: Either malware will be downloaded onto your device, allowing criminals to steal your personal information, or you’ll be redirected to the scammer’s copycat website that will prompt you to enter your email password, which will provide the scammers with direct access to your email account, which can have serious repercussions.You may not consider your email a sensitive account, but “it’s the keys to the kingdom,” Velasquez warned, because if criminals can compromise your email account, they can use it to reset passwords on other accounts. So, never enter your email password for any reason except to log in to your email.Check the sender’s email.The invite will always come from the official corporate URL. If there’s a personal email address, such as from Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail, it’s fake.

• Inspect the links. Hover your mouse over the “click here” link to see the actual URL. If it doesn’t lead directly to the official platform (evite.com, paperlesspost.com, punchbowl.com, etc.), don’t click it, regardless of how legitimate the invitation looks.
• Don’t provide any passwords. A legitimate invitation won’t prompt you to log into your email or provide your email password to view the card or RSVP.
• Don’t download any files. Authentic invites don’t contain attachments or require a download. You can open them directly.

5 outcomes AI is already delivering for fraud teams | American Banker -- Fraud losses hit $12.5 billion in 2024, up 25% from the previous year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Scams that once required specialized skills and expensive tools can now be launched by anyone with an internet connection and basic technical knowledge. This is largely due to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology — particularly generative AI capabilities — which allow machines to mimic human decision-making and communication patterns, learn from data, and adapt over time. Financial institutions and fintechs understandably want to push back against fraudsters and are seeking new ways to combat AI-driven fraud with AI-driven solutions. But applied without strategy, even the most exciting new technology also promises to create new vulnerabilities. For example, AI algorithms trained on limited data can perpetuate blind spots that fraudsters exploit, while AI tools that aren't properly integrated with existing fraud controls may cause gaps in coverage. To prevent financial losses and improve operational efficiency, AI fraud detection systems must be tied to real use cases, scalable patterns, and multi-layered defense strategies. This post covers five ways AI fraud detection strengthens risk management controls, from automating verification workflows to detecting coordinated fraud attacks in real-time. We demonstrate how these capabilities work together to prevent fraudulent activities by creating adaptive defenses that evolve alongside emerging threats. We explore anonymized examples of financial institutions and fintechs that are effectively utilizing AI in the fight against fraud.

• 1. Automating document verification. Today's fraud prevention teams are busy, and document forgeries can slip past even the most careful manual reviews. Identity theft remains one of the most persistent threats in financial services, with over 1.1 million reports submitted to the FTC in 2024 alone. While identity thieves steal and misuse real people's information, fraudsters are also increasingly turning to synthetic identities (often powered by generative AI and LLMs) as a more scalable way to commit fraud.  Experian research found that only 25% of financial service companies feel confident in addressing synthetic identity threats, and just 23% feel prepared to combat AI-generated and deepfake fraud. To remedy this, financial organizations are turning to AI-powered document verification (DocV), a type of identity verification protocol that makes and analyzes document requests at key touchpoints:
  • Account opening — When customers create new accounts, AI-driven DocV instantly validates their government IDs, proof of address, and other required documentation as part of the organization's KYC (Know Your Customer) process.
  • Loan applications — During lending workflows, DocV automatically verifies income statements, tax returns, and employment records to prevent application fraud. This replaces manual reviews that could take days and helps reduce friction without compromising security.
  • At the point of transaction — When customers initiate significant transfers or withdrawals, many organizations require additional document verification as a security measure.
  • Business banking — For commercial accounts, DocV helps validate business licenses, incorporation documents, and beneficial ownership information. These checks are both central to fraud prevention and necessary for complying with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, which require organizations to verify business entities to prevent financial crime.

  AI document verification accelerates legitimate transactions while identifying subtle inconsistencies that human reviewers might overlook. Machine learning algorithms can simultaneously analyze government IDs, cross-reference watch lists, and validate sanctions data.

• 2. Performing ongoing transaction monitoring. Machine learning excels at detecting subtle changes in transaction patterns that might escape human notice. Rather than relying on rigid rules, machine learning algorithms can determine what "normal" looks like for each customer and flag meaningful deviations — like a dormant account suddenly showing credit card fraud indicators like high-velocity purchases or signs of payment fraud. The automation advantage extends beyond pattern recognition. ML models monitor activity 24/7, automatically escalating suspicious behavior and flagging potentially fraudulent transactions while allowing legitimate ones to proceed. This selective friction approach maintains security without disrupting genuine customer activity.When potential fraud is flagged, fraud teams need to assess multiple data points (including related transactions, device data, and behavioral patterns) to determine whether escalation is needed. Machine learning helps streamline this process by reducing false positives and automatically prioritizing high-risk alerts, allowing teams to focus their expertise where it will have the most impact.
• 3. Stopping coordinated fraud attacks with actionable AI. Seventy-one percent of financial organizations identified professional crime rings as their primary fraud threat, according to Alloy's 2025 State of Fraud Benchmark Report. These coordinated groups can submit hundreds of applications in minutes, testing different combinations of stolen or synthetic identities until they find ones that work.Actionable AI tools, such as Alloy's Fraud Attack Radar, can help detect these coordinated attacks by analyzing application patterns in real-time. Rather than evaluating applications individually, Fraud Attack Radar's AI model looks across an institution's entire application queue to spot suspicious patterns — like multiple applications sharing IP addresses or similar email formats.When Fraud Attack Radar detects a potential fraud attack, it doesn't just alert the fraud team. It enables immediate action through "safe mode" workflows with heightened security measures that can be activated instantly. This allows institutions to maintain operations while addressing the threat, rather than shutting down application channels entirely.
• 4. Connecting onboarding and ongoing data for holistic risk detection.  While some AI tools look for patterns across multiple applications, others analyze individual customer behavior throughout their relationship with your organization. Together, these different types of AI models form the groundwork for holistic machine learning fraud protection.One such model is Alloy's Fraud Signal. Fraud Signal creates a holistic risk profile by combining signals from onboarding data (e.g., PII verification, device info), transactional data, account changes, and non-monetary signals. Unlike traditional entity models that focus solely on transactions within specific payment rails, Fraud Signal aggregates risk signals across all payment rails and event types. This provides a complete risk view across high-risk touchpoints throughout the customer lifecycle, from account opening through ongoing activity.This approach is especially powerful for detecting new account fraud, where fraudsters must be caught before they've had time to build a substantial transaction history. Alloy's Fraud Signal can detect fraud patterns that might not trigger traditional alerts — like a dormant account suddenly showing unusual activity or subtle changes in behavior that could indicate account takeover (ATO).
• 5. Optimizing fraud strategy and risk policies.  Machine learning can help financial organizations improve their fraud prevention strategies over time by analyzing approval rates, denial rates, and manual review patterns. These systems can recommend policy updates that enhance fraud detection while maintaining efficient customer onboarding.After experiencing a surge in fraudulent loan applications, a fintech used its policy optimization model to analyze approval and denial trends. The system flagged a subtle correlation: applications with mismatched employer information and unverifiable email domains were far more likely to result in downstream fraud. By adjusting their workflow to trigger enhanced verification for those patterns, the fintech was able to stop a wave of synthetic identity attacks — improving fraud prevention without adding friction to legitimate users.What previously took days of manual analysis to uncover (and might have slipped past traditional rules-based systems) can now be identified and stopped through real-time fraud detection, dramatically accelerating response time and reducing risk.

Trump family profiting from White House UFC fight? -- The White House is known as “The People’s House” because it belongs to all of us. That’s why so many Americans are struggling with what happened there this weekend.  The South Lawn wasn’t transformed into a venue for a state dinner, a diplomatic summit, or a celebration of public service. Instead, it became the backdrop for a UFC fight card complete with corporate sponsors, cryptocurrency promotions, luxury fundraising, and merchandise tied directly to the president.   President Trump didn’t just host the event for our country’s 250th birthday. Financial disclosures show he owns stock in UFC’s parent company, so he’s making money from this. He also held a million-dollar-per-plate fundraiser tied to his political operation over the weekend. And a line of Trump-branded UFC commemorative medallions is being sold for hundreds — and in some cases thousands — of dollars.  Then there’s the whole cryptocurrency connection.  The UFC announced that some fighters would receive bonuses in a stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial. Do you know what World Liberty Financial is? It’s a crypto company venture created by the Trump family. The company was also added as an official sponsor of the event just days before fight night.   And while supporters may see this as an entertaining celebration ahead of America’s 250th birthday, others see something very different: public property being used as a platform for private profit.  According to a legal filing, the UFC event reportedly required the involvement of multiple federal agencies, hundreds of personnel, and an estimated $60 million in resources. All of this comes as Americans are dealing with rising costs and growing economic uncertainty. Plainly said, folks cannot afford groceries and gas. The World Bank has warned that the conflict involving Iran is creating the most significant shock to the global economy since the COVID-19 pandemic.   So it’s not surprising that many Americans are questioning the priorities on display. Here’s CNN’s Harry Enten breaking down a recent poll showing just how unhappy people are with the event:  “Americans don’t find this thing to be appropriate,” he said. “Just 16 percent, just 16 percent overall, even among Republicans — you know the die-hard base, the Republican Party, with Trump through thick and thin, just 30 percent of Republicans. His approval rating with Republicans overall usually hovers over 80 percent, so were talking 50 points.”  That same poll found that 80 percent of independent voters see Trump as “out of touch.”  Whether you view this as a uniquely American spectacle or an undignified misuse of a national symbol, it undeniably reflects this moment in our culture. Politics has become entertainment. Entertainment has become politics. And the lines between governing, campaigning, branding, and making money seem blurrier than ever.  The White House may have hosted a fight this weekend, but the bigger fight is whether Americans will continue to accept leaders asking for their votes while showing so little regard for the financial struggles many families face every day.

I’m Starting to Think the White House UFC Fight Was All Just a Weird Crypto Scam Charles Pierce, Esquire - The less said about Trumpstock, the better. Although I must congratulate the White House Rapid Response Teen Titans for sniffing out a dangerous conspiracy. This event is about celebrating America’s unmatched greatness after 250 years—which apparently doesn’t sit well with the friendless loser who wrote this bullshit clickbait headline. Rain or shine, we’re accelerating our great country no matter what. GOD BLESS AMERICA!  That woke bastard, the Atmosphere, joined up with that soy boy, the Weather, so that the fake-news Weather Channel would report some fake news because everyone and everything except the Rapid Response 47 crew has TDS. And for the love of God, don’t read the comments to the Xwitter post. You will fill your pockets with rocks and hurl yourself into the sea.However, this is worth a look. From The Guardian: The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced on Friday that it will pay bonuses to fighters in a form of cryptocurrency issued by the Trump family business World Liberty Financial at the heavily publicized White House mixed martial arts event on Sunday.The development connects the Trump family’s financial interests to the high-profile UFC competition being promoted on government property. The competition on the south White House lawn is scheduled for 14 June, Donald Trump’s birthday.World Liberty is a venture of the Trump family and the family of Steven Witkoff, Trump’s friend and special envoy to the Middle East. The company is now listed as an “official sponsor” of UFC Freedom 250, the fight scheduled for Sunday. The use of its stablecoin in the fight would appear to boost efforts to have it used more more broadly. It certainly does appear that way. The 12-layer cake of grift that is this administration is sometimes so staggering that it’s a wonder it doesn’t topple over and bury everyone involved. Or, maybe, one blessed day it will.

“Bitcoin Rodney” Pleads Guilty In $1.8 Billion HyperFund Crypto Scam – -  Miami crypto promoter Rodney “Bitcoin Rodney” Burton pleaded guilty in Maryland federal court on June 17 to a conspiracy charge tied to HyperFund, a cryptocurrency operation that prosecutors say defrauded investors worldwide of $1.8 billion. Burton, 56, who also keeps a residence in Prince George’s County, Maryland, admitted to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business stemming from his role promoting the scheme. The plea makes him the latest figure convicted in a case federal authorities have built around one of the larger crypto frauds of the post-2020 cycle, and it carries a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Kelly O. Hayes announced the plea alongside IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Kareem Carter and Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Pete Gizas. Between June 2020 and January 2022, Burton conspired to provide unlicensed money transmitting services that promoted HyperFund and channeled investor funds toward enriching himself, according to the plea agreement. HyperFund presented itself as a legitimate cryptocurrency investment platform while operating as a global wire-fraud scheme that pulled in $1.8 billion from victim-investors worldwide.The platform told investors who bought HyperFund memberships they would earn between 0.5 and 1 percent daily until the company doubled or tripled their initial stake, payouts it claimed to sustain through large-scale crypto-mining operations that never existed. HyperFund began blocking investor withdrawals in 2021. Burton controlled several companies that marketed themselves as consulting firms but functioned as unlicensed money transmitting businesses. He personally collected at least $7,851,711 in proceeds, including money drawn from HyperFund victim-investors in Maryland.In December 2025, a superseding indictment widened Burton’s exposure well beyond the money-transmission count, adding wire fraud conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud, and seven counts of money laundering, a sharp escalation from the original January 2024 complaint. Court filings alleged Burton spent investor funds on luxury real estate, sports cars, and a yacht, and noted his arrest at Miami International Airport while holding a one-way ticket to the United Arab Emirates. The SEC’s parallel action charged alleged co-founder Xue “Sam” Lee, an Australian who fled to Dubai in 2021, and promoter Brenda “Bitcoin Beautee” Chunga with running HyperFund as a pyramid scheme with no legitimate revenue beyond investor deposits. Chunga settled with the SEC and pleaded guilty after being accused of siphoning more than $3.7 million. The scheme cycled through several brands, operating as HyperVerse, HyperTech, and HyperNation, with promoters leaning on fabricated leadership and celebrity endorsements. Investigators later dismantled the operation by tracing discrepancies between reported income and lavish spending, the same IRS-CI methods that surfaced in the $4 billion OneCoin fraud.

FBI: Fraudsters use couriers to steal money in crypto scams - The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned that criminals are using couriers to collect money from victims of cryptocurrency investment scams, also known as pig butchering or romance baiting.  Such scams usually start with the fraudsters reaching out to their targets via social media, dating sites, and messaging apps, building trust, and then luring victims into fake investment schemes. However, instead of investing their funds, the scammers will steal the money by moving it into accounts under their control.The warning came in the form of a public service announcement published on Monday, in which the law enforcement agency said that scammers are pushing targets toward in-person cash pickups (in some cases claiming a victim's account has been "flagged") after legitimate financial institutions block suspicious money transfers. The dispatched couriers identify themselves using an agreed-upon password or a specific dollar bill serial number. After the pickup, victims see a simulated increase in their virtual wallet balance and attempt to withdraw their winnings, but the scammers restart the cycle and demand even more cash for fraudulent taxes and penalties, again collected through couriers."Once victims obtain cash and inform the primary scammer they have the funds, the scammer arranges to send couriers to retrieve the cash at victims' homes or public locations. Scammers provide victims with a U.S. dollar bill serial number or another form of code/password," the FBI said."When the courier arrives, they show the victim the dollar bill or provide the agreed-upon password to authenticate the courier's affiliation with the scammer."The law enforcement agency advised people to research cryptocurrency platforms before investing, not to share their home addresses or deliver cash to unknown individuals, to stop all contact following unsolicited wrong-number communications, and to be alert to "love bombing," an extremely effective manipulation technique used to quickly build false trust with a target.Victims are urged to immediately file a complaint with the FBI and include as much information as possible, including the criminals' names, methods of communication, and bank accounts used in the scam. Two years ago, the FBI also warned that couriers were being used to collect cash in various other scams, including, but not limited to, tech support and government impersonation scams.The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report said that U.S. victims lost nearly $21 billion to cyber-enabled crimes last year, noting that investment scams accounted for 49% of all scam-related incidents and resulted in $8.6 billion in losses.

Ex-El Dorado County resident convicted in $1M investor scam - After an eight-day trial, a former El Dorado County resident was found guilty Thursday in a federal case regarding a series of fraudulent schemes. Amid the nearly $1 million scandal, Daniel Chartraw, formerly of South Lake Tahoe, was accused of controlling companies, including Crypto-Pal LLC. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California said he and other individuals acting on his behalf represented Crypto-Pal to investors as a cryptocurrency trading company with guaranteed high returns andno risk. Chartraw, 53, worked with investors via phone calls, text, email and virtual meetings, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, often using “Leonard” or “Leon” as an alias. Prosecutors say Chartraw, who also has ties to Lodi, built trust through personal and professional relationships by using false account statements to misrepresent data for additional investment funds. “When investors attempted to recover their money or questioned delays, he provided excuses, deflected responsibility, or stopped communicating altogether,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in a statement. Chartraw regularly used Crypto-Pal’s bank account to withdraw cash, make purchases and transfer investor funds into account he personally controlled, according to the Attorney’s Office, causing a total loss to investors of nearly $1 million. Senior U.S. District Judge William Shubb is expected to sentence Chartraw on Sept. 28, according to a release. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Cary woman loses thousands in Wake County jury duty scam through crypto ATM --- A Cary woman is sharing her story after losing thousands of dollars in a sophisticated jury duty scam that authorities say is increasingly targeting Wake County residents.Mia Bashir says the ordeal started with what seemed like a legitimate phone call from someone claiming to be a deputy. "I answered the phone and the guy introduced himself as a deputy," Bashir told Troubleshooter Diane Wilson.What made the call seem real was the personal information the caller already knew."He had my full name, my maiden name. He even read off my entire Social Security number. And so that made me think that this was legitimate," she said. The caller claimed Bashir had failed to appear for jury duty and was facing both civil and criminal charges. While she was on the phone, she says she received documents by text message that appeared to come from the U.S. Department of Justice outlining laws she had allegedly violated."There was a warrant for my arrest, and they were going to help me take care of it," Bashir said. "They were going to walk me through the process, get me in the car, and have me basically post my bond."Bashir says the caller kept her on the phone for hours, directing her every move. She was instructed to withdraw thousands of dollars from her bank account and drive to a gas station in Apex.Mia Bashir is speaking publicly in hopes of preventing others from becoming victims."I was instructed to go to the federal machine, where I would then put the money in under my name," she said.The machine, however, was not a federal payment kiosk. It was a cryptocurrency ATM."I thought it was a little bit strange that it was a Bitcoin machine, but he's in my ear, right?" Bashir said. "He had me on the phone for hours, and you're not able to walk away and think rationally."After depositing thousands of dollars, Bashir says the caller told her she had only covered the "state portion" of the charges and still needed to pay a federal portion. She deposited thousands more.The caller then told her the money would be held until she appeared before a judge the next day, at which point she would receive it back. Later that day, Bashir realized she had been scammed."I could not sleep, and I was in tears for a good solid week," she said. "It was awful. It makes you question yourself. It makes you question other people. I've watched plenty of shows, and I've heard plenty of stories to know, you know, that this happens, and yet somehow, they have a way with their system. They get you."She reported the incident to the police and is now speaking publicly in hopes of preventing others from becoming victims."Embarrassing as I guess it might seem, I don't want this to happen to anybody else. It was one of the most traumatizing experiences of my life. It was awful," Bashir said.Bashir is not alone when it comes to falling for a scam where a bitcoin ATM is used. The ABC11 I-Team, in collaboration with ABC News, has been investigating scams involving cryptocurrency ATMs. These kiosks allow users to deposit cash and purchase cryptocurrency that can then be transferred to another person. The FBI reported that Americans lost nearly $389 million to cryptocurrency ATM scams in 2025.

US House intros Stop Crypto ATM Scams Act - Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida and Democratic Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois introduced a bipartisan Stop Crypto ATM Scams Act in the House of Representatives. This act would establish guidelines to prevent fraud and put in place transaction limits, according to a press release. This bill aims to address the rise in crypto ATM scams, which account for more than $333 million in losses in 2025 according to data from the FBI. Under the Act, crypto ATMs would cap new customers to $2,000 for daily and $10,000 in total deposits during first 14 days in use, while existing customers would have $7,500. Other dictates include:

• Require scam warnings.
• Ensure crypto ATM operators report suspicious activity.
• Require operations to disclose fees and pricing.
• Establish a federal standard for transaction limits.

"My constituents have lost devastating sums of money to crypto-enabled fraud. Local banks and credit unions in my community are doing everything within their limited authority to stop these scams before they happen," Rep. Sean Casten said in the release. "Crypto ATMs offer criminals a quick and easy way to prey on seniors and steal their hard-earned money. Congress can address these abuses by requiring enhanced consumer protections, mandating clear scam warnings and robust disclosures, and applying the same anti-money laundering rules and fraud prevention measures that other crypto firms, banks and credit unions must comply with. This bill builds on strong action taken at the state level, including in Illinois, to crack down on crypto ATM scams."

Elliptic and Thai police uncover $520M in suspicious crypto transactions spanning 32 blockchains --Half a billion dollars in suspicious crypto transactions. Over 500 wallets. Thirty-two different blockchains. The numbers alone tell a story of industrial-scale fraud, and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic just helped Thai law enforcement read every chapter. Elliptic revealed its partnership with the Royal Thai Police’s High-Tech Crime Division (HTCD), detailing how the two organizations traced $520 million (17.8 billion baht) in incoming transactions across a sprawling network of digital wallets. The investigation linked hundreds of victim accounts spanning from January 2022 to October 2025, documenting approximately $14 million in individual losses. The investigation identified activity across 32 separate blockchains involving more than 400 unique digital assets. Ethereum, TRON, and Bitcoin were the most heavily used networks, with USDT, ETH, and BTC serving as the primary currencies of choice for the illicit operations. The criminal activities uncovered included scams totaling nearly $200 million. Among the most prominent were so-called “pig butchering” schemes, a category of fraud where scammers build trust with victims over weeks or months, often through fake romantic relationships or investment opportunities, before convincing them to pour money into fraudulent platforms. Approximately $234 million of the flagged transactions had been previously identified in Elliptic’s systems. That means nearly half the suspicious volume was corroborated by existing intelligence. The investigation revealed connections to North Korean operatives who allegedly targeted Thai victims as part of a significant theft. The broader picture paints a troubling portrait of organized crime infrastructure operating out of scam centers in countries neighboring Thailand, particularly Cambodia and Myanmar. The investigation highlighted how criminals are increasingly leveraging decentralized exchanges and cross-chain bridges to move funds across blockchains. Every time funds hop from one chain to another through a bridge, the connection between source and destination becomes harder to trace without specialized tools. The gap between $520 million in suspicious transactions and $14 million in documented victim losses tells its own story. The vast majority of illicit volume represents the laundering infrastructure itself—the movement of money through layers of wallets and chains designed to obscure its origins. The assets most frequently used in these schemes—USDT, ETH, and BTC—are also the most liquid and widely held tokens in crypto. Any regulatory action targeting their use in illicit finance could introduce short-term volatility, particularly if exchanges face new obligations around transaction monitoring or wallet screening.

FBI issues urgent Kali365 security warning for Teams, Outlook, OneDrive users -  The FBI released an urgent security warning to the public about a fast-acting scam targeting Microsoft 365 users on Teams, Outlook and OneDrive.  The agency warned that the hacking platform Kali365 seeks out OAuth device codes, allowing scammers to sneak past multifactor authentication codes, and without the need for a password, to access Microsoft accounts.  Scammers will send a phishing email impersonating a trusted document-sharing service with a device code and instructions on how to verify, according to the FBI.“Kali365 lowers the barrier of entry, providing less-technical attackers access to AI-generated phishing lures, automated campaign templates, real-time targeted individual/entity tracking dashboards, and OAuth token capture capabilities,” the FBI stated.  The platform is sold to scammers with a $250 per month subscription. The FBI, which first detected Kali365 in April, described the hacking platform as an “emerging Phishing-as-a-Service platform.” Hackers with limited skills can access advanced phishing tools through the platform, according to NordPass. The agency advised users to report phishing emails, suspicious logins and any unauthorized devices or active sessions added to the account to the Internet Crime Complaint Center. The FBI also urged users not to open links with access codes that they did not request.A Microsoft spokesperson advised users to follow the FBI’s guidance, noting that the company’s Digital Crimes Unit has disrupted similar cybercrime tools that attempt to steal users’ passwords and data, including RaccoonO365 and other “do it yourself” phishing scams.

Fed SVB probe pledges to be apolitical. Observers aren't so sure -After three years, three government reports and two congressional hearings, there is still just one question hanging over the demise of Silicon Valley Bank: who, or what, is to blame.

• Key insight: The Federal Reserve has hired an outside group, Starling Trust Sciences, to review its handling of the 2023 failure of Silicon Valley Bank. Some policy analysts worry about the firm's independence.
• Expert quote: "Our focus is on facts, not politics, and on problems, not people. The objective is to follow the evidence wherever it leads, to develop a fuller understanding of what happened and why, and to identify lessons that can be applied going forward." — Stephen J. Scott, founder and CEO of Starling Trust Sciences.
• Forward Look: Several of Silicon Valley Bank's independent board members have spoken to Scott for the investigation; several former Fed employees have refused to participate.

Stephen J. Scott, an investigator hired to audit the Federal Reserve's handling of Silicon Valley Bank before its collapse, says the probe is focused on "facts, not politics." But more than three years on, the biggest question surrounding the U.S.'s second most costly bank failure for many is who bears the blame.

Banks can share fraud data in real time, Fincen says -  The clarification spells out what banks can share to stop scams. The Bank Policy Institute welcomed it but wants Congress to write the protection into law.

• Key insight: The guidance makes explicit that fraud qualifies for the 314(b) safe harbor, and that a bank need not first identify laundered fraud proceeds to be covered.
• Expert quote: Daniel Stipano, a former longtime OCC official now at Davis Polk, cautioned that the statute's safe harbor covers money laundering, not fraud, and that "the safe harbor has never been tested judicially, so it is not clear whether a court would agree with FinCEN's interpretation."
• Forward look: The protection rests on guidance a later administration could rewrite; the industry wants the safe harbor written into statute.

Overview bullets generated by AI with editorial review.

Bank of America's latest anti-fraud weapon: the 'scaminar' | American Banker

• Key Insight: Bank of America is teaching classes, which it calls "scaminars," on the red flags of scams and how to avoid them.
• Supporting Data: In the second half of 2026, the bank plans to host 1,000 of the seminars.
• Expert Quote: "This is not a one-off thing. They're going to have to do this continually because the rate at which fraud is changing has increased so dramatically." — Clark Frogley, former FBI investigator and head of fraud solutions at Quantexa.

Treasury, agencies propose KYC rule for stablecoin issuers   The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network along with the federal banking agencies on Thursday proposed customer identification standards for stablecoin issuers, marking the first know-your-customer guidelines issued pursuant to the GENIUS Act. Under the proposal, permitted payment stablecoin issuers, or PPSIs, would be required to follow know-your-customer practices similar to those banks, broker-dealers and mutual funds already face.

• Key insight: Treasury and the regulatory agencies unveiled the first stablecoin issuer know-your-customer requirements pursuant to the GENIUS Act, focusing on giving firms risk-based flexibility in their direct customer relationships. 
• Expert quote: "Rather than prescribe a one-size-fits-all approach … a [stablecoin issuer's customer identification program] should address the types of accounts it intends to maintain, how it allows those accounts to be opened, and the types of identifying information available," the proposal states. 
• Forward look: The proposal will be open for 60 days following its planned publication in the Federal Register on June 22.

The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and federal banking and credit union agencies limited issuers' know-your-customer obligations to direct-to-consumer services, preliminarily rejecting a "global" customer due diligence requirement they say is unfeasible.

Blockchain really may be the future of the markets, after all -- For some time now I have believed the global financial markets will be rewired and digitized with the technology and concepts behind bitcoin. It's not really that radical. It sounds all gee-whiz techno outlandish when you hear crypto enthusiasts talk about it, but all we're really talking about is a shared ledger, a better, more cohesive way to record and track transactions. The DTCC is building out a blockchain-based platform for post-trade processing and custody; if it works, it will mean a significant rewiring of the markets.

Bitcoin is not a scarce asset --  If you read Joey Pizzolato's story from yesterday about Zelle and its new stablecoin, you might think of the famous Oprah scene where she gives everybody in the audience of her show a car. "You get a car! You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car!" It sure seems like everybody is getting a stablecoin these days. Zelle has one now. SoFi has one. Western Union has one. Fidelity is building one. Even Minnesota-based St. Cloud Financial Credit Union has launched one. I should probably make one. Zelle, Western Union, SoFi and others are all launching stablecoins, adding to the thousands of other digital assets that do essentially the same thing as bitcoin.

Banks have 'commitment' issues with the new Basel proposal — A Trump-era change to capital rules could upend how banks treat their wholesale lending books.

• Key insight: Regulators' proposed changes to the definition of a commitment could eliminate the standard banks have used since the '80s to determine which lending arrangements are in scope. 
• What's at stake: The change could pull wholesale products like small-business lines of credit into a category that might increase capital requirements for large banks, and cause reporting headaches for smaller institutions. 
• Forward look: The commitments definition is expected to be among banks' top priorities in comment letters to regulators due Thursday.

A potential deletion from a long-standing regulatory definition has banks questioning how to classify vast swaths of their lending books.

FDIC floats counting discount window borrowing toward liquidity - Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Travis Hill said on Wednesday that the agency is exploring whether banks' capacity to borrow from the Federal Reserve's discount window should count toward their liquidity requirements.

• Key insight: Hill's proposal — which he said is still in early, cross-agency discussions — wouldn't replace high-quality liquid-asset requirements but would treat discount window borrowing capacity as an incentive for banks to maintain "readiness to borrow."
• Expert quote: "If that's the world we're talking about, it's very possible that the central bank is really going to be the only viable source of liquidity," Hill said, referring to scenarios where large banks face deposit outflows that outpace their ability to sell off securities holdings.
• Forward look: The FDIC is in the preliminary stages of consideration for two diverging paths: building more routine, business-as-usual comfort with borrowing, or making it harder for outsiders to detect when a bank steps up to the window.

Chair Travis Hill said SVB showed banks can't always sell securities fast enough to cover deposit outflows, but acknowledged the "stigma problem" with discount window borrowing remains unsolved.

BankThink The national bank charter is under assault across the country -- A recent federal court ruling in Illinois offered a reminder that some of the most important questions in banking are not really about banking.

• Key insight: Multiple states are testing the ability of federal banking regulations to preempt state laws. If they succeed, a core pillar of the U.S. economy — the dual banking system — could begin to crumble, warn two former comptrollers of the currency.
• What's at stake: When states seek to regulate activities that Congress entrusted to federally chartered institutions operating under federal law, they risk undermining the very framework that makes a national banking system possible.
• Forward look: The national bank charter has been one of the great institutional successes of the American economy. Preserving its integrity is not merely a legal question but an economic imperative.

Multiple states are testing the ability of federal banking regulations to preempt state laws. If they succeed, a core pillar of the U.S. economy — the dual banking system — could begin to crumble.

CFPB, Fincen guidance casts a pall over ITIN lending — Recent guidance urging financial institutions to factor immigration status into certain lending and compliance decisions has raised concerns about the future of a small mortgage market serving borrowers without Social Security numbers.

• Key takeaway: Although the guidance does not carry the force of law, onlookers say it could prompt some lenders to scale back lending to borrowers using individual taxpayer identification numbers, or ITINs, due to compliance and regulatory concerns.
• Expert quote: "I have not seen anyone shift away from the product, but I think it's only a matter of time — even though these advisories are not binding." — Andrew Dort, owner of Las Vegas-based mortgage brokerage Pride Lending. 
• What's at stake: Some community advocates say the advisories could make immigrants more hesitant to engage with banks and other financial institutions for mortgage loans at a time when regulators are trying to boost banks' share of the mortgage market.

Guidance documents from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network heightening bank scrutiny of individual tax identification numbers in mortgage applications could discourage banks from issuing those kinds of loans.

2 DC-area community banks to merge in $98 million deal - National Capital Bank, founded in 1889, and Old Dominion National Bank, founded in 2007, are combining with plans to take the merged entity public.Old Dominion National Bank is merging with The National Capital Bank of Washington in a $98 million deal.The combination — announced on Monday — brings together one of the D.C. area's newest community banks and one of its oldest to form a $2.4 billion institution with 10 locations across the nation's capital and four states. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, with the merged entity going public on either the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange concurrently, National Capital CEO Randy Anderson told American Banker.

• Key insight: The merger is structured to preserve National Capital's 137-year charter and brand — with the older, smaller bank technically surviving at both the holding company and bank level, even as Old Dominion shareholders walk away with nearly two-thirds of the combined entity.
• Forward look: The merged institution plans to list on either the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange as the deal closes in the fourth quarter.
• Relevant stats: The deal combines Old Dominion's $1.6 billion in assets with National Capital's $735 million to create a 10-location institution across Washington, D.C., and four states.

Proposed CAMELS changes would ignore time-tested warning signs  - "Are we so far removed from what transpired during the 2008 global financial crisis that we have forgotten much of what led to the extra-normal risk many banks took on in the years leading up to it?" asks Clifford Rossi.  The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's proposed changes to the management "M" component of bank regulatory CAMELS ratings should send shivers down the spines of bank risk managers and regulators. Effective risk governance and management practices around risk-taking are difficult to quantify but remain a critical determinant of a bank's long-term viability. Rather than de-emphasize factors that tend to be lagging or contemporaneous indicators of bank safety and soundness, FFIEC should add an "R" component, specifically for risk management to a composite CARMELS rating system and leverage that in risk-based pricing of FDIC deposit insurance.

• Key insight: Should the FFIEC's proposed changes to CAMELS go forward they would undercut advances in risk management's organizational stature and effectiveness that took a tenuous hold on the industry in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis.
• What's at stake: Attempts to limit the evaluation of factors such as risk governance and controls undermines safety and soundness of the banking system.
• Forward look: Instead of sweeping critical factors under the regulatory rug with claims that they are too difficult to assess, regulators should identify specific criteria that contribute to effective risk management and develop an assessment of each component.

Regulators have suggested changes to the ratings system they use to gauge banks' safety and soundness that would reduce scrutiny of management quality. It would leave them blind to clear signs of future problems.

Banks, fintechs sue Oregon over interest rate opt-out law  -A group of financial trade groups filed a lawsuit in an Oregon Federal court attempting to block the Beaver State's House Bill 4116, which opts the state out of Section 521 of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980.  The National Association of Industrial Bankers, the American Financial Services Association and the Online Lenders Alliance argued in their June 15 lawsuit that the law is federally preempted because it regulates rates that banks chartered outside Oregon charge to Oregon consumers. They argue banks lending to Oregon consumers but not chartered there are technically subject to their home states' interest rate limits.

• Key insight: Trade groups argue Oregon exceeded its authority by applying its 36% interest-rate cap to loans made by out-of-state state-chartered banks under their home states' laws.
• Supporting data: The lawsuit relies on the ongoing Colorado case, NAIB v. Weiser, which is being reheard en banc by the Tenth Circuit after a federal district court sided with industry plaintiffs and a divided appellate panel later reversed that ruling.
• Forward look: The Oregon case is the latest test of whether states can opt out of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980, which limits interest rates charged by out-of-state banks.

Banking and fintech trade groups have filed suit against the State of Oregon over a new lending law that they say unlawfully restricts interest-rate exportation by out-of-state state banks and threatens access to credit.

A red-state revolt against insurers - Consumer anger over rising insurance bills in Oklahoma is having an unusual effect in the political race for the state office of insurance commissioner: Four Republican candidates are threatening to curb industry rates. Property insurance premiums have surged in Oklahoma due in part to the increased frequency and intensity of extreme-weather events. That has caused growing frustration in a conservative state that historically has taken a hands-off approach to insurance premiums, resulting in some of the highest rates in the nation. The only Democrat in the race has vowed to bring down rates. The Republican candidates aren’t going that far — but they are promising to sharply scrutinize the industry as voters head to the polls for a primary election on Tuesday. “Politicians [in Oklahoma] may be far right, but they do read polls,” said Bob Hunter, a former Texas insurance commissioner and director of insurance at the Consumer Federation of America. Oklahomans’ aggravation dovetails with many homeowners’ feelings nationwide: From coastal states to the heartland, households find it increasingly difficult to get affordable insurance coverage — or any at all — as insurers react to climbing damage from hurricanes, wildfires, hailstorms and other hazards. Those concerns are reflected in the race in Oklahoma, where regulations have traditionally been overshadowed by free-market principles. “You can see the insurers are very profitable, and there’s no reason for them to be charging what they’re charging,” said Greta Shuler, a city commissioner in Shawnee who’s running to be the industry’s top regulator as a Republican, at a recent debate. “We should have an insurance commissioner looking at those rates. And we haven’t.” Oklahoma is one of 11 states that elects its insurance commissioner. Up to two candidates can advance from the Republican primary; they would face off in an August runoff before the general election in November. The state has been “too easy to deal with” for insurers, said Bob Sullivan, an independent insurance agent who’s running as a Republican, adding that neighboring states make the industry work harder to justify rate hikes. Sullivan said in an interview that if he’s elected commissioner, he would declare Oklahoma’s home insurance market “non-competitive” — skewed to favor a few large companies — giving the department the “strength to push back” against large rate increases. Oklahoma is one of many states revisiting their approach to insurance markets as extreme weather and general cost inflation make policies more expensive, hard to get or both. Leaders in both major political parties are questioning an article of faith about insurance: that the best way to keep prices low for consumers is to promote competition between companies, and that the state should not try to control prices. Illinois, another state that has historically been laissez-faire toward the insurance industry, recently gave regulators new power to reject rate increases. California has loosened some of its long-standing restrictions on insurers’ ability to raise premiums after wildfires led insurers to flee the state en masse. In Oklahoma, the average cost of home insurance has spiked to $5,736 a year, second-highest in the country, according to data provider Insurify. Rising risk from hail, wind and wildfire events are increasingly showing up in consumers’ bills. The surging costs have put pressure on Oklahoma’s Republican-led Legislature to act. In the waning days of the legislative session last month, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that will for the first time require insurers to explain why they’re asking regulators to approve higher rates. The law takes effect in July 2027. Until then, insurers in Oklahoma can use the existing regulatory system, which allows them to raise rates when and how they see fit, as long as they notify the insurance department afterward.

FHFA requests power to pursue fraud more directly - The Federal Housing Finance Agency is seeking authority to pursue fraud more aggressively in its latest annual report to Congress.The Federal Housing Finance Agency's annual report to Congress asks for enforcement and referral powers beyond the limited ones it currently has.

Bill limiting investors from buying homes set to speed through Congress - An affordable housing bill limiting how many single-family homes major investors can buy is poised to be signed into law before the end of the month after key lawmakers in the House and Senate reached an agreement Tuesday.The bill, which is focused on increasing the supply of homes, would not include a controversial provision requiring major investors to sell any housing units they build within seven years, but would cap the number of single-family homes they could buy at 350.. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Tuesday that the bill could clear the Senate as soon as this week, with an initial vote to begin to advance the measure on Thursday evening. Thune said he hoped the House could take up the bill when it returns next week. Previous versions of the bill have cleared the House with strong levels of support, meaning the House could use an expedited process to get the legislation done. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who has helped helm the bill as the top Democrat on the Senate committee overseeing housing, said the bill is important not only because of the focus on affordability, but what it means for how Congress handles private equity. “Never before has Congress put any restriction on the ability of private equity to move into whatever industry they want, buy up whatever they want and destroy whatever they want,” she told CNBC in a short Capitol hallway interview. “This bill is historic because it puts a big fat ‘no’ right in front of private equity’s growth as it tries to mow through our neighborhoods.”

May U.S. Housing Starts Plunge to 6-Year Low -- It signals continued languishing market conditions, as April's decline was likewise revised sharply downward. May's figure was its lowest since the height of COVID-19 lockdowns. U.S. housing starts fell sharply in May as multifamily construction slowed, while building permits edged down and housing completions declined month-to-month. The latest government data showed a monthly decline in overall housing starts in May as multifamily construction activity retreated, while single-family starts were nearly flat. The U.S. Census Bureau released its Monthly New Residential Construction report for May on June 16. Privately-owned housing starts in May were at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.18 million, down 15.4% from April’s revised estimate and down 8.7% year-over-year. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had expected a reading of 1.43 million and 2.4% monthly decline. April’s figure was sharply revised to an 8.5% decline from an initial -2.8% estimate. May’s figure was its lowest since May 2020 during the height of COVID-19 lockdowns. Single-family housing starts were at a rate of 882,000, down 1.9% from April’s revised figure. Multifamily starts — buildings with five units or more — decreased to a rate of 284,000. Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits were at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.41 million in May, down 0.7% from April’s revised rate and down 0.2% year-over-year. Economists polled by the WSJ expected a reading of 1.42 million in May. Single-family authorizations were at a rate of 886,000, up 0.6% from April’s revised figure. Authorizations for units in buildings with five units or more came in at 474,000. Privately-owned housing completions in May were at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.31 million, down 8.1% from April’s revised estimate and down 14.2% year-over-year. Single-family housing completions were at a rate of 872,000, down 1.6% from April’s revised rate, while completions for buildings with five units or more were at 426,000.

Supreme Court declines to hear gun industry challenge to NY law -- The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a gun industry challenge to a New York law that allows lawsuits against gun manufacturers and dealers for “harms resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse” of their merchandise. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) attempted to appeal a lower court ruling alongside Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Beretta, Glock, Sig Sauer and Sturm, who joined the appeal to argue that the New York law signed in 2021 renders the 2005 federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act meaningless. The 2005 law grants manufacturers, distributors and dealers of firearms and ammunition broad immunity from most civil liability lawsuits. It prevents the gun industry from being sued for damages resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse of their products by third parties. “NSSF sincerely believes that those criminals ​who illegally misuse lawful products should be held responsible for the harms they ‌cause when they commit their crimes,” ‌Mark Oliva, a spokesperson for the industry group wrote in an emailed statement to Reuters. “Holding the firearm industry responsible for the criminal misuse of a firearm is akin to holding and Ford Motor Company ‌responsible for damages from drunk-driving crimes,” Olivia added. Republican Reps. Claudia Tenney (N.Y.) and Nick Langworthy (N.Y.) filed a brief in support of the lawsuit, backing gun manufacturers. However, New York Attorney General Letitia James says even under the 2005 federal law gun industry members can be held liable for the “downstream acts of third parties in some circumstances.” Democratic State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who authored the 2021 statue signed into law by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.), said it protects residents in the Empire State. “New York has an obligation to protect the health and safety of every resident, and any industry—including members of the gun industry—impacting New Yorkers has to take reasonable steps to do the same,” Myrie said on Monday, according to a local outlet in New York.

What Trump’s latest Education Department move actually means for teachers - The Trump administration on Tuesday moved to shift key functions out of the Department of Education, transferring civil rights enforcement and special education oversight to other federal agencies. The move accelerates President Donald Trump’s broader push to dismantle the department without congressional approval, fundamentally reshaping how federal education oversight is carried out.Teachers, students and families could see shifts in how discrimination complaints are handled and how special education programs are overseen as responsibilities move to agencies with different mandates. For teachers, the changes reflect a rapidly evolving federal role in education that could reshape how schools engage with Washington.Under the plan, the Department of Justice will take over enforcement of civil rights in schools and student privacy protections, while the Department of Health and Human Services will oversee special education programs that have long been administered within the Education Department.The changes affect two of the department’s most critical offices. The Office for Civil Rights, which investigates complaints of discrimination in schools and colleges, is being shifted toward Justice, while the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, which manages billions in federal grants and ensures compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, will move to HHS. “The Trump Administration has been clear: as we scale back federal micromanagement when it hinders success, we are equally committed to bolstering the efficacy of federal oversight where it is essential,” McMahon said in a written statement. The restructuring builds on more than 10 earlier agreements that have already shifted education programs to agencies such as Labor, State and HHS, as part of a strategy to reduce federal involvement in schools. The administration has framed the changes as an efficiency measure, arguing that civil rights enforcement belongs with the Justice Department and that disability programs can be better managed by a health-focused agency. For educators, the shift could mean navigating a more fragmented federal system. Civil rights investigations, including cases involving race, sex and disability discrimination, have traditionally flowed through the Education Department, which also worked directly with districts on compliance. Special education services, meanwhile, have been overseen by an office dedicated to education policy and school systems. Moving those responsibilities may introduce new bureaucratic processes and points of contact. McMahon said in a statement, “IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) predates the Department of Education and will continue to exist long after. Likewise, the government’s obligation to enforce civil rights law predates the existence of the Department of Education and will continue to exist long after.” Advocates warn that dispersing these responsibilities could complicate enforcement and weaken accountability. Some have raised concerns that agencies without a central education focus may not respond as quickly to school-based issues, particularly those involving classroom practices and student services.

White House autism announcement triggers surge in online searches for leucovorin, Tylenol --After a White House press conference last fall promoted the use of leucovorin (folinic acid) for autism and raised concerns about acetaminophen (Tylenol) use during pregnancy, Google searches for leucovorin were nearly 380% higher than expected over the next 14 days, according to a study by Yale researchers published last week in JAMA Network Open. Searches for leucovorin together with terms indicating an intent to purchase (like “buy” or “order”) rose more than 200%, and those connecting acetaminophen with autism and pregnancy soared, increasing 1,322%.  The findings suggest that political messages influence health behaviors, and they align with research published last week in Pediatrics that found that prescribing rates for leucovorin, a prescription-only form of vitamin B9, surged after the announcement. They also reinforce a previous study in The Lancet that found that Tylenol use among pregnant women dropped during the same period.But the messages put forward by the White House were supported by very little scientific evidence. “In the press conference, the folate analog leucovorin was promoted as a potential treatment for autism, when in fact it would later be clarified that it would be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) specifically for children with cerebral folate deficiency, a rare disorder that can mimic symptoms of autism,” write Michael L. Barnett, MD, and Jeremy Faust, MD, in a commentary on the JAMA Network Open study. “President Trump and senior officials also selectively cited a single review article to claim that acetaminophen use during pregnancy was an important cause of autism, while omitting high-quality data that contradict that interpretation,” they added. “Notably, an FDA written announcement after the press conference provided substantial corrections to the sweeping claims made in the press conference, but that attracted comparatively little media attention.”

Women with menstruation-related disorders more likely to be diagnosed with STIs, study suggests - Young women with menstruation-related disorders, such as endometriosis and dysmenorrhea (painful periods), were significantly more likely to be diagnosed as having an STI than women without those conditions, according to a large study from Japan published this week in PLOS One. Endometriosis occurs when tissue similar to uterine tissue grows outside the uterus. While not strictly a menstrual disorder, it can cause pain, irregular periods, and infertility. For the study, researchers led by a team at University of Yamanashi in Japan and funded by Rohto Pharmaceutical Co. examined health insurance claims data for more than 3.4 million women ages 40 and under who had at least one healthcare visit in 2023. They found that roughly 260,000 women (7.5%) had been diagnosed as having endometriosis, dysmenorrhea, or both, and that those women were four to five times more likely to be diagnosed with an STI. Across all STI categories the researchers examined—gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, genital herpes, and other STIs—diagnoses were significantly more common among women with menstrual disorders. Chlamydia was identified in 3.5% of women with menstrual disorders, compared with 0.7% of women without, representing a fivefold increase and the largest difference in prevalence between women with and without menstrual disorders. Similarly, gonorrhea was diagnosed in 0.9% of women with menstrual disorders, compared with 0.2% of those without, which also translates to a roughly fivefold increase. Trichomoniasis, genital herpes, and other STIs were also diagnosed between four to five times more often in women with menstrual disorders. Women with endometriosis had the highest STI diagnosis rates overall. Nearly 5% were diagnosed as having chlamydia, making it the most common STI in this group and representing a more than sevenfold increase compared with women without menstrual disorders. Women with dysmenorrhea also had elevated rates of every STI studied. The study found little evidence that hormonal treatments such as low-dose estrogen-progestin therapy, affected STI risk. Differences between women who used hormonal therapy and those who did not were generally less than 1 percentage point.

Parents more likely to decline vitamin K, hepatitis B vaccine doses for newborn girls than boys, data suggest Newborn girls were significantly less likely than boys to receive both the recommended vitamin K (VK) injection and hepatitis B vaccine (HBV), leaving them vulnerable to potentially fatal bleeding and chronic liver disease, respectively. But parental VK and HBV refusal rose significantly among both sexes from 2018 through 2025. For the study, researchers from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania analyzed rates of parental decline or acceptance of VK prophylaxis (prevention) and HBV administration among infants born at 35 weeks’ or more gestation at three centers in a single healthcare center. The findings were published this week in JAMA Network Open. Of 93,163 newborns, 777 didn’t receive VK prophylaxis (8.3 newborns per 1,000 births), and 9,400 didn’t receive HBV (100.9 newborns/1,000 births). HBV wasn’t given to 646 of 777 newborns (83%) whose parents also declined the VK injection. Newborn girls were twice as likely as boys to not receive VK prophylaxis (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.03). VK refusal rose significantly among both boys and girls. Among girls, rates of VK prophylaxis refusal increased by 1.37 newborns per 1,000 female births each year, for an absolute incidence of 9.6 per 1,000 births in 2018 (55/5,708 births) and 19.8 per 1,000 births in 2025 (113/5,706). Parental decline of VK prophylaxis for infant boys climbed by 0.75 newborns per 1,000 male births each year, for an absolute incidence of 4.0 per 1,000 births in 2018 (23/5,820) and 10.1 per 1,000 in 2025 (60/5,934). Female sex was also tied to slightly higher rates of HBV nonreceipt (aOR, 1.06), although HBV refusal rose significantly among both girls and boys. Among girls, HBV refusal rates jumped by 10.3 newborns per 1,000 female births per year, for an absolute incidence of 86.4 per 1,000 in 2018 (493/5,708 births) and 173.7 per 1,000 in 2025 (991/5,706 births). Among newborn boys, the rate of yearly HBV refusal climbed by 11.0 newborns per 1,000 male births, for an absolute incidence of 77.9 per 1,000 in 2018 (453/5,818 births) and 166.3 per 1,000 in 2025 (987/5,934 births). Birth center, non-Hispanic maternal race, and public insurance coverage were linked to VK and HBV administration. Yearly circumcision rates ranged from 72% to 77%, and none were performed for newborns not given VK. “In this cohort study, newborn female sex was associated with significantly lower odds of VK prophylaxis and HBV administration, with greater sex discordance for VK prophylaxis vs HBV,” the study authors wrote. “VK prophylaxis decline rates doubled between 2018 and 2025 among both sexes, but two-thirds of newborns not administered VK prophylaxis were female.”

AI chatbots boost parents’ willingness to vaccinate kids against HPV, but only in the short term  -  Parents were more willing to allow their children to receive a vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) if they interacted with a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence (AI) compared with parents who received no information about the vaccine.The chatbot’s effects faded after 45 days, suggesting the benefits were short-lived, according to a randomized controlled trial of 1,297 parents of children not yet immunized against HPV. The results were published last week in JAMA Network Open. The chatbot also performed no better than traditional public health materials, according to the clinical trial, which was led by researchers with the University of Pennsylvania’s computer and information science department. Public health materials, however, maintained a modest effect at 45 days.The study measured self-reported likelihood of vaccinating a child against HPV within 12 months on a 100-point scale, with 0 indicating parents were extremely unlikely and 100 being extremely likely.The trial was conducted online among adults in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom from March 3 to May 25, 2026. Researchers followed up with participants after 15 days and 45 days. All participants had at least one child eligible for HPV vaccination, which the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends for boys and girls aged 9 to 12.“Well-designed public health messaging may match or exceed the impact of short chatbot conversations for HPV vaccine promotion,” the study authors concluded.

HHS asks for expedited appeal of court ruling on US vaccine policy  - The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has filed a motion to expedite its appeal of a court ruling that temporarily blocked changes to vaccine recommendations for US children. In a post on X late last week, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the appeal seeks to restore the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) so that the group, which has not met since last December, can issue vaccine recommendations ahead of the fall flu season."A functioning ACIP is essential to ensuring that vaccine recommendations remain grounded in evidence and available to the families and providers who rely on them," Kennedy wrote.The March 16 ruling by US District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy was in response to a lawsuit filed against Kennedy and HHS by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other medical organizations. The suit argued that changes to childhood vaccine recommendations that were directed by Kennedy and adopted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had not followed proper administrative procedures. Those changes included ending the recommendation for COVID vaccines for healthy children and reducing the number of vaccines recommended for US children from 17 to 11.   Murphy's ruling also temporarily blocked ACIP, whose membership has been overhauled by Kennedy, from meeting and froze all recommendations the group had made. Murphy concluded that 13 members tapped by Kennedy after he fired all 17 previous ACIP members had no vaccine-related expertise and were not qualified under the group's original charter. ACIP has been in limbo since then, though HHS recently issued a revised charter to re-establish the group. The CDC website still lists the next ACIP meeting as June 24-26. Kennedy said the court's order "has left ACIP unable to carry out its core responsibilities.""As a result, the committee cannot issue new recommendations, review newly approved vaccines, or complete important work ahead of the fall flu season," he said.   In a statement today, AAP President Andrew Racine, MD, said the government "has had and continues to have the power to restore a lawful ACIP and schedule a meeting at any time.""In fact, this is what AAP has long urged: a functioning ACIP led by experts who have the specialized knowledge to make evidence-based vaccine recommendations," Racine said.

Long-COVID patients more likely to develop heart disease, study finds -- Long-COVID patients are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a recent analysis of a national survey published in the journal ClinicalLong.   COVID is a chronic illness in which people experience lingering symptoms after an initial COVID-19 infection. The diagnosis is not well understood, though many patients report cardiovascular complications  The study confirms that CVD is more common among long-COVID patients: 11.9% of those with long COVID have CVD compared with 6.8% without this diagnosis. In an adjusted analysis, long COVID was associated with 37% higher odds of any CVD diagnosis (odds ratio [OR], 1.37). Specifically, long COVID was associated with a higher risk of angina (chest pain; OR, 1.81) and myocardial infarction (heart attack; OR, 1.50), but not coronary heart disease (OR, 1.23) or stroke (OR, 1.28). The 95% confidence intervals for the final two conditions ranged below 1, indicating no elevated risk.Interestingly, those with pre-existing CVD were not more likely to report new long-COVID symptoms. The findings echo those of a study from Sweden published earlier this year.The analysis used self-reported data from the 2022 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, which included 8,332 participants with a history of COVID-19. People were categorized as having pre-existing CVD if they received this diagnosis in the year before they got COVID-19. New-onset CVD was assessed in two ways: if the diagnosis occurred in the same year or following year of a COVID-19 illness, or if it occurred within a year after COVID-19.Scientists say their findings show the need for additional research to improve health interventions for long COVID, which affects an estimated 17.8 million Americans.

People with pre-existing physical, mental conditions face similar risk of long COVID  -- A recent study in the Journal of Medical Virology by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that having physical or mental comorbidities prior to having COVID-19 raised the risk of long COVID. “While our findings align with other studies showing increased odds of developing long COVID among individuals with mental health disorders, our results indicated that these elevated odds are not unique to those with mental health comorbidities,” the authors wrote. “We found no meaningful difference in the odds of developing long COVID between participants with pre-existing mental health comorbidities and those with other non-mental health comorbidities.” Researchers have been trying to understand the role of pre-existing mental diseases in increasing the likelihood of long COVID, a post-infection condition with an array of lingering symptoms. The researchers looked at 9,637 participants in the Johns Hopkins COVID Long Study. Of this group, 3,635 (38%) reported having a prior mental condition with or without other health conditions, with 2,237 (62%) diagnosed as having long COVID. A second cohort of 3,616 people (38%) had pre-existing non-mental comorbidities, with 2,294 (63%) diagnosed as having long COVID. The last group of 2,386 people (25%) reported no prior health conditions, with 1,287 (54%) diagnosed as having long COVID. The researchers found that the groups that had pre-existing physical or mental conditions were at similar risk for developing long COVID. People without prior health comorbidities were less likely to be diagnosed as having long COVID. “These findings challenge the hypothesis that pre-existing mental health conditions are responsible for long COVID,” the authors wrote. “This is particularly important because the occurrence of long COVID outside of mental of psychological factors has often been overlooked or dismissed.” The researchers also noted that there is a “strong relationship” between having several long-COVID symptoms and the onset of new depression or anxiety. The reasons for this could include the underlying mechanisms of long COVID or the stress of managing and living with a chronic illness that may not improve.

Paper spotlights high healthcare burden and costs of long COVID -  A new study suggests that post-COVID-19 condition (PCC), commonly known as long COVID, has placed a substantial burden on healthcare systems in the years since the onset of the pandemic and is associated with significantly higher healthcare use and costs compared with either COVID infection without lingering symptoms or no history of infection. For the study, published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers analyzed data from nearly 28,000 participants in a large population-based study in the Netherlands that examined the health and health-related behaviors of more than 150,000 Dutch adults. They found that people with long COVID used nearly every type of healthcare service more frequently than those who recovered fully from COVID or were never infected. The researchers defined long COVID as “the continuation or development of new symptoms 3 months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection, with these symptoms lasting for at least 2 months with no other explanation.” The researchers estimated that average annual healthcare costs for people with long COVID were €1,136 ($1,315 US) per person, compared with €616 ($713) for people who had COVID without developing ongoing symptoms and €678 ($785) for those who were never infected. “Except for hospitalizations, costs of the PCC group were substantially higher than costs of the COVID-19 group,” note the researchers. Primary care visits accounted for the largest share of costs across all groups. Average annual primary care costs per participant in the long COVID group were roughly twice as high as costs in the other two groups (PCC, €434 [$502]; COVID-19, €202 [$234]; control, €216.50 [$250.50]). On average, long-COVID patients consulted with general practitioners (GPs, or primary care practitioners) twice per year. “The relatively high number of GP consultations in the PCC group can likely be explained by the persistence of a wide diversity of symptoms as well as the absence of an effective care pathway,” write the researchers. Long-COVID patients also averaged six physical therapy visits annually, making it the most commonly used primary care service among that cohort. But the largest difference in primary care use among those with long COVID and those without lingering symptoms or no history of infection was observed for occupational therapy. Occupational therapy consultation rates were more than eight times higher among those with long COVID than those who were uninfected and more than 20 times higher among those who got COVID but didn’t develop lingering symptoms (PCC to control, 8.7 times; PCC to COVID-19, 20.3 times). Because myalgia (muscle pain) is a common symptom among long-COVID patients, it’s not surprising that physical therapy and occupational therapy visits were relatively high among this group, note the authors. These numbers reveal the longitudinal impact of PCC on patients, their families, and society, and address the need for dedicated care to this particular group of patients. Consultation rates for speech therapy were eight times higher among those with long COVID compared with those who were never infected and 14 times higher among those without lingering symptoms (PCC to control, 8.0 times; PCC to COVID-19, 14.2 times). Long-COVID patients also had the most annual secondary care visits in nine of 15 specialties compared with the other two groups, with the highest difference observed in the “unspecified specialty” category, followed by pulmonology, which focuses on breathing problems. In addition, people with long COVID received more hours of in-home nursing care and were more likely to attend day-treatment rehabilitation programs. Long-COVID patients also reported significantly greater dependence on informal care from family members and friends—roughly 15 hours per week for people with long COVID, compared with 3.4 in the COVID group and 5.3 hours in the control group. When the researchers included the value of that unpaid care in their calculations, annual costs for long COVID patients rose nearly 25%. The emergency phase of the pandemic has ended and the number of new long-COVID cases across the world has decreased, write the authors, yet a significant percentage of long-COVID patients experience persistent symptoms two years after infection. The authors cite previous research suggesting that long-COVID patients who are discharged from the hospital report lower quality of life, decreased exercise capacity, increased mental health issues, and more healthcare use two years after infection.

Head-to-head comparison suggests flu was much more likely to lead to hospitalization than COVID last winter -  During the most recent respiratory virus season, the risk of hospitalization was higher for influenza than for COVID-19, per a US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) study of nearly 13,000 patients. The authors, from the VA Saint Louis Health Care System, noted that while COVID-19 was tied to a substantially greater risk of hospitalization than flu early in the pandemic, data showed an increase in flu cases and hospitalizations in 2025-26 compared with previous seasons. The findings were published last week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. “However, population-level metrics reflect both infection frequency and disease severity and cannot alone determine the relative clinical severity of one pathogen versus another,” they wrote. “A head-to-head comparison of hospitalisation risk among infected individuals—which isolates disease severity from differences in infection frequency—has not been undertaken for the 2025–26 influenza season.” In total, 9,363 patients tested positive for flu, and 3,298 were diagnosed as having COVID-19. After adjustment, the risk of hospitalization per 1,000 people was 160.4 for flu and 112.1 per 1,000 for COVID-19 (relative risk, 1.43), which translates to roughly 48 more hospitalizations for flu per 100,000 people. This held true across subgroups based on demographic and clinical factors. “The higher severity associated with seasonal influenza during this season likely reflects a combination of factors, including the increased virulence of circulating influenza strains, mismatch between vaccine composition and dominant circulating influenza variants, and the continued attenuation of SARS-CoV-2 severity over successive waves,” the researchers wrote.

Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine gets thumbs up from federal vaccine panel  - A federal vaccine advisory panel today gave its stamp of approval to Moderna’s mRNA influenza vaccine (mRNA-1010) for older adults. By a unanimous vote, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted to recommend approval of the investigational vaccine, which will be marketed under the brand name mFlusiva, for the prevention of flu in adults age 50 to 64. They also voted in support of accelerated approval in adults aged 65 and older. Moderna will be required to conduct a phase 4, post-marketing study to demonstrate effectiveness in the older group.The recommendation comes after several months of regulatory uncertainty over the vaccine. After initially agreeing to review Moderna’s application for approval of the vaccine, the FDA changed course in February, saying that the phase 3 trial for mRNA-1010 was not “adequate and well-controlled” because it used a standard-dose seasonal flu vaccine as the comparator vaccine. Moderna said that while the FDA had expressed a preference to use a high-dose flu vaccine as a comparator, agency officials had agreed that a standard-dose flu vaccine was an acceptable comparator.The move raised concerns about shifting regulatory standards under the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been openly critical of mRNA vaccines. In August 2025, Kennedy canceled $500 million in funding for 22 mRNA vaccine projects.But a week later, the FDA reversed itself again after Moderna proposed a revised regulatory approach. The agency agreed to review the application for full approval in adults age 50 to 64 and accelerated approval for adults aged 65 and older, with an agreement to conduct a post-marketing study in the 65 and older group.

Record increase in DRC Ebola cases raises death toll to 181 |  Al Jazeera -- The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reported a record daily increase in infections as the Ebola outbreak impacting the country appears to accelerate.The Ministry of Public Health confirmed on Sunday that 72 new cases had been diagnosed over the previous 24 hours, increasing the number of infected to 782. Another 32 deaths has raised the total to 181. The rising numbers come as regional conflict, patient escapes, and limited contact tracing undermine containment efforts. Alarm was sounded last week as the virus moved into new areas of the DRC.The Bundibugyo virus strain has a 22.8 percent death rate so far, with 40 patients recovering, officials said.“We remain committed to supporting affected countries until transmission is stopped. We call on partners and donors to urgently mobilise resources to strengthen the response and save lives,” Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Sunday. The outbreak stems from the rare Bundibugyo strain, which has no approved vaccine or treatment, unlike the Zaire virus responsible for the DRC’s previous 16 Ebola outbreaks.Contact tracing coverage has plummeted to 56.5 percent, a sharp decline from the 95% target, Health Ministry officials said. Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, warned that “no one knows the true scale” of the outbreak due to dangerous gaps in surveillance and testing.Eastern Ituri province remains the outbreak’s epicentre, harbouring nearly 95 percent of all confirmed cases. The virus has since breached into North Kivu and South Kivu provinces and spread across the border to Uganda. Ituri’s humanitarian crisis exacerbates the medical emergency. Nearly one million residents have fled overlapping armed conflicts involving multiple groups, including the M23 rebel movement that controls Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. The area has endured decades of instability, with United Nations reports documenting massacres of more than 100 civilians in gold-rich Ituri villages as various factions vie for control of the region’s mineral wealth. Thousands of artisanal miners routinely shuttle between clandestine mining sites scattered across the mineral-dense region, creating transmission hotspots that evade health monitoring. The outbreak is believed to have originated in the mining-intensive Mongbwalu Health Zone in Ituri province.The World Health Organization announced it is ramping up diagnostic testing and contact surveillance operations. However, MSF reports a critical funding gap of $21.5m hampering response efforts.

Ebola case count mounts as outbreak hits 1-month mark --One month after officials first identified the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says the outbreak is far from contained in one of the most dangerous corners of the world.In a new statement, the international medical organization said this outbreak has been defined by a lack of timely testing, which allowed transmission for weeks before the outbreak was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the outbreak was officially declared on May 15.“Testing remains one of the most significant weaknesses in the response, despite recent improvements in laboratory capacity and the arrival of hundreds of mobile test kits in eastern DRC, designed specifically for the Bundibugyo virus,” Kate White, the emergency medical coordinator for MSF in the DRC, said in a statement. “Many communities, especially those affected by ongoing insecurity, still have limited access to these kits, while treatment centres continue to face significant delays in receiving laboratory results.” In an exclusive interview with Stat News, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said he was “really worried” about the outbreak after visiting the DRC.“When the community is not taking it as its priority, it’s very hard,’’ Tedros told Stat. He said that in the North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri provinces where the outbreak is centered, Ebola is seen as a lesser evil compared with armed conflict, widespread hunger, and more common deadly diseases experienced daily. The outbreak is now the third largest in history, with BNO News reporting 801 confirmed Ebola cases and 183 deaths. Children have been hard hit in this outbreak, with at least 52 cases among children and 16 among toddlers and infants. Young children are also more likely to die from infections compared with adults.“This outbreak is more than a health emergency, it is a wider social crisis with significant consequences for children, caregivers and communities,” said Greg Ramm, Save the Children’s Country Director in the DRC, in a statement. “Not only have many families lost their loved ones, but many others are caring for sick relatives while trying to protect themselves and their children.”

Africa CDC head warns Ebola outbreak could be worst ever - Today the head of Africa's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warned that thousands of case contacts have not been traced in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “If we don't stop the outbreak very soon, it will be worse than what we had in West Africa and eastern ‌DRC,” Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya, MD, MPH, said during a virtual meeting of African heads of state in Burundi. Kaseya was referring to an outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in 2014 to 2016 that killed more than 11,000 people.  The outbreak currently has at least 827 cases and 194 deaths, but it is largely uncontrolled in North and South Kivu and Ituri provinces. The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, which has no vaccine or treatments.

More than 70 medics infected with Ebola as DRC outbreak spreads ‘fast’ - Seventeen medics have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as the death toll surpasses 200 in an outbreak tearing through a health system already weakened by years of conflict, displacement and chronic underfunding. A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official confirmed the death toll on Friday and said that 75 healthcare workers had contracted the virus since Congolese authorities declared the outbreak on May 15 . “The outbreak remains serious” and is “evolving so fast”, said WHO emergency director Marie Roseline Belizaire. “It is a really high price that the system, the healthcare system, is paying, because we don’t have enough of healthcare workers in DRC,” she told reporters by video link from the outbreak epicentre in eastern DRC. Health officials believe the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola had been spreading for months before the government formally announced the outbreak, leaving doctors, nurses and other medical staff exposed before they knew the virus was present. Even now, basic protective equipment remains in short supply, with some facilities struggling to secure gloves, masks and other essentials needed to limit infection. The DRC has one of the world’s lowest ratios of healthcare workers to population, with about 11 health workers for every 10,000 people, according to WHO data. Belizaire said China and Uganda were sending medical teams to support the response. She added that the WHO was providing psychological support to medics who feared treating patients after seeing colleagues fall sick. “When they are explaining to you how they live it, how they were infected … [it] can break your heart.” Congolese authorities said on Thursday that the outbreak has killed 232 people and infected 896 others across 31 health zones in the country. African Union member states have pledged nearly $1bn to respond to the emergency in eastern DRC and neighbouring Uganda, which has confirmed 19 cases and two deaths. Health officials warn that the outbreak has not yet reached its peak. The crisis is also raising alarm in camps for displaced people, where overcrowding, poor sanitation and resistance to testing could allow the virus to spread undetected. At least 30 people have died since early May in Kigonze camp in Bunia in Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak. Camp officials described the death rate as unprecedented. Authorities could not confirm the causes of death because patients and relatives had refused testing of both the living and the dead until Thursday, according to a camp spokesperson and aid organisation Caritas. But witnesses and aid sources told Reuters that the dead had symptoms linked to Ebola, including headaches, fever and vomiting. “People didn’t just die like this before,” camp spokesperson Desire Grodya Bapi told Reuters. Kigonze is home to more than 15,000 people. The rising number of deaths there has increased fears that Ebola may be spreading among the more than five million displaced people in eastern DRC. Aid workers say funding cuts have made the emergency more dangerous. Donors, including the United States under President Donald Trump, have reduced support for water, hygiene, and sanitation programmes, which are vital in fighting the disease spread through bodily fluids. UN data shows funding for toilets and handwashing stations in DRC more than halved between 2024 and 2025, falling to about $38m. This year’s $80m appeal is only 21 percent funded. DRC has hundreds of displacement camps, some housing up to 100,000 people. Ebola deaths have already been recorded in another camp in Ituri province, which accounts for more than 90 percent of nearly 900 confirmed cases.

Experts urge use of experimental antibodies in DR Congo to combat Ebola | CIDRAP -  In a new letter, advocacy groups are urging the US government to make an experimental Ebola treatment, Mapp Biopharmaceutical’s MBP134, available for trials and emergency use in countries affected by an ongoing Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring Uganda.Public Citizen, Health Global Access Project, AVAC, Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, Doctors for America, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd sent the letter to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). BARDA and the United States developed the monoclonal antibody treatment to address Sudan strain of Ebola virus.The monoclonal antibody “cocktail” has been investigated as a pan-ebolavirus therapeutic and was developed from antibodies taken from survivors of the 2014 West Africa outbreak.The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the DRC and Uganda has increased to 856, including 198 deaths. Twenty-nine of the cases are new, as are four deaths.There are no current vaccines or treatments being used against the Bundibugyo strain, and efforts to practice contact tracing and isolation have failed to gain ground in North and South Kivu and Ituri provinces of the DRC.Today on X, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) warned of a significant funding gap in the response effort, one month after the outbreak was officially recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO).“This outbreak is not yet under control. Critical gaps remain in contact tracing, supplies, and a USD 21.5 million funding gap that must be urgently addressed,” Africa CDC said. In a new situation report published yesterday by the WHO, the case-fatality rate in the DRC now stands at 23.8%. From June 7 to June 14, confirmed cases grew by 60%, and the number of affected health zones increased from 25 to 31, including 20 of 36 health zones in Ituri province, 10 of 34 in North Kivu province, and one of 34 in South Kivu province. Ituri is the epicenter of the outbreak, with 91.3% of cases and 79.7% of deaths.North Kivu, however, has reported the highest case fatality ratio (56.7%), compared with 20.7% in Ituri and 33.3% in South Kivu.“Transmission continues to be amplified by insecurity, high population mobility, and operational challenges in affected areas,” the WHO said. “Follow-up coverage remains particularly suboptimal in Ituri Province (64.2%) and North Kivu Province (56.4%), posing continued challenges to interruption of transmission chains.”  Officials have reported no new case in Uganda since June 5, suggesting the outbreak there is stable, with 19 confirmed cases, one probable case, and three deaths.

Ebola cases near 900 as officials say less than 10% of donations have made it to affected nations The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda rages, with BNO News reporting 894 cases and 204 deaths today and the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) telling partners it has received only about 10% of the funding pledged to help fight the outbreak.Donors have pledged $910 million, but less than $90 million had been released for the affected countries, according to Africa CDC today during a press briefing. The new case numbers reflect 38 new infections and six new deaths. Today the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced during a press conference it will release $107 million in emergency funding for the Ebola response in the DRC and Uganda. CDC officials also said they were engaged in twice-weekly calls with the US World Cup host cities to enhance surveillance of the disease at games, but the overall Ebola threat to Americans is lowYesterday the World Health Organization (WHO) released a new comprehensive guide for the clinical management of filovirus disease, which include all types of Ebola and Marburg viruses. The new guidelines highlight the importance of early supportive care to improve patient survival and health outcomes, outlining 16 evidence-based recommendations.“The current Bundibugyo virus outbreak is a stark reminder of the need for diligent, holistic and person-focused medical care, to save lives and preserve human dignity. We encourage governments and authorities to integrate these new recommendations into preparedness and outbreak response, to ensure high-quality care for everyone,” said WHO Director-General Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD.Among the guidelines are rapid testing, patient isolation, rehydration therapy, and early and precise use of intravenous fluids and vasoactive medications to treat shock in patients.

Seven years after Ebola, survivors still live with neurological scars left by the disease Ebola virus disease is caused by infection with an orthobolavirus found primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and can be fatal in 50% of those infected, on average. Among those who survive the disease, it leaves behind its imprint on the brain even after recovery.A recent study published in JAMA Neurology conducted in Liberia involving Ebola survivors found that shortly after recovering from the virus, they faced a wide range of neurological issues, including persistent headaches, extreme fatigue, tremors and even mental health troubles. Although most symptoms improved over time, some effects lingered.Seven years later, survivors were still more likely to experience memory loss, irritability and difficulty concentrating than people who never had the disease.The 2014 West African Ebola outbreak was the largest in history, causing more than 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths. It revealed neurological symptoms and long-term effects in Ebola survivors that had previously been reported only few and far between. For instance, a small 2007 study in Uganda found that survivors often had headaches and problems with memory and concentration months later. Bar graphs of baseline neurological symptoms and neurological examination findings. After the 2014 outbreak, researchers and doctors increasingly recognized headaches, memory problems and mood changes among survivors, but organized investigations into the disease's neurological impact remained limited.To find out what Ebola leaves behind long after the infection is gone, researchers tracked 229 people in Liberia from 2015 to 2023, including 148 survivors and 81 close contacts who never contracted the virus.The study followed both groups for years, with neurologists meeting participants every six months to ask about symptoms during their illness and any health problems that persisted afterward. They also carried out physical examinations, testing coordination, reflexes, strength and other signs of nervous system function.During their initial illness and shortly after recovery, Ebola survivors commonly experienced neurological problems, including persistent headaches, depression, severe fatigue, tremors and memory difficulties. Most of these symptoms improved over the seven years the researchers followed participants.After more than half a decade, survivors were still more likely to struggle with memory loss, irritability and trouble concentrating. Line graphs of longitudinal neurological examination findings. The study also found that long-term neurological outcomes were linked to the severity of the initial infection. Survivors with more severe disease tended to have poorer neurological outcomes years later.The team also found that higher Ebola antibody levels in survivors were linked to more neurological symptoms and poorer neurological function, suggesting that an overactive or persistent immune response, rather than the virus itself, may be driving these long-term effects.The results led researchers to conclude that Ebola is a neurotropic disease, capable of directly affecting the nervous system and potentially persisting long after the acute infection has resolved.The study makes clear that health systems in Ebola-affected countries need to look beyond short-term care and plan for long-term neurological and mental health follow-up for survivors. The researchers emphasize the need for more neurological training and specialist expertise to support Ebola survivors.

Bill Gates warns a man-made virus could be the next crisis | Watch (interview video) Bill Gates warned before COVID that a highly infectious virus, not a war, was the most likely threat to kill more than 10 million people in the coming decades. In the interview, he says the world failed to buy the “insurance policy” against pandemics and still needs better testing, faster vaccines, stronger field teams, and global disease surveillance. He also names two major future threats: climate change, which he says could eventually cause a greater yearly death toll than the pandemic, and bioterrorism, where someone could deliberately engineer a dangerous virus. Gates argues COVID was not the last pandemic, but that the next one does not have to kill on the same scale if the world prepares properly

Ancient DNA reveals a plague outbreak in Siberia 5,500 years ago—4,000 years before the Justinian Plague - The Plague of Justinian, the Black Death, and the Third Plague: The death and terror caused by Yersinia pestis have marked human history for millennia. One prevailing theory is that the emergence of this infectious disease was driven by the development of agriculture, a sort of Faustian bargain in which a predictable food supply attracted pests that carried the deadly bacterium. Archaeologists speculate that hunter-gatherers moved around too much and lived in too small of groups for Y pestis to cause much harm. Research published today turns that theory on its head. A study in the journal Nature shows that hunter-gatherers in Siberia were dying of the plague approximately 5,500 years ago, making it by far the earliest known outbreak in the archeological record, said lead author Ruairidh Macleod, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford. For comparison, the Justinian Plague, which is often called the first known pandemic, occurred around the year 540. The Black Death originated in Central Asia in the early 1330s, with the Third Plague pandemic starting in China around 1855. "The fact that we're finding this happening in an isolated group of prehistoric hunter-gatherers is really, really extraordinary to me and challenges a lot of that epidemiological theory," said Macleod, who noted these groups had no contact with any people participating in any sort of agricultural or pastoral activity.

At least 3 infants sickened in botulism outbreak linked to powdered formula -- Three infants in three states have been sickened in a new botulism outbreak linked to now-recalled Nara Organics Whole Milk Organic powdered infant formula, according to a notice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).California, Pennsylvania, and Washington state have each reported a case, with the first patient‘s illness onset on April 20. The last symptom onset date was May 31.All infants have been hospitalized and are receiving treatment for their Clostridium botulinum bacterial infection. Infant botulism is a rare but very serious illness that occurs when infants swallow bacteria spores. Without treatment, infection begins with feeding difficulties, then leads to a progressive, flaccid paralysis.Nara Organics is sold at Target retail stores, Target.com, and Nara.com, but the recall is not expected to lead to any infant formula shortages, as the brand represents less than 1% of the infant formula market. This is the second recent outbreak of infant botulism linked to powdered formula. Earlier this year, California Department of Public Health investigators in collaboration with federal officials and other state health departments identified 51 suspected or confirmed cases of infant botulism across 19 states from March 2022 to December 2025. Those infants had consumed ByHeart infant formula.

Research highlights dangers of eating toxin-contaminated seafood -  Today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers probe the 402 US foodborne disease outbreaks caused by marine toxins in fish and shellfish over 23 years, revealing 1,280 illnesses, 96 hospitalizations, and one death. Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education parsed data from the CDC’s Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS) from 2011 to 2023. Local, state, and territorial health departments have voluntarily reported foodborne illness outbreaks to FDOSS through the CDC’s National Outbreak Reporting System since 2009. Storage of fish under uncontrolled temperatures can trigger production of histamine, which can cause allergic responses in people, and scombroid toxins made by bacteria with highly active enzyme histidine carboxylase. Other marine toxins can be produced by algae and build up in fish and shellfish through the food chain, occur naturally in fish species, or stem from unknown sources. The authors said that marine toxins cause most of the noninfectious outbreaks reported to FDOSS each year. “Marine toxins that cause foodborne illness are tasteless, odorless, resistant to cooking or freezing, and can produce a complex variety of gastrointestinal, neurologic, and neuropsychologic symptoms,” they wrote. “Among persons with severe illness resulting from ingestion of marine toxins, cardiovascular and respiratory manifestations can result in hospitalization and death.” During the study period, the national rate of marine toxin–related outbreaks was 1.2 per 1 million people. Outbreaks occurred in 32 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC, with the highest rate in Hawaii (25.3/1 million). Of all outbreaks, 99% were traced to a food source, 96% of which was fish. Of the 313 outbreak investigations with a known food importation status, 70% weren’t imported. Among the 377 outbreaks in which a single food-preparation location was identified, 51% were private homes, and 34% were sit-down restaurants. Nearly all outbreak reports (95%) implicated scombroid toxin (192 outbreaks, 597 illnesses, and six hospitalizations) or ciguatoxin (189, 619, and 67, respectively). New York reported the most outbreaks (22%). Scombroid fish poisoning is an allergic-like reaction that occurs within hours of consuming fish contaminated with high levels of histamine. When some types of fish aren’t refrigerated properly, bacteria in the fish can proliferate, breaking down the fish tissue and generating high amounts of histamine. Ciguatoxin, which is endemic in tropical and subtropical waters, is caused by eating fish such as barracuda and grouper that have consumed ciguatoxin-producing dinoflagellates. While ciguatoxin poisoning is rarely fatal, it can cause gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neurologic, and dermatologic symptoms. Of the 189 scombroid toxin outbreak reports with a known food source, 76% implicated tuna. Among the 131 scombroid toxin outbreak reports with known importation status, 53% were traced to imported foods. In total, 57% of the 181 scombroid toxin outbreak reports with a single food-preparation location implicated sit-down restaurants. Of the 189 ciguatoxin outbreaks, Florida reported the greatest proportion, at 47%. Among the 187 ciguatoxin outbreaks with a known food source, 31% were linked to barracuda, 13% implicated grouper, and 12% were tied to amberjack. A total of 87% of the 164 ciguatoxin outbreaks with a known importation status were caused by domestically caught fish, and 80% of the 178 outbreaks with a single food-preparation site were traced to private homes. Toxins traced to shellfish caused 13 non-imported outbreaks, with most caused by paralytic shellfish poisoning (46%) or neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (31%). Florida reported 38% of the outbreaks, which included 40 illnesses and nine hospitalizations. Mussels and sea snails were each implicated in 31% of outbreaks, while clams caused 23%. None of the outbreak investigations implicated imported shellfish. Of the 11 shellfish-associated toxin outbreaks with a single food preparation location, private homes were involved in 73%.

Scientist confronting the rising global threat of mosquitoes - Growing up in Tahiti, Anna-Bella Failloux saw firsthand the threat posed by mosquitoes: Nearly a third of adults on the picturesque island once had swollen limbs from elephantiasis caused by their bites. She has since dedicated her life to studying mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit—a concern that looms ever larger as climate change expands the area where the insects roam. "You have to accept being bitten by a mosquito from time to time," the 63-year-old entomologist at France's Pasteur Institute told AFP. "But we have to avoid too many people getting sick and dying from infections," Failloux said as she observed a mosquito trap being installed in the woods east of the French capital, Paris. A keen seamstress, Failloux had sewn the trap's netting herself. Every few days over the summer, these traps will be checked to see if the tiger mosquitoes inside could have spread yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya or Zika. Once confined to the tropics, these mosquitoes have recently been detected in greater numbers across France and elsewhere, raising fears of outbreaks. Anna-Bella Failloux of the Pasteur Institute has dedicated her life to fighting mosquitoes and the diseases they spread. Failloux's lifelong interest in mosquitoes goes back to a childhood spent in Papeete, Tahiti, where her shopkeeper parents arrived at the end of the 19th century. While it seemed a tropical paradise, the island suffered from shockingly high rates of elephantiasis, which swells limbs to immense proportions. The condition is caused by a parasite called Wuchereria bancrofti. People become infected when mosquitoes inject "a small worm into their lymph nodes, which blocks circulation," Failloux explained. At one point, around "30 percent of French Polynesia's population" was affected, she added. 'Increasingly vast playing field' Failloux moved to mainland France to study the Wuchereria bancrofti parasite at university and dedicated herself to studying mosquito-borne diseases. "Thirty years ago, climate change wasn't a major topic of discussion—neither were mosquitoes," she said. "Luckily, I persisted, then at some point, I was needed," said Failloux, who now heads the Pasteur Institute's arbovirus and insect vector unit. Rising temperatures caused by human-driven global warming have given mosquitoes—and the many pathogens they spread—"an increasingly vast playing field," she warned.According to the World Health Organization, 80 percent of the world's population is now at risk of being exposed to one of more infectious diseases that were long considered tropical. These diseases kill more than a million people a year, most of them children, according to the U.N. agency. From 2028, Failloux will lead a team of around 15 researchers at a large new research center in which the Pasteur Institute invested 30 million euros ($35 million). The center aims to develop strategies to control mosquitoes, particularly through their microbiota.For now, Failloux's training for young entomologists includes courses in anthropology and sociology because she believes fighting mosquitoes also requires engaging the public. One "long neglected" yet essential measure in the fight against mosquitoes is "cleaning your garden, unclogging your gutters" and eradicating any other stagnant water where mosquitoes could breed, Failloux added.

Experts probe 'shock' arrival of mosquito virus in Scotland - It was something infectious disease expert Heather Ferguson never expected to see in her lifetime: a mosquito-borne virus originally from Africa spreading in Scotland. But a laboratory result confirmed just that: In April, UK authorities said that Usutu virus had been identified in blackbirds in Scotland for the first time. Despite climate change pushing temperatures higher, scientists still thought it was too cool in Scotland for Usutu to thrive. The "shock" discovery was a "clarion call that... some risks might be coming here sooner than we thought," said Ferguson, a professor of infectious disease ecology at the University of Glasgow. "We need to be prepared," she told AFP. In the wilds of Scotland, scientists are trapping brown-gray Culex pipiens mosquitoes—the main vector of Usutu virus—to study and better understand how the disease might spread. They were alerted by residents on the Isle of Arran, southwest of Glasgow, who noticed last summer that blackbirds were dropping dead with strange symptoms. The birds had crooked necks, were weak and disoriented, and struggled to feed themselves. A local veterinarian sent remains for analysis, and the Usutu diagnosis eventually followed. Named after a river in southern Africa near where it was first identified in 1959, Usutu arrived in Europe earlier this century but never ventured as far north as Scotland. "We thought the climatic conditions were still a little bit too cold. It might be something for the future—but not now," Ferguson said. The Culex pipiens mosquitoes that carry Usutu are most active and abundant in warm conditions around 25C, temperatures now frequently reached in British summers. "If you'd asked me 10 years ago what was the risk of ever finding a mosquito-borne disease in Scotland, I would have thought it was minimal and not something that I was going to see in my lifetime," Ferguson said. "But climate change has really accelerated the pace with which things are changing." The risk of mosquito-borne diseases like Zika and chikungunya has increased in Europe over the past 20 years, said Emilie Pondeville, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow. Mosquitoes need warm conditions not only to survive and reproduce, but also for the virus to multiply inside them. The virus is transmitted when an infected mosquito bites a person or animal. "There's a balance between the temperature at which the mosquitoes can live, but also the temperature that the virus prefer, and the interaction between both," Pondeville told AFP. Researchers in Glasgow are conducting laboratory tests to understand how mosquitoes transmit viruses to animals and humans. Ferguson said Usutu is not considered an immediate risk to public health but acts "as the canary in the coal mine for what might be coming downstream." Its arrival in Scotland suggests conditions could be suitable for other mosquito-borne viruses. West Nile virus, a close relative of Usutu, was detected in mosquitoes in Britain for the first time in May 2025. Dengue and yellow fever are also caused by viruses from the same family. For now, what worries biologists most is the impact of these diseases on birds. Usutu has already caused significant declines in blackbird populations across Europe. The virus also affects owls, raptors and several passerines. In some parts of the world, mosquito-borne diseases are already placing extra pressure on vulnerable bird populations. In Hawaii, the arrival of Culex quinquefasciatus—a tropical cousin of Culex pipiens and a vector for avian malaria—has fueled the decline of several species, including the Po'ouli, a small songbird endemic to Maui. Other threatened species, such as the Akikiki and the iconic I'iwi with its reddish plumage, have sought refuge at higher elevations. But it could be in vain: As the planet warms, mosquitoes and their pathogens are increasingly being found at altitudes above 1,500 meters (4,900 feet).

Why Ticks Are Spreading in the Great Lakes region -  A walk through the woods is no longer the only place Midwesterners should watch for ticks. Researchers say the tiny parasites are spreading to communities across the region and they show no signs of slowing down.    According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), emergency room visits attributed to ticks are at the highest levels in nearly 10 years. The Midwest is the region with the second most likely emergency room visits due to  tick bites. In 2023, state health departments reported more than 89,000 cases of Lyme disease in humans to the CDC, the most recent year numbers have been published.  Experts like Edward Walker, a Michigan State University entomologist who has tracked changes in tick populations across Michigan and the Great Lakes region, warn the increase of ticks may not go away anytime soon.       “This is a long-term process of expansion in the range of ticks,” Walker said. “It’s not just that there is more this year than last year. It’s a much bigger, longer-term thing.” In places where ticks were once rare, expansion of the species continues. Walker says ticks are being found in backyards and parks rather than just forests.  “People will say things like, ‘We never had ticks here and now we do.’ I accept that as a real observation. It’s not imaginary,” Walker said.  The most common ticks in the Midwest are the deer tick, lone star tick and the wood tick, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  The deer tick, best known for transmitting Lyme disease, has been one of the most closely watched species. Their population has grown significantly over the past 20 to 30 years, William Miller, an associate professor at Calvin University who studies tick populations in Michigan, said.   “Populations were showing up pretty much everywhere within our sampling region,” he said, noting that areas once considered low risk are now seeing consistent tick presence. The white-tailed deer population plays a critical role in that expansion. Walker described them as fuel for growing tick populations. “Deer is really an all-you-can-eat buffet for ticks,” he said.  Deer populations have continued to rebound across the Midwest, especially after near elimination in the past century in some Midwestern states. Their return, combined with warming temperatures, has created conditions for ticks to thrive. That includes both deer ticks and lone star ticks, which are moving north away from historically warmer climates. Rising temperatures are a major factor that allow ticks to survive farther north, according to Jonathan Oliver, a professor at the University of Minnesota and public health entomologist specializing in vector-borne diseases.   “They were previously limited by minimum winter temperature,” Oliver said. “As the minimum winter temperature has risen, they are able to survive.”  ilbert Kersh, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expert who specializes in tick borne diseases, echoed this statement.  “If you have weather warming up earlier in the springtime, this is going to give ticks a longer time period to grow and breed during the year,” Kersh said.   he result is a compounding effect, with a mix of more suitable habitats, more hosts and longer warm seasons. “Increased temperatures as well as increased deer populations are two big drivers of the increased number of ticks,” Kersh said. 

Quick Takes: Red states and vaccine mandates, H9N2 avian flu case in China, Listeria cheese recall | CIDRAP

• A new poll conducted by Cygnal of general election voters in 13 Republican-leaning states—South Carolina, Idaho, West Virginia, Montana, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Iowa, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas—shows that most voters support vaccines. Overall majorities of the electorate in nine states that had an oversample of likely Republican primary voters opposed eliminating school vaccine requirements (61% in Idaho to 70% in South Carolina). And at least three in four GOP primary voters said they support health insurance providing free vaccines for those who want them. The surveys were conducted in September 2025, February 2026, and April 2026. “The politics here are straightforward: this is not an anti-vaccine base,” Cygnal said in a report on the findings.
• Hong Kong health authorities reported late last week the first locally acquired case of H9N2 avian flu infection in Hong Kong in more than six years, and they published more details about the case yesterday. The patient, a 2-year-old boy, is currently hospitalized and in stable condition. All six of his household contacts have remained asymptomatic. Hong Kong has reported 11 cases of H9N2 on the mainland since 1999, none fatal.
• The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Clover Hill Dairy has expanded its recall of various cheese products in light of an ongoing Listeria outbreak linked to soft cheeses produced by Clover Hill. Now the company says in addition to ricotta and requeson, all cheese products produced by the company, including hard cheeses and flavored varieties are also recalled. So far nine people have been sickened in the outbreak, including one death. Clover All Dairy has confirmed distribution in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington D.C.+

More Idaho dairy cattle hit with H5N1 avian flu -  Recent updates from the US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) show a spike of H5N1 avian flu activity in Idaho dairy cattle, with 33 cattle affected on dairy milking facilities in the past 30 days. Utah also reported three H5N1 detections among cattle this month. So far this year, APHIS has tracked 54 H5N1 cases among cattle, far fewer than the 917 reported in 2024. Last year, 171 cattle were sickened with avian flu.In bird news, another live-bird market, this one in Providence, Rhode Island, reported avian flu in 450 birds. The detection comes one week after a bird market in Passaic, New Jersey, reported 670 sick animals.Finally, a preprint study yesterday suggests that more than 13,000 baby elephant seals from a group of 17,000 on Heard Island, off the coast of Australia, were killed by H5N1 avian flu since last August, representing more than 76% of the island’s seal population. Currently, Australia is the only continent in the world to have no cases of the H5N1 strain that can affect both birds and mammals.

Only 10 viral particles cause H5N1 avian flu infection in cows - -Just 10 viral particles of the H5N1 bird flu that caused hundreds of influenza outbreaks in U.S. dairy cattle can cause infection in cows, a new study shows. The research also hints at why the outbreaks have confounded scientists, farmers and livestock handlers hoping to contain and prevent the disease—an effort likely complicated by the fact that the virus has an affinity for cow mammary glands rather than airways.Tests for transmission among cows through milk machinery or through feeding of calves, and between birds and cattle through shared indoor air, did not show evidence of disease spread. Researchers are continuing to pursue more answers, but for now the transmission mystery endures, meaning scientists can't yet provide evidence-based recommendations for practices that would stop the spread. The paper is published in the journal Nature Communications."How it spreads from cow to cow becomes a very important question. We need to understand if there's a way to change milking practices or farming practices, whatever it is, to limit cow-to-cow transmission because we think spillover is going to happen again. It's just a matter of time," said senior author Andrew Bowman, professor of veterinary preventive medicine at The Ohio State University."And right now we don't have a great way to prevent either that spillover or cow-to-cow transmission once it happens."Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza A viruses are associated with wild birds and poultry, but since 2021 a group of these viruses of clade 2.3.4.4b have circulated globally in mammals and were first reported in U.S. dairy cattle in March 2024.To date, 1,053 outbreaks of the originally detected virus genotype (B3.13) have been confirmed in dairy herds in 17 states, which have been brought under control through a national milk testing strategy that halted movement of herds producing milk in which the virus was detected. Current federal data suggests small numbers of infections in cows are confirmed in Idaho, Utah and Texas."This work has all been done in response to the unprecedented spillover of avian influenza into dairy cattle," Bowman said. "Initially, we had no idea that cows could even be infected with influenza, let alone that the mammary gland was involved. That in and of itself was a major paradigm shift: It's not respiratory."Bowman and colleagues have been following the disease since its emergence on dairy farms, reporting early this year on detection of the virus in retail milk supplies—at that time, 36.3% of samples tested were positive for H5N1 particles."Pasteurization is inactivating it. But once a cow's infected, they produce high-viral-titer milk for more than a week," Bowman said.Those high virus titers (concentrations) in milk were among the results of the current work, which involved testing the effects of varied levels of viral particle inoculations into individual cow teats, where mammary glands are located.Results showed that the smallest dose of 10 particles resulted in productive infection but fewer clinical signs compared to higher doses, as well as shedding of milk containing high concentrations of viral particles."They are four separate mammary glands that have a common blood supply, but in these small numbers of animals, we're not seeing a lot of viral movement between those glands," Bowman said. "I think that may become important to how sick a cow does or doesn't get because if one of four glands is infected, that's different from a severe infection in all four."

Quick takes: More NWS cases in Texas; impact of HIV funding cuts; curb on chikungunya vaccine | CIDRAP

• The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has now confirmed 12 cases of New World screwworm (NWS) in the United States. Eleven of the 12 cases are in Texas, where the first case was confirmed in a 3-week-old calf on June 3, and the other is in New Mexico. The most recent confirmed infestation of the parasitic fly, whose larvae feed on the living flesh of livestock and other animals, was detected on June 11 in a sheep in Sullivan County, Texas. In related news, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said last week that it’s officially activated a Level 3 emergency response to support the USDA and the Texas Department of State Health Services in their response to the NWS detections. Level 3 is the lowest of CDC’s three emergency-response levels.
• A new report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) warns that reduced funding for HIV prevention could threaten decades of progress in the HIV response. In its latest Global AIDS Brief, UNAIDS said initial data from 62 countries shows the number of people who received pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) declined by 38% in 2025 amid cuts in domestic and international funding for HIV prevention programs, while HIV testing fell by 22% in countries with high levels of HIV. Funding for condoms and for programs that ensure people can reach prevention services fell by 93% and 80%, respectively. “Progress made to date on the HIV response is real and fragile,” the report states. “Without renewed commitment and action, we risk a resurgence of the epidemic.”
• The European Medicine Agency’s (EMA’s) Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee has recommended restricting use of the live-attenuated chikungunya vaccine Ixchiq to people with a high risk of infection. The decision comes after an EMA review of available safety data found that some adverse events reported after administration of the vaccine, which contains a weakened strain of the chikungunya virus, have resulted in hospitalization and death. Among the serious or prolonged chikungunya-like adverse reactions include malaise and decreased appetite, encephalopathy and encephalitis, exacerbation of pre-existing conditions, and aseptic meningitis or confusion.

Toxic 'time bomb' threatens Mekong river basin  - Thai fisherman Somdet Singthong steered his metal skiff across the brown waters of the Mekong River, resigned to the pollution that has put his health and lifelong source of livelihood at risk.Doctors have found elevated levels of toxic arsenic in his fingernails and urine, with the heavy metal also detected in the river that millions of people in Southeast Asia depend on. Testing suggests the contamination, which experts and campaigners trace back to illegal mining in Myanmar, is now spreading downstream.Locals used to buy their fish directly from Somdet on a pier near Chiang Saen in northern Thailand, on the border with Myanmar and Laos.But since authorities detected arsenic and other heavy metals in several Mekong tributaries last year, his clientele has shrunk, leaving his carp and catfish rotting."The impact has been huge," the 69-year-old fisherman told AFP.   "I've never been afraid, but other villagers are worried. They don't eat fish; some won't touch it at all."  Thailand's Pollution Control Department said in April it had found arsenic concentrations of up to 296 milligrams per kilogram of sediment near Chiang Saen—more than nine times the level considered dangerous for aquatic life. That was the first time the contamination was detected in the Mekong River itself, and not only its tributaries."When it's contaminated with heavy metals and other kinds of toxins, they flow all the way to the Mekong Delta," threatening an important rice-growing region in Vietnam, said Pianporn Deetes of the Rivers and Rights campaign group."The fish are contaminated already," she added. Researchers and environmental activists generally attribute the pollution to illegal mines in neighboring Myanmar, whose long-running civil war enables unregulated exploitation of natural resources, including rare earth elements used in smartphones, wind turbines, electric vehicles and more."Conflict, fragmented governance, and global markets converge to promote and sustain extraction at the expense of environmental integrity and human security," the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank said in a report in May.Researchers from Thailand's Chiang Mai University found arsenic levels 10 times higher than normal in sediment from the Kok River, a Mekong tributary.Assistant Professor Wan Wiriya described it as a "time bomb," raising long-term risks of cancer and neurological disorders—particularly among vulnerable populations. Buddhist monks in saffron robes led a protest march this month along the contaminated waterway, with participants holding signs reading "Rivers are the veins of our lives.""We don't see children playing in the water anymore. We don't see birds. We don't see butterflies," said Sansoen Duangdee, a 69-year-old artist.Activist Deetes, one of the organizers of the march, called for "diplomatic dialogue" between Thailand and its neighbors, along with China—the main importer of rare earth elements from Myanmar and Laos.She denounced "gangsters" who "do what they want and without responsibility," as well as political apathy in the face of largely "invisible" danger. "The water is dead. And if the water is dead, what about the people?"

Lebanon Tells UN That Israel Is Using Herbicide as a Weapon - Before the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in March, they were still attacking Lebanon on an almost daily basis at any rate. Starting in late January, some of those attacks involved the spraying of concentrated herbicide on Lebanese farmland and other agricultural lands. Those operations continued to be reported intermittently after, but were mostly overshadowed by the invasion and the thousands of people killed directly by Israeli attacks. Lebanon, however, has finally gotten its investigation to the point where they could formally complain to the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council that Israel is using herbicide as a weapon. They cited studies conducted by labs that found the concentration “greatly exceeded” the levels found in the soil even after it was regularly used by farmers for ordinary weed control. Glyphosate, the herbicide in question, has a controversial history the world over, though it is still used, with caution, in a lot of the developed world as an effective herbicide. Exposure has been linked to cancer, and that’s not considering concentrations 20 to 30 times normal usage like is being seen across border villages and farmland. The strikes are part of an Israeli campaign that has done massive damage to Lebanese farmland, particularly in the southernmost parts of the country, that Israel has had designs on forcibly depopulating outright.Though Israel has maintained in communications with the UNIFIL peacekeepers in Lebanon that the deployment of glyphosate was itself just “non-toxic” chemicals, they also admonished those same peacekeepers to take cover when they were being used in the area. Israel has similarly been deploying those chemicals off and on in the border areas of southwest Syria.Though deployment of herbicides in a warzone isn’t automatically a violation of international law in and of itself, it likely does when the chemicals are of dubious safety at such high concentrations, and when their use against farmland threatens the long-term survival of the population.It was also presumably violate the Environmental Modification Convention, an international treaty meant to prevent the use of defoliants and other modification techniques that would have long-term impact on the targeted nation. Israel, however, is not a signatory to that convention.

What happens to microplastics when swallowed? In earthworms, they do not leave the digestive tract -  Globally, humanity now produces a staggering 450 million tonnes of plastic every year. From food and drink containers to cosmetics packaging, sewage pipes, window frames and polyester clothing, we use plastics in almost every area of life. And nearly one-quarter of them end up in the environment, where they very slowly degrade into microscopic pieces. These microplastics—particles between 1 micrometer and 5 millimeters wide—have been found in the deepest parts of the oceans, at the top of the tallest mountains, at the sparsely populated poles and even inside the human body. It is very difficult for living organisms, including humans, to avoid ingesting microplastics. If these microplastics cross the lining of the digestive tract to enter the bloodstream or other tissues, they will persist in the body. Until now, it has been difficult for researchers to accurately assess whether this is happening.  Our research team has developed a new technique to identify the location of microplastics within an organism without dissecting it. We tested it on earthworms and discovered that microplastics ranging in size from 5 to 53 micrometers do not readily cross the lining of the gut to enter other tissues in the worms.  The question of whether microplastics simply pass through the digestive tract to be excreted, or cross the lining of the gut, has been challenging for researchers to answer. This is because the microplastic particles would need to be less than 83 micrometers in size—10 times smaller than the head of a sewing pin. Researchers have been forced to dissect the tissues out of organisms to determine whether such tiny particles may have traversed the lining of the digestive tract into other tissues. As microplastics are everywhere, it is very difficult to prevent contamination of the dissected samples with more microplastics, so it is hard to accurately measure what was originally present. We chose to work with earthworms because they are essential for healthy soils and constantly move through and feed on soil where microplastics can accumulate. This makes them a useful species for studying how soil organisms interact with microplastic pollution.We fed the earthworms soil that contained either microparticles ranging in size from 5 to 22 micrometers or from 45 to 53 micrometers. These microplastics were coated with barium salts, which means that on an X-ray, they would show up as bright white particles in the earthworm.A conventional X-ray would not provide the detail necessary to see the location of the microplastics in the earthworm. Microcomputed tomography allowed us to create a very detailed three-dimensional picture of the earthworm, in which the microplastics appear as bright particles against the backdrop of the darker tissues in the earthworm. This allowed us to count the microplastics in the gut of the earthworm and determine whether any microplastics that the earthworm consumed had moved out of the gut and into other tissues.We observed a total of 2,779 individual microplastics inside the digestive tracts of worms that were fed the contaminated soil. We found no microplastics at all outside the digestive tract of these worms.This provides definitive evidence that microplastics ranging in size from 5 to 53 micrometers do not readily cross the lining of the gut to enter other tissues in the worm.

Honeybees adjust their dances based on information reliability, study reveals - A new study demonstrates that honeybees can evaluate the reliability of their own communication, actively adjusting the vigor of their "waggle dance" based on the truthfulness of the information they provide. By manipulating whether a dancing bee's followers successfully found food, experiments revealed that only bees with verified, "honest" information increased their recruitment effort over time when advertising a new location, whereas "liar" or "unverified" bees did not. This internal self-control mechanism naturally filters out ambiguous or misleading signals, allowing the hive to function efficiently as a cooperative superorganism. A new study by Dr. Karmi Oxman, Prof. Sharoni Shafir and Prof. Ofer Feinderman has revealed that honeybees have a remarkable ability to assess the reliability of the information they communicate to their hive. The research demonstrates that bees actively increase their recruitment efforts when they know the directions they are providing to food sources are accurate and verified.  The study is published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.The famous "waggle dance" is the primary method honeybees use to share the location of profitable food sources with their nestmates, using vibration pulses to indicate distance and direction. However, the precision of these dances can vary from bee to bee, prompting researchers to ask how a colony manages the spread of information when the quality of that information differs.To find out, the research team conducted an experiment at the Benjamin Triwaks Bee Research Center in Rehovot. They set up a system to manipulate the quality of information that specific "focal" bees communicated to their followers.. The scientists established three distinct scenarios for the recruits who followed the dances of the focal bees. In the "honest" treatment, the follower bees flew to the advertised location and successfully fed on sugar solution. In the "liar" treatment, the dancer had access to food, but the followers were met with an empty feeder. Finally, an "unverified" treatment eliminated all feedback by having researchers safely capture the follower bees as soon as they arrived at the location, preventing them from returning to the hive. During the next stage of the experiment, the food source was moved to a new location, and the original focal bees were allowed to dance for this new site. The behavioral changes in the dancing bees were distinct. Bees that had been verified as "honest" in the first stage significantly increased their recruitment effort, performing more dance circuits over time to advertise the new location. Conversely, the "liar" bees did not change their effort levels, and the "unverified" dancers actually decreased the number of circuits they performed. These findings indicate that honeybees do not just blindly repeat instructions; they adjust the vigor of their communication based on its proven reliability. By increasing the strength of an honest signal, the dancer provides an opportunity for more followers to receive a truthful message. "A honeybee colony is a superorganism, possessing impressive decision-making abilities and collective wisdom," Shafir said. "Since the bee is recruiting for the sake of the colony, and not for personal interests, the system is apparently designed to promote honest dancers and to quiet down signals in the face of ambiguity." This mechanism of sharing confidence relies heavily on individual self-control, helping the tens of thousands of bees within a hive operate efficiently as a single, cooperative superorganism.

Study tracks juvenile sturgeon from Ohio's first-ever reintroduction effort -A new telemetry study published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences finds that the method used to raise juvenile lake sturgeon before stocking has little bearing on how the fish behave after release—an important finding for ongoing efforts to restore the species to the Maumee River and other Ohio rivers. Lake sturgeon were once abundant throughout the Great Lakes but were nearly wiped out by overfishing, pollution and habitat loss. A collaborative reintroduction program—led by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, The University of Toledo, Michigan State University and the Toledo Zoo—began stocking baby sturgeon annually in the Maumee River in 2018. The long-term goal is to establish 1,500 naturally spawning adults in the river.The program used two approaches to raise young fish: a traditional hatchery at Genoa National Fish Hatchery in Wisconsin and a "streamside" facility at the Toledo Zoo that used Maumee River water. The streamside method was designed to expose fish to local water chemistry during a critical early window, potentially improving imprinting—the process by which fish learn to recognize and return to their home river to spawn or lay eggs as adults.For the new study, researchers tracked the movements of 120 acoustically tagged sturgeon across three release years (2018, 2019 and 2021) using a network of underwater receivers. They found that regardless of how the fish were raised, most left the Maumee River for Lake Erie within three to 47 days of release, then spent the bulk of their first year in the western basin of the lake, primarily hugging the south shore. Key findings:

• 74 of 94 detected sturgeon (79%) moved from the Maumee River into Lake Erie after release.
• Sturgeon spent an average of three to 47 days in the river, then 54 to 207 days in Lake Erie.
• No statistically meaningful differences in river residency, distance traveled or habitat area were found between the two rearing groups.
• Most fish traveled along the south shore of the western basin toward the Lake Erie islands region.
• Time will tell if rearing strategy affects the number of lake sturgeon returning to the Maumee River to spawn.

"While we found no difference between rearing strategies at this age, the real test of our work will come when these fish are old enough to spawn," said co-author Dr. William Hintz, an associate professor of ecology based at UToledo's Lake Erie Center in Oregon, Ohio."Because sturgeon take a decade or more to mature to reproductive age, we won't know for years whether the sturgeon return to the Maumee River to spawn and whether rearing strategy matters as sturgeon age, but we will continue to focus on that long-term goal."

EPA incites another Hill fight over California waivers - EPA on Friday submitted four more California air pollution rule waivers to Congress, where Republicans can use the Congressional Review Act to nullify them. The repeal of three Biden-era Clean Air Act waivers in Congress last year sparked a intense partisan battle on Capitol Hill that led to Senate Republicans defying their own rules referee. Now, the administration wants lawmakers to undo federal approval for California air rules dating back to the Obama administration. GOP leaders have yet to say exactly how they will proceed. A spokesperson for Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said, “Republicans will continue to fight against back door attempts by California to impose a nationwide EV mandate.” With EPA having revoked all federal tailpipe greenhouse gas limits earlier this year, ending the newly submitted waivers would free automakers from having to comply with climate standards from California or the more than a dozen other mostly blue states that follow its rules — including New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington state.  Friday’s action comes one year to the day after President Donald Trump signed resolutions of disapproval killing three waivers issued in the final days of the Biden administration, including one that would have required all new vehicles in California emit zero emissions by 2035. The Clean Air Act allows the state to set stricter rules than the federal government with EPA approval.   The Congressional Review Act makes it easier for Congress to kill newly issued rules. Before last year, it was never used to undo EPA Clean Air Act waivers. Senate Republicans maneuvered to bypass the chamber’s parliamentarian to make it happen. Also, because previous administrations never submitted the waivers as rules, EPA’s move Friday starts the clock for Congress to repeal more of them by simple majority. “It is important for EPA to fulfill our statutory obligation to submit these California waivers to Congress for their review pursuant to the law,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. It’s unclear who may introduce resolutions of disapproval to nullify the new batch of waivers EPA submitted. It’s also unclear whether supporters will get enough senators on board. Some Senate moderates were concerned about using the Congressional Review Act against waivers last year, but GOP leaders said action was necessary to prevent California from moving forward with what critics termed an electric car mandate. The auto industry lobbied hard for Congress to act. Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who led the fight against last year’s repeal, said Friday: “The Trump EPA continues to abuse the CRA to go after years-old agency actions. The only possible explanation is payback for President Trump’s fossil fuel donors who will be able to sell more gasoline at a time when gasoline prices are causing real pain for American families.” In the new batch, three of the waivers cover older greenhouse gas rules for light-duty cars and trucks, including the first greenhouse gas waiver issued to California in 2009 and a subsequent 2013 waiver for what was known as the Advanced Clean Cars rule that covered through model year 2025. The third waiver was the Biden administration’s reinstatement of the ACC rule after it was revoked via rulemaking by the first Trump administration. The waivers stopped setting increasingly stringent standards with model year 2025. However, their standards carry forward indefinitely, meaning automakers still had to meet those emissions requirements going forward in California and allied states. The Trump administration in March sued California to stop enforcement of its 2012 ACC standards, the subject of the 2013 waiver now in line for nullification. The state last month moved to dismiss the case. The fourth waiver EPA sent to Congress on Friday requires new off-highway engines below 25 horsepower — a category including lawn mowers, weed whackers, hedge trimmers, chain saws and gasoline-powered golf carts — to transition to zero-emission options to curb emissions of smog-forming pollutants. The Outdoor Power Equipment Institute has been fighting that rule in court, arguing there aren’t enough available alternatives and that electrification could hamper relief efforts in the wake of natural disasters.

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool: Algae returns post-Trump renovation - Images of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool show that green algae have returned to the site on the National Mall despite President Trump’s renovations.  The project, which cost more than $13 million, included the addition of nanobubbler technology that has “successfully destroyed the algae,” according to the Interior Department.  A spokesperson told The Hill that “due to deploying the advanced nanobubbler technology” the algae are “dead” and “being vacuumed up as we speak.”“We thank President Trump for fixing the Reflecting Pool for good,” the spokesperson added.  A federal contract between the Interior Department and Green Water Solutions says the new technology is intended to help weed out the algae by cutting down on its food supply. 'The photosynthetic plant has been present at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool since it opened in 1922 and has plagued the site dating all the way up to 2012, when renovations were completed under the second Obama administration.Katie Martin, a spokesperson for the Interior Department, told CNN the recent algae flare-ups were expected and are a “part of the normal startup process.”   “What you are seeing is residual algae from the supply lines, which have been sitting dormant for eight weeks while construction has been taking place,” she told CNN. The National Park Service is set to be in charge of maintaining the site. As a part of Trump’s renovations, the bottom of the pool was painted “American Flag” blue and leaks throughout the 2,028 foot-long site that holds approximately 6.75 million gallons of water were repaired. An Interior Department spokesperson previously said the pool used to leak up to 16 million gallons of water per year.In addition to repairing leaks in the structure, the Trump administration is preparing to fix leaky pipes in the fall, as reported by The New York Times.

Toxic algal blooms linked to deaths of recently stranded humpback whales --Marine mammal stranding teams have completed major response activities for two deceased juvenile humpback whales discovered less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) apart in Monterey Bay earlier this month and issued preliminary necropsy findings. The first whale stranded on a sensitive beach in Pacific Grove on June 3, while a second juvenile humpback whale was found stranded June 5 at Sunset Beach, near Watsonville. Response efforts were led by the Marine Mammal Stranding Network at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and San José State University's Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. On June 11, responders successfully towed the Pacific Grove whale offshore. By relocating the carcass away from the shoreline, the whale can now decompose naturally and contribute nutrients to the deep-sea ecosystem, where whale falls provide important habitat and food resources for a diverse community of marine organisms. The Sunset Beach whale was reportedly buried on the beach by California State Parks after the carcass was necropsied June 6. During response efforts, stranding teams collected a variety of biological samples from both whales, including feces and stomach contents. These samples were analyzed in collaboration with researchers at UC Santa Cruz. Lab tests confirmed the presence of domoic acid in samples collected from both whales. Domoic acid is a naturally occurring marine biotoxin produced by certain harmful algal blooms and can accumulate in marine food webs. Exposure can cause neurological impairment, seizures and death in marine mammals. These findings come as Monterey Bay and the central California coast have experienced exceptionally high levels of domoic acid-producing algae, according to Robin Dunkin, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Monitoring conducted in recent weeks has measured some of the highest concentrations observed in the region, resulting in widespread impacts on marine wildlife and increased concern among researchers and resource managers. The detection of domoic acid in both whales is consistent with the widespread impacts being observed in marine wildlife during the current harmful algal bloom event. The Sunset Beach whale had particularly high levels of domoic acid, consistent with the toxin having played a significant role in its death. Preliminary examination of this whale revealed no obvious signs of trauma, and the animal appeared to be in relatively good nutritional condition for a stranded whale. Domoic acid was also detected in samples collected from the Pacific Grove whale, which was known to live in the area. Although toxin levels measured in that animal were lower than those found in the Sunset Beach whale, domoic acid can be rapidly cleared from the body while leaving behind significant physiological and neurological damage. As a result, the findings from both whales are consistent with domoic acid exposure having contributed to their strandings and deaths. Additional analyses are ongoing to better understand the extent of toxin exposure and any other factors that may have played a role. Among those conducting the tests at UC Santa Cruz is ocean sciences professor Raphael Kudela, a recognized leader in the study of harmful algal blooms. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights.  The two humpback whales are among 62 whale strandings documented along the U.S. West Coast in 2026. Before these strandings, 60 whales had stranded along the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington, including 52 gray whales and eight whales representing other species. While no single cause has been identified across these strandings, investigations have documented a range of factors, including poor nutritional condition, vessel strikes and exposure to marine biotoxins. Cases involving poor nutritional condition have occurred predominantly in gray whales. Researchers believe these mortalities may be linked to reduced prey availability on gray whale feeding grounds in the Arctic, where changing ocean conditions associated with climate change have altered ecosystem productivity in recent years. The two humpback whales found recently do not appear to fit the pattern observed in many of the stranded gray whales. Instead, preliminary findings from both animals indicate exposure to domoic acid, highlighting the diversity of threats currently affecting whale populations along the West Coast. Information gathered through stranding investigations helps scientists identify emerging threats, track long-term trends and inform conservation, management and public health decisions.x

Trump opens protected Pacific waters to commercial fishing - The Trump administration struck down prohibitions on commercial fishing Thursday across more than 500,000 square miles of marine national monuments in the Pacific Ocean, as environmental groups vowed to challenge the action in federal court.President Donald Trump signed an executive order to open the Mariana Trench, Papahānaumokuākea and Rose Atoll marine national monuments to commercial fisherman, removing restrictions put in place under the George W. Bush and Obama administrations.“Restoring commercial fishing access to these vital areas reflects the continued commitment of this Administration to American fisheries, which are built on the foundation of rigorous science, robust monitoring, strong enforcement, and the daily commitment of our dedicated fishermen,” NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs said in a statement.Trump first indicated in April 2025 that he would seek to unwind more fishing prohibitions when he similarly opened 400,000 square miles of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial use.With his moves on Thursday, Trump has formally sought to open all five of the nation’s marine monuments to commercial fishing. He removed restrictions on the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this year. Environmental groups lambasted the move, arguing that rather than opening sensitive marine areas — which variously support a variety of endangered species, deep-sea volcanoes and seabird populations — for commercial use, the Trump administration should focus on the reduction of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing to help keep American seafood industries competitive with foreign counterparts.“These ocean waters are home to ancient corals, endangered sea turtles, majestic whales and so much more,” said Brad Sewell, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s managing director of oceans. “We cannot open special places like this to industrial fishing and expect them to prosper and thrive for future generations to enjoy.”  Sewell also challenged Trump’s authority to remove the fishing restrictions, arguing that the Antiquities Act of 1906 does not allow him to make those changes. Under the law, presidents may set aside existing federal lands or waters to protect places of cultural, scientific and historic interest. “No president can strip a national monument of a core protection on his own,” Sewell said. “We have beaten back this kind of overreach before, and we are confident the courts will not let it stand this time either.” Environmentalists could challenge the order in court, said David Henkin, deputy managing attorney with Earthjustice’s Mid-Pacific Office.“Commercial fishing in our protected marine monuments would not only be disastrous for the environment, but also does nothing for the fishing industry,” Henkin said in a statement. “Safe havens allow marine life to maintain healthy populations and prevent corporate greed from stripping the ocean of life.”

NSF retreats on ocean monitoring cuts after Capitol Hill revolt - -- The Trump administration announced Thursday it would reverse course on plans to dismantle a major ocean observation program, bowing to pressure from congressional lawmakers.The National Science Foundation issued an unsigned statement indicating it will terminate its plan to disband 80 percent of the Ocean Observatories Initiative, and will reinstall equipment already removed from waters in the Pacific Northwest. “Effective immediately, NSF will not proceed with further removal or descoping of equipment from the remaining arrays and will continue operations including planned maintenance,” the statement said, pointing to “concerns raised by the range of stakeholders.”Both Senate and House lawmakers inked separate letters Monday directing NSF to terminate its plans and maintain its $368 million array of instruments in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Slaughter in the water: Can the Ramsar Convention protect African waterbirds? --The Ramsar Convention is the world's longest-standing international treaty for wetland and waterbird protection. Signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat has to date been signed by 172 countries, which have agreed to engage in "working together for wetland conservation and wise use" in more than 2,500 protected areas covering over 2.5 million square kilometers (965,000 square miles) around the world. However, the Ramsar Convention's measures are not legally binding, leaving open the possibility that many Ramsar sites may be akin to "paper parks"—protected in theory, but not in reality.Unfortunately, the global conservation status of wetlands has not improved since the enactment of the Ramsar Convention. On the contrary, recent studies report losses of a third or more of wetlands worldwide, due to human impacts such as drainage for agriculture, pollution, and the destruction of reed beds, mangroves and other native wetland vegetation. Moreover, despite the extensive coverage of wetland areas protected by the Ramsar Convention, global waterbird populations are in decline, especially in regions with weak governance, such as sub-Saharan Africa.How effective is the Ramsar Convention in protecting African waterbirds from unsustainable hunting? Wetlands in sub-Saharan Africa provide crucial habitat for waterbirds, including both year-round resident birds as well as migratory waterbirds visiting from Europe and Asia. However, human-caused bird mortality is nearly 2.5 times higher in Africa compared with Europe or Asia, despite conservation efforts. During the breeding season, when nesting waterbirds may literally be "sitting ducks," they are especially vulnerable to hunting and egg harvesting, both by local residents and professional hunters and trappers.We investigated the effectiveness of the Ramsar Convention as a waterbird conservation tool through a field study in Ramsar site 1018 in southeastern Benin, West Africa. Between May and October 2022, we conducted monthly interviews with 64 residents, including 19 (30%) self-identified professional hunters. Interviewees reported numbers of waterbirds and eggs they took from Ramsar site 1018 during the six-month rainy season, which corresponds to the waterbird breeding season. Our findings were published in the journal Earth.An Allen's Gallinule trapped at its nest by a hunter in southeastern Benin; hunters reported taking nearly 4,200 breeding adults and nearly 16,000 eggs of this species over the course of a single breeding season in Ramsar site 1018. Hunters caught waterbirds in their nests by throwing fishing nets over them during incubation, hanging baited fish hooks over waterbird nests, or trapping birds in cylindrical cages woven from Raphia leaves. Although our 64 interviewees represented only a tiny minority of the total number of waterbird hunters active in Ramsar site 1018, they reported taking enormous numbers of breeding birds and eggs, totaling over 12,000 birds and nearly 64,000 eggs during a single breeding season.The four most heavily persecuted species included the White-faced Whistling Duck, Allen's Gallinule, Eurasian Moorhen and Lesser Moorhen, which together made up 89% of all breeding birds and 92% of all eggs harvested. The African Swamphen, Black Crake, African Jacana and African Crake were also targeted by hunters and trappers, but reportedly with less success because their nests are more difficult to find. Hunters typically eat eggs and birds they kill, while their family members, typically women and children, sell live birds at roadsides to passersby as bushmeat.Hunters reported taking 24,491 White-faced Whistling Duck eggs, representing over a third (~38%) of all eggs taken, and 1,704 adult ducks, comprising 14% of all breeding birds taken. Hunters took 4,187 Allen's Gallinules, representing over a third (~35%) of all birds harvested by interviewees, and 15,914 eggs of this species, representing nearly a quarter (24%) of the total eggs collected. Eurasian Moorhens made up a fifth (~20%) of all birds harvested by hunters interviewed in the study area, representing 2,418 birds taken, and hunters harvested 9,234 eggs of this species, or 14% of the total eggs harvested. Lesser Moorhens likewise made up a fifth (~20%) of all birds and 14% of all eggs harvested, with 2,395 breeding birds and 9,227 eggs taken by 64 interviewees.Although Ramsar site 1018 is classified as a protected area, the colossal numbers of birds and eggs reported as trapped and killed in this study represent a fraction of the total, with the actual numbers of birds and eggs taken much higher in reality. The harvest of such staggering numbers of breeding birds and eggs means waterbird persecution in the study area is likely driving population declines of these species.

Stress along Southern California faults reaches highest level in 1 000 years - More than 160 years after the M7.9 Fort Tejon earthquake, tectonic stress along Southern California’s two dominant fault systems has reached record levels, according to a new study that reconstructs 1 000 years of earthquake activity across the southern San Andreas and San Jacinto faults. A new study of Southern California’s major fault systems has found that tectonic stress is now at its highest level in at least 1 000 years, raising new questions about how future large earthquakes could unfold near Los Angeles. Researchers modeled 1 000 years of earthquake history along the San Andreas Fault and San Jacinto Fault and found that stress has continued to build since the last major rupture to affect the wider Los Angeles region — the M7.9 Fort Tejon earthquake in 1857. Their results suggest that a key fault junction known as Cajon Pass may play a critical role in determining whether a future earthquake remains on a single fault or spreads across multiple fault systems. The study, led by Liliane M. L. Burkhard of the University of Bern and published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, introduces the concept of Cajon Pass as an “earthquake gate” — a fault junction that can either stop a rupture or allow it to continue into neighboring faults under the right stress conditions. Cajon Pass is located northeast of Los Angeles, where the southern San Andreas Fault and the San Jacinto Fault approach one another. The area sits within one of the most important tectonic zones in Southern California and contains major highways, rail corridors, and energy infrastructure serving the Los Angeles metropolitan region. Scientists have long known that earthquakes behave differently at this junction. The M7.9 Fort Tejon earthquake in 1857 ruptured more than 330 km (205 miles) of the San Andreas Fault but stopped near Cajon Pass. In contrast, the 1812 Wrightwood earthquake appears to have crossed the junction and involved multiple fault systems in a single rupture. The new research suggests that the difference may be linked to how stress is distributed across neighboring fault segments. “The earthquake gate concept captures something important about how fault junctions work. Cajon Pass doesn’t simply block or channel earthquakes: It responds to stress conditions, and those conditions change over centuries,” Burkhard said. To understand how stress developed through time, the researchers built a four-dimensional earthquake-cycle model that simulates fault behavior in three dimensions while also tracking changes through time. The model was driven by a 1 000-year earthquake record reconstructed from paleoseismic evidence, including radiocarbon dating, tree-ring anomalies, geological records of surface ruptures, and historical documentation. Using this information, the simulations tracked how earthquakes transfer stress to neighboring faults, how it accumulates between earthquakes, and how deeper parts of the crust gradually relax after major ruptures. “The model tracks how each earthquake changes stress on neighboring fault segments, how stress accumulates during the quiet intervals between events, and how the deeper layers of the crust slowly relax following large ruptures,” Burkhard said. “By running the earthquake history of Southern California as a simulation, we can estimate the extent to which the fault system is already under stress today.” The results show that stress levels across parts of the fault system have reached values not seen elsewhere in the model’s 1 000-year record. By 2025, the researchers estimated Coulomb stress values of 2.8 MPa on the Mojave South segment of the San Andreas Fault, 1.8 MPa on the North San Bernardino segment, and 3.6 MPa on the San Jacinto Bernardino segment. According to the study, the 3.6 MPa value on the San Jacinto Bernardino segment exceeds the highest stress level recorded anywhere in the simulation. The authors found that the amount of stress on an individual fault is only part of the picture. Equally important is how closely stress levels on neighboring faults match one another. When stress accumulates to similarly high levels on both the San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems, conditions favor larger ruptures that can jump between faults. When stress levels evolve differently, ruptures are more likely to stop at Cajon Pass. Historical earthquake analysis in the study supports that pattern. Earthquakes that propagated through Cajon Pass generally occurred when stress differences between adjacent fault segments were relatively small. “So not only is it concerning that the stresses are reaching historic highs, but also that the relative stress conditions between the two fault systems are approaching the range we associate with major ruptures crossing both faults simultaneously – and that is a scenario with much larger consequences for the region,” Burkhard said.

M7.8 earthquake raised parts of the seabed by up to 2 m (6.6 feet) in the southern Philippines - Youtube videos - PHIVOLCS reported that the M7.8 earthquake off southern Mindanao, which caused dozens of fatalities and widespread damage, raised sections of the coastline in Sarangani and Davao Occidental provinces by as much as 2 m (6.6 feet). Shoreline has retreated by up to 200 m (656 feet) in some locations, exposing coral reefs and marine ecosystems that had previously remained underwater. The M7.8 earthquake struck offshore southern Mindanao, Philippines, along the Cotabato Trench system, causing widespread damage and triggering emergency operations across affected areas. Authorities reported at least 61 fatalities and approximately 40 missing persons following the earthquake, according to assessments cited by multiple media reports. The earthquake struck at 07:37 LT on June 8 (23:27 UTC on June 7), about 20 km (12.4 miles) off Sarangani province, and was felt strongly across Mindanao. It produced significant vertical crustal deformation according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS). Sections of the seabed and adjacent coastline in parts of Sarangani and Davao Occidental provinces were uplifted by as much as 2 m (6.6 feet), raising previously submerged areas above sea level. Shoreline had retreated by up to 200 m (656 feet) in some locations after the earthquake. Environmental assessment teams reported exposed coral reefs, seagrass beds, and other marine habitats that had previously remained underwater. Multiple marine animals had also died with their bodies being exposed out on shore due to the retreated shoreline. Youtube video PHIVOLCS attributed the uplift to movement associated with the earthquake rupture along the Cotabato Trench, a convergent plate boundary where tectonic strain accumulates over long periods before being released during major earthquakes. Large subduction-zone earthquakes have produced similar coastal changes elsewhere around the Pacific Basin. The uplift documented in southern Mindanao provides a measurable example of the tectonic processes responsible for reshaping coastlines during major plate-boundary earthquakes. Most of the damage was concentrated in General Santos, a city of about 700 000 people. Reuters reported damaged shops and buildings, broken signs and glass, and some structures reduced to concrete and rubble. One hospital in the city was evacuated because of cracks on higher floors, and one building at Notre Dame of Dadiangas University collapsed while empty.

Antarctic Peninsula sees record high June temperatures - Temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula have reached a record-breaking high of 15.4C for June, and ice is melting at abnormal rates during the current winter, climate scientists told AFP on Thursday.Esperanza Base, an Argentine research station located in the north of the peninsula, recorded the unprecedented figure on June 6.The previous highest temperature on record for that month—13.3C—dates to 1998. The current heat also significantly exceeds Esperanza's June average of -6.2C.Such a figure is "very unusual for this time of year," Jose Luis Stella, a climatologist at Argentina's National Meteorological Service, told AFP.Argentine bases Marambio and San Martin also recorded record temperatures between June 5 and 6.Marambio recorded 11.8C, surpassing a previous high of 9.2C and its June average of -10.7C.San Martin, meanwhile, saw 9.4C compared with its previous 7.8C record and June average of -5.6C.The northern Antarctic heat wave is not an isolated event, University of Groningen professor Raul Cordero told AFP."It confirms a trend," he said, warning that "these kinds of events will continue to occur with increasing frequency" if global warming is not halted.Thomas Caton Harrison, a polar climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, believes a combination of factors, including climate change, resulted in the current heat"There is credible evidence that climate change is playing a role, but the effect is complex in this region," he said."Because Antarctica sees such big swings in temperature, we have to collect lots of data over many years to build a picture of the underlying climate."Both specialists agree that regional temperatures have been rising for years and are already showing visible effects."A surprising amount of precipitation has been falling as rain rather than snow," Caton Harrison said."This has implications for polar ecosystems such as penguin colonies," he said, adding that "it poses a challenge to my colleagues working on Antarctic bases because a lot of liquid rain has been falling and creating runoff and ice."Esperanza Base has been recording above-zero temperatures daily for three consecutive weeks.This trend has caused "large areas in the far north of the white continent to remain free of snow," according to Cordero, who called it "an unusual scene in the Antarctic landscape during winter."

El Niño is back, and ocean temperatures are already near record highs—that can spell disaster for fish and corals -It's official: El Niño is back. By late fall 2026, forecast models give a 2-in-3 chance of a strong-to-very-strong El Niño affecting the weather, climate and ocean temperatures across the planet. El Niño is the climate system's biggest player and one side of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO. It's the heads to La Niña's tails. During El Niño, a swath of ocean stretching 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometers) westward off the coast of Ecuador warms for months on end, typically by 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 2 degrees Celsius). A few degrees may not seem like much, but in that part of the world, it's more than enough to completely reorganize wind, rainfall and temperature patterns all over the planet.  With an El Niño expected to strengthen through the summer and fall, water temperatures will heat up even more.   No two El Niño events are exactly alike, though we've seen enough of them that forecasters have a pretty good idea of what's likely to happen.  People tend to focus on El Niño's impact on land, justifiably. The warm water affects air currents that leave areas wetter or drier than usual. It can ramp up storms in some areas, like the southern U.S., while tending to tamp down Atlantic hurricane activity.  El Niño can also wreak havoc on the many marine ecosystems that support the world's fishing industries, including coral reefs and seagrass meadows.  Specifically, El Niño tends to trigger intense and widespread periods of extreme ocean warming known as marine heat waves.Global ocean temperatures are already near record highs, so El Niño-induced marine heat waves could push many sensitive fisheries to a breaking point. At their smallest, marine heat waves can inundate local bays and coves with hotter-than-normal water for a few days or weeks. At their largest, marine heat waves like the Northeast Pacific Warm Blob of 2013–2014 can grow to gargantuan proportions, with regions three times the size of Texas experiencing ocean temperatures 4 to 6 F (2 to 3 C) above average for months or even years.Warm water might not seem like a big deal, especially to surfers hoping to leave their wetsuits at home. But for many marine organisms that are highly adapted to specific water temperatures, marine heat waves can make living in the ocean feel like running a marathon. Marine heat wave forecasts from May 2026 show the probability, left, based on the North American Multi-Model Ensemble, and magnitude, right, of marine heat waves expected in 2026 and early 2027. Marine heat waves were already developing off the Pacific Coasts of North, Central and South America as of June 2026.  For example, some fish increase their metabolism in warm waters so much that they burn energy faster than they can eat, and they can die. Pacific cod declined by 70% in the Gulf of Alaska in response to a marine heat wave. Other impacts include bleached corals, widespread harmful algal blooms, decimated seaweeds and increased marine mammal strandings. All told, billions of U.S. dollars are lost to marine heat waves each year.

El Niño arrives and could rank among strongest events since 1950 - - The phenomenon El Niño has arrived, the U.S. weather agency said Thursday, and scientists expect the pattern, synonymous with droughts, floods and soaring temperatures, will intensify through the end of the year, potentially to historic strength.El Niño is a natural climate occurrence that warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, bringing worldwide changes in winds and rainfall patterns and erratic weather.Scientists fear it will exacerbate the heat of a planet already warming from burning fossil fuels while amplifying weather extremes."El Niño is here, and it could be one for the history books," said meteorologist Haley Thiem in an explainer video from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.In its latest advisory, scientists at NOAA said there is a 63% chance "of a very strong El Niño during November-January that would rank among the largest El Niño events in the historical record going back to 1950." Every El Niño is different, but major events often follow familiar patterns. This includes drought across parts of the Amazon, Indonesia and Australia; disrupted monsoons in India; and shifting rainfall throughout the tropics. . El Nino is a natural climate pattern that warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean and can disrupt weather worldwide.It typically takes place every two to seven years and lasts around nine to 12 months. El Niño tends to peak late in the year, but heat in the oceans releases more slowly into the atmosphere, pushing up global temperatures the following year.In response to the forecast, Marc Alessi of the Union of Concerned Scientists said "the combination of fossil fuel-caused climate change and a potential super El Niño event makes a terrible team," adding that it could "easily" push global temperatures to record levels."While El Niño is a naturally occurring phenomenon, there is evidence that fossil fuel-caused climate change is making El Niño events more intense," he said in a statement to AFP.Mohamed Adow, director of the Nairobi-based climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa, said for millions of people across the globe, "it's not just another weather forecast" but a "deadly siren to be feared.""It means failed rains, dying crops, rising food prices, and families pushed to the edge yet again." Governments across the dry countries of Central America have raised alert levels over El Niño. In that region known as the "Dry Corridor"—including parts of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua—El Niño's return has triggered fears of drought and stoked concerns of famine.The Guatemalan government, for example, says it has 1.1 million rations ready to distribute in the face of a food security emergency.In East Africa, Adow said the extremes will likely strike "communities already battered by droughts and floods in recent years."Predictions from elsewhere in the world mirror those of NOAA, anticipating a particularly strong El Niño."The odds are strongly in favor of a moderate to strong, or probably strong to record-breaking, event at this stage," Carlo Buontempo, the director of Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service, told AFP.Earlier this month, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres urged the world to treat the likely intense incoming weather "as the urgent climate warning it is.""El Niño conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world," he said. "The only effective response is climate action equal to the crisis—ending the addiction to fossil fuels, accelerating the shift to renewables, protecting the most vulnerable, and delivering early warning systems for all."

India braces for El Nino-linked dry conditions - India will prepare contingency plans to help farmers weather potential low rainfall linked to the El Niño weather system, agriculture officials said Tuesday. El Niño is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that brings worldwide changes in winds, air pressure and rainfall patterns. In India and Southeast Asia, it typically causes drier conditions.  The last El Niño helped make 2023 and 2024 the two hottest years on record. "Full preparations should be made in advance in those districts where there is a possibility of low rainfall or uneven rainfall," Agriculture Minister Shivraj Chouhan said, according to an official statement. "Such districts should be clearly identified and crop-wise contingency plans should be prepared ... so that farmers can be provided immediate alternatives, advice and support." In regions where the impact of El Niño is expected to be particularly severe, Chouhan called for awareness campaigns "so that every farmer knows what precautions and which crop options are safer for his area." Forecasters have predicted below-average monsoon rainfall in India this year, estimating precipitation at about 90% of the long-term average. The Indian Meteorological Department has warned of a 60% probability of a deficient monsoon, raising alarm among policymakers and farmers. The agricultural sector helps sustain more than 45% of people in India, the world's most populous nation with more than 1.4 billion people. The U.S. weather agency said Thursday that El Niño had arrived, with scientists expecting the pattern, synonymous with droughts, floods and soaring temperatures, to intensify through the end of the year, potentially to historic strength. Scientists fear it will exacerbate the heat of a planet already warming from burning fossil fuels while amplifying weather extremes. Every El Niño is different, but major events often follow familiar patterns. This includes drought across parts of the Amazon, Indonesia and Australia, disrupted monsoons in India, and shifting rainfall throughout the tropics.

Climate models are missing the first warning signs of deadly Middle East heat waves, study finds - While the world's most advanced climate models successfully reproduce heat waves once they are underway, they consistently miss key atmospheric processes that trigger these events, potentially limiting the ability to anticipate extreme heat several days in advance. Published in Weather and Climate Extremes, the study analyzed 11 state-of-the-art climate models used in assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The researchers compared model simulations with atmospheric observations across the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth. The findings reveal an important distinction: Climate models generally reproduce heat wave conditions themselves, but often struggle to capture the gradual atmospheric buildup that occurs in the days leading up to extreme heat events. The study shows that the warning signs of major heat waves can begin thousands of kilometers (hundreds of miles) away. Heat waves in the Eastern Mediterranean are not isolated weather events but rather the result of a complex chain of atmospheric processes involving circulation patterns over Europe, Turkey, India and parts of Africa. Subtle shifts in wind patterns and high-pressure systems can emerge up to a week before temperatures peak, creating an atmospheric pathway that transports warm air into the region and gradually sets the stage for extreme heat. However, the climate models examined in the study frequently delayed, weakened or failed to reproduce these precursor signals. This suggests that important early warning processes may not be fully represented in current climate simulations. The findings have implications beyond climate science. Heat waves are among the deadliest natural hazards worldwide and are already placing growing pressure on power grids, water resources, agriculture and public health across the Middle East and Mediterranean. One of the most important drivers of heat wave development identified in the study is a strengthening high-pressure ridge over Turkey. Models that represented this feature more accurately also tended to better reproduce the intensity of observed heat waves. The researchers also identified a notable connection between the South Asian monsoon and Mediterranean heat waves. Observational data indicate that atmospheric changes over India help create conditions favorable for extreme heat in the Eastern Mediterranean. Yet none of the climate models successfully captured this relationship, pointing to a potentially significant gap in how interactions between tropical and midlatitude weather systems are represented. The study does not suggest that climate projections are fundamentally incorrect. Rather, it highlights the importance of evaluating whether climate models accurately reproduce the physical mechanisms that generate extreme events, not just their overall frequency or intensity. A key conclusion is that models can produce realistic heat wave statistics while still misrepresenting the atmospheric processes that lead to those events. Improving the representation of these mechanisms could increase confidence in future climate projections and enhance prediction capabilities.

Solar geoengineering could shield up to 75% of oceans from heat waves  - Most people have experienced a heat wave on land. But heat waves can strike in the ocean too. And as the planet continues to warm, marine heat waves are growing longer and deadlier, hurting the seafood supply that billions of people worldwide rely on for their food and livelihoods. Researchers at Michigan State University say a controversial strategy to shield Earth from some of the sun's rays would offer unequal protection for the oceans and communities that depend on them, leaving 25% to 75% of the world's seas still at risk from overheating, models suggest.The findings appear in the journal Environmental Research: Climate.  First author Lala Kounta started studying marine heat waves in 2020, when unusually warm waters off the coast of Senegal, where she grew up, triggered a toxic algal bloom that made hundreds of fishermen sick.Senegal is far from alone. Worldwide, heat waves in the planet's oceans have grown longer and more frequent than they were a century ago, previous research shows."The consequences are already visible," said Kounta, a physical oceanographer and postdoctoral scholar working with professor Phoebe Zarnetske in MSU's Ecology, Evolution and Behavior Program.Scientists say a series of marine heat waves is partly to blame for the die-off, in the past 30 years, of more than half the living coral in Australia's Great Barrier Reef.Sea lions and seabirds starved as their food species shifted to cooler waters during a massive marine heat wave that took hold off the West Coast of the United States from 2014 to 2016.High ocean temperatures off the coast of southern Chile in 2016 fueled a toxic algal bloom that wiped out 100,000 metric tons (110,000 tons) of salmon and trout, making it the largest fish farm mortality ever recorded.One study of 34 marine heat waves worldwide found that the economic toll from a single event can run into the billions of dollars.In the search for solutions, slow progress on cutting emissions has prompted some to ask: Can we engineer our way out of the climate crisis?One strategy that's been proposed is to artificially cool the planet by deliberately dimming the light from the sun.The idea, a form of climate intervention called stratospheric aerosol injection, would involve using planes to release small particles or gases such as sulfur dioxide high above Earth into the stratosphere, where they could deflect some of the sun's rays—like drawing a thin gauzy curtain over the face of the Earth. Shooting sun-blocking particles into the stratosphere may sound fantastical. The idea is to mimic the natural cooling effects of volcanic ash and gas. When volcanoes erupt, they launch millions of tons of sulfur dioxide and other gases miles into the sky. Once there, they combine with water in the atmosphere to create small droplets that drift around the globe and remain aloft for several years.These aerosols reflect incoming sunlight and have a temporary cooling effect on the planet. When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, for example, global temperatures dipped by roughly half a degree (0.6 degrees Celsius) for two years.In the past 30 years, the U.S. National Academies has issued three reports calling for more research on the potential consequences of solar geoengineering to better understand the full range of options for dealing with climate change. But while most research has focused on what the technique would mean for warming in the atmosphere, the impacts on the oceans remain unclear.

Global surveys find carbon uptake in tropics overestimated - An international team of researchers has found plants in the tropics absorb much less carbon dioxide than previous modeling had suggested, which has implications for ecosystem management. The University of Western Australia's Dr. Michael Bertolacci was co-author of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which was led by the Earth Observing Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the United States. Dr. Michael Bertolacci, from UWA's School of Physics, Mathematics and Computing, leads a team of Australian researchers at the Wollongong Methodology for Bayesian Assimilation of Trace-gases (WOMBAT), which contributes to an ongoing project coordinated by NASA to estimate how much CO2 is emitted into and absorbed by the atmosphere around the globe. "Plants and other organisms are exchanging CO2 with the atmosphere all the time, and it's impossible to measure these exchanges everywhere," Bertolacci said. "Instead, we measure how much CO2 is in the air and trace it back through the winds to find where it came from." The WOMBAT team's findings from the NASA project, along with those from other teams around the world, were combined with independent ocean and fossil-fuel flux estimates and new aircraft observations of CO2 made near the tropics. "The results showed the tropics seem to absorb less carbon than many other studies and models predicted and may even be close to neutral in their carbon exchanges," Bertolacci said. "The finding is important because we need to know the ecosystems that help us fight climate change by absorbing more carbon and those releasing more CO2. "It also highlights the value new measurement campaigns can make to understanding the carbon cycle, which is particularly important at a time when funding for carbon cycle science is at a globally low ebb. "Ongoing support for this type of work is crucial to allow the scientific community to provide accurate information about the carbon cycle and climate change."

Steel and chemicals giants demand freeze to EU’s flagship climate policy - — Four of Europe’s largest steel and chemical manufacturers have requested an immediate halt to the rollout of the EU Emissions Trading System, arguing the bloc’s most important climate policy is too expensive and “no longer reflects current global realities.” In a letter addressed to European Council President António Costa and obtained by POLITICO, steelmakers ArcelorMittal, ThyssenKrupp and Voestalpine and chemicals giant BASF call for “immediate action to halt the escalation of ETS-related costs and avoid further damage to Europe’s manufacturing base.” They argue the ETS — which imposes steadily-increasing costs on industrial greenhouse gas emissions — is putting them “under acute pressure” and criticize the EU for “acting alone in imposing rapidly rising carbon costs on its industry already facing structural cost disadvantages like higher energy prices and regulatory costs.” The four companies that signed the letter are among Europe’s biggest manufacturers and represent over €100 billion in market valuation.

Conservatives rattled by Trump DOJ’s Supreme Court climate brief - Conservative backers of the Trump administration’s climate deregulation push say they worry that delayed rulemaking and faulty lawyering may harm efforts to end greenhouse gas regulation. Right-wing advocates including Steve Milloy and Myron Ebell, both of whom served on President Donald Trump’s first-term transition team, said in interviews Tuesday that they were particularly concerned about a recent Department of Justice brief that appeared to contradict EPA’s repeal of the so-called endangerment finding for greenhouse gas emissions. In a May 21 amicus brief in Suncor v. Boulder — an important climate case the Supreme Court will decide next term — DOJ argued that the Clean Air Act reserves to EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The administration is joining red states and industry groups in urging the court to block local governments such as Boulder, Colorado, from suing fossil fuel producers over their contribution to climate change. Milloy, a senior policy fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, told POLITICO’S E&E News that the arguments DOJ made to demonstrate federal preemption of state and local climate action are “the exact opposite” of what EPA argued in its February repeal of the 2009 scientific finding that underpinned most Clean Air Act climate regulation. “They could both wind up at the Supreme Court, and the court could say, ‘Justice Department, you’re on both sides of this issue,’” said Milloy. In a thread on the social media site X over the weekend, Milloy argued that DOJ’s Suncor brief “threatens a successful defense” of EPA’s endangerment repeal because that rollback rests on an assertion that the agency “does not have the requisite legal authority to regulate greenhouse gases.” DOJ told the Supreme Court in the Suncor brief that Colorado’s greenhouse gas emissions standards would “disrupt EPA’s regulation of stationary sources.” “As this Court has concluded, the Clean Air Act reflects Congress’s choices to make EPA — not States — the ‘primary regulator of greenhouse gas emissions,’ and to address emissions by regulating stationary sources, such as factories and power plants,” DOJ said in its brief, citing the Supreme Court’s 2011 decision in American Electric Power v. Connecticut. DOJ wrote in a footnote that EPA had recently concluded in the endangerment finding repeal that it lacked authority to set greenhouse gas standards for motor vehicles based on climate concerns. But DOJ argued in the Suncor brief that EPA’s conclusion did not apply to the section of the Clean Air Act that covers stationary sources — “the decisionmaking scheme that AEP interpreted in ways that conflict with Boulder’s claims.” Richard Lazarus, an environmental law professor at Harvard University who has represented green groups and governments in numerous Supreme Court cases, agreed in an email that there was a ”tension” between DOJ’s brief and “the broadest legal arguments now being made by EPA in support of the endangerment determination repeal.” But he said the change was all on EPA’s side — not DOJ’s arguments about federal preemption of state regulations. “The only reason that same-old-same-old argument now presents a tension is the EPA in the endangerment repeal is now effectively arguing for an overturning of” Massachusetts v. EPA, he said, referring to the landmark 2007 Supreme Court decision that said greenhouse gas emissions qualify as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. Milloy and Ebell both questioned whether the Suncor brief might be a deliberate attempt by career DOJ attorneys to undermine the defense of EPA’s endangerment finding rescission in the face of challenges by environmental groups and blue states.In his X thread, Milloy mused that “the DOJ Deep State” may have drafted it, aiming “to tank” EPA’s endangerment finding rollback and the repeal of power plant carbon standards, which are now undergoing White House review.DOJ did not comment for this story, but Deputy Solicitor General Sarah Harris and Adam Gustafson, interim leader of DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, are both named on the Suncor brief. Both were tapped by Trump. The department has shed career environmental lawyers at a historic rate since the second Trump administration began 16 months ago.. Ebell said in an interview Tuesday that the brief “concedes things that would undermine the case for the endangerment finding” repeal. He noted that the administration has yet to nominate a permanent head of ENRD, which is responsible for defending EPA regulations. “There’s a lack of political appointees at the Justice Department,” he said. “Was it just careers doing this to try to sabotage the Trump deregulatory efforts on climate? “I think some questions need to be asked, and some people at the administration need to give some answers about how this happened and then what they’re going to do about it,” said Ebell.

API Updates Line Pipe Standard with New CO₂ Pipeline Requirements A century-old pipeline standard has received major updates, including new requirements aimed at the growing CO₂ transportation sector. (P&GJ) — API has released the 47th edition of Specification 5L, the pipeline industry's foundational standard for steel line pipe, adding new requirements covering CO₂ transportation pipelines, high-frequency weld (HFW) pipe quality and other manufacturing and testing practices. Originally published in 1924, API Spec 5L establishes requirements for the manufacture of seamless and welded steel line pipe used to transport oil, natural gas and other energy products. The latest edition includes updates across more than 15 technical areas affecting pipe manufacturing, inspection, testing and quality control. Among the revisions are new requirements related to CO₂ transmission pipelines, HFW line quality, hydrostatic testing, non-destructive examination, sour-service applications, impact toughness and sulfide stress cracking resistance. The standard also updates provisions for records retention, chemical composition ranges and lamination control. API said the revisions were developed with input from technical experts representing more than a dozen countries and are intended to reflect evolving industry practices and operating experience. "API Specification 5L has helped establish consistent requirements for line pipe manufacturing for more than 100 years," said Anchal Liddar, API's senior vice president of Global Industry Services. "The 47th edition reflects the pipeline industry's collective experience and API's ongoing commitment to supporting the safe and reliable operation of pipeline systems." The standard serves as a key reference for manufacturers producing steel line pipe for oil, natural gas and emerging CO₂ transportation infrastructure. Organizations meeting the requirements of the new edition may continue to apply for licensing under API's Monogram Program.

Europe's First Hydrogen Valley to Include 200-km Pipeline Network CRC Evans and Monter are supporting development of Europe's first Hydrogen Valley project, including more than 200 kilometers of hydrogen-ready pipeline infrastructure across three countries. (P&GJ) — CRC Evans and Monter Strojarske Montaže have partnered on a hydrogen infrastructure project that will support development of the European North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley, a cross-border energy network spanning Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. The project includes more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) of hydrogen-ready pipeline infrastructure designed to strengthen regional energy connections and support future hydrogen transportation. According to the companies, selected sections of the network are being designed to eventually transport up to 100% hydrogen. The pipeline system will be built across three major sections requiring specialized engineering and construction approaches. All phases of the project are expected to be completed and operational by the end of 2026. CRC Evans will provide advanced welding technologies and project support for the development, while Monter serves as a lead contractor for pipeline construction. The companies said the project is intended to establish a backbone for future hydrogen transportation in the North Adriatic region and support broader European energy transition goals. CRC Evans Director Henk de Graaf said the project represents an important step in the development of hydrogen infrastructure and demonstrates growing demand for technologies capable of supporting future energy systems. Monter CEO Stjepan Novak said the partnership combines pipeline construction expertise with advanced welding capabilities needed for large-scale hydrogen-ready infrastructure projects.

EDF Files Lawsuit Against Trump Rollback of Onerous EPA Methane Regs -- Marcellus Drilling News --- In early April, the EPA revised certain Biden-era oil and natural gas regulations, specifically aspects of the 2024 Clean Air Act rules (OOOOb/c, known as “Quad O”), to reduce compliance burdens and lower energy costs (see EPA Issues Final Quad O Rule Overturning Biden-Era Onerous Regs). Key revisions include extending temporary flaring allowances from 24 to 72 hours and adjusting Net Heating Value (NHV) monitoring requirements, both of which are expected to reduce unnecessary testing without affecting emissions. The so-called Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) sued the EPA last week to force the agency to keep the onerous Biden regs in place.

Dems Soften Their Fossil Fuel Messaging, but Not Their Opposition --- Marcellus Drilling News --- Democrats are attempting to pull a new con job on the American public. They are, according to the New York Times and Grist, “recalibrating” their climate strategy amid economic concerns, moving away from aggressive anti-fossil-fuel positions that defined the Biden era. Americans now see the exposed face of environmental extremism that seeks to ban fossil energy, and they don’t like it. So, in order to cling to what little power they have left, the Dems are changing their messaging (spinning new lies and half-truths) that downplay their ongoing, irrational hatred of fossil energy. Don’t be fooled

Mike Lee sets markup on Outdoors Act reauthorization - The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will vote this week to reauthorize expired portions of the landmark 2020 Great American Outdoors Act. The committee will mark up S. 1547, the “America the Beautiful Act,” on Wednesday. It is a straightforward bill to inject new funding into the Legacy Restoration Fund to address a lengthy backlog of repairs at the National Park Service and other public lands. The LRF — established in the Great American Outdoors Act signed into law by President Donald Trump during his first term — has generally had bipartisan backing. The reauthorization bill, led by Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Angus King (I-Maine), has over 60 bipartisan co-sponsors. But Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) opposed the original 2020 outdoors law and said in January that he was concerned that “the deferred maintenance backlog has ballooned to over $23 billion due to poor management and unchecked federal land acquisitions.”

Momentum grows for Outdoors Act reauthorization - The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved legislation Wednesday that would reauthorize expired portions of the 2020 Great American Outdoors Act. Now that both chambers have similar compromise bills on securing funding for parks and public lands, sponsors are eyeing an accelerated timeline for getting President Donald Trump’s signature. The Senate panel cleared an amended version of the “America the Beautiful Act,”S. 1547, by voice vote. The bill from Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Angus King (I-Maine) would revamp the Legacy Restoration Fund, which addresses a lengthy backlog of repairs at the National Park Service and other public lands. Daines said he’d like it to become law by Independence Day. House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) — who has his own reauthorization bill, the “Great American Outdoors Act 250” — said he was willing to proceed with the Senate version to meet the deadline.

A red-state revolt against insurers - Consumer anger over rising insurance bills in Oklahoma is having an unusual effect in the political race for the state office of insurance commissioner: Four Republican candidates are threatening to curb industry rates. Property insurance premiums have surged in Oklahoma due in part to the increased frequency and intensity of extreme-weather events. That has caused growing frustration in a conservative state that historically has taken a hands-off approach to insurance premiums, resulting in some of the highest rates in the nation. The only Democrat in the race has vowed to bring down rates. The Republican candidates aren’t going that far — but they are promising to sharply scrutinize the industry as voters head to the polls for a primary election on Tuesday. “Politicians [in Oklahoma] may be far right, but they do read polls,” said Bob Hunter, a former Texas insurance commissioner and director of insurance at the Consumer Federation of America. Oklahomans’ aggravation dovetails with many homeowners’ feelings nationwide: From coastal states to the heartland, households find it increasingly difficult to get affordable insurance coverage — or any at all — as insurers react to climbing damage from hurricanes, wildfires, hailstorms and other hazards. Those concerns are reflected in the race in Oklahoma, where regulations have traditionally been overshadowed by free-market principles. “You can see the insurers are very profitable, and there’s no reason for them to be charging what they’re charging,” said Greta Shuler, a city commissioner in Shawnee who’s running to be the industry’s top regulator as a Republican, at a recent debate. “We should have an insurance commissioner looking at those rates. And we haven’t.” Oklahoma is one of 11 states that elects its insurance commissioner. Up to two candidates can advance from the Republican primary; they would face off in an August runoff before the general election in November. The state has been “too easy to deal with” for insurers, said Bob Sullivan, an independent insurance agent who’s running as a Republican, adding that neighboring states make the industry work harder to justify rate hikes. Sullivan said in an interview that if he’s elected commissioner, he would declare Oklahoma’s home insurance market “non-competitive” — skewed to favor a few large companies — giving the department the “strength to push back” against large rate increases. Oklahoma is one of many states revisiting their approach to insurance markets as extreme weather and general cost inflation make policies more expensive, hard to get or both. Leaders in both major political parties are questioning an article of faith about insurance: that the best way to keep prices low for consumers is to promote competition between companies, and that the state should not try to control prices. Illinois, another state that has historically been laissez-faire toward the insurance industry, recently gave regulators new power to reject rate increases. California has loosened some of its long-standing restrictions on insurers’ ability to raise premiums after wildfires led insurers to flee the state en masse. In Oklahoma, the average cost of home insurance has spiked to $5,736 a year, second-highest in the country, according to data provider Insurify. Rising risk from hail, wind and wildfire events are increasingly showing up in consumers’ bills. The surging costs have put pressure on Oklahoma’s Republican-led Legislature to act. In the waning days of the legislative session last month, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that will for the first time require insurers to explain why they’re asking regulators to approve higher rates. The law takes effect in July 2027. Until then, insurers in Oklahoma can use the existing regulatory system, which allows them to raise rates when and how they see fit, as long as they notify the insurance department afterward.

Solar manufacturers blitz Capitol Hill to save tax credits - Top domestic solar manufacturers will make the rounds on Capitol Hill this week to urge lawmakers to preserve Inflation Reduction Act tax incentives they say are essential to building a U.S. supply chain. The fly-in, organized by the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition, will focus on extending the solar investment tax credit and a domestic content bonus that advocates argue have fueled a recent boom in U.S. manufacturing. Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act would begin phasing out both incentives July 4. “We had a trajectory where we were showing we could rebuild this industry at scale and compete on price point with China,” said Mike Carr, executive director at the SEMA Coalition. “But we got to let it play out, and we really only had the full force of the tools for about a year.” The lobbying push will include companies with major U.S. manufacturing investments, including Qcells, Corning and Hemlock Semiconductor. Executives are expected to meet with lawmakers and staff on the House Ways and Means, Senate Finance, and Senate Energy and Natural Resources committees.

Senate releases NDAA with permitting amendment - The Senate Armed Services Committee released its defense authorization for fiscal 2027 on Tuesday with a provision to curb the Pentagon’s delay in processing wind project permits. The panel approved its National Defense Authorization Act behind closed doors last week — including an amendment on Pentagon reviews of energy projects — but had yet to release the text. Passage of the amendment from Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, shows bipartisan support for checking the Trump administration move to stymie renewable energy. “It needs to be resolved and there’s bipartisan support for that,” Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said after releasing the defense authorization bill.

Push for high-ethanol fuel hangs by a thread in the Senate -A yearslong campaign for higher ethanol fuel is facing a now-or-never moment, the Senate’s leading advocate said Tuesday. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) gave that stark scenario for E15 — the gasoline blend that’s 15-percent corn-based ethanol — in a conference call with reporters as lawmakers search for a legislative path to lift summer restrictions on its sale. “If we don’t get E15 this year, we’re never going to get it,” Grassley said on a weekly call with agriculture reporters. The opportunities are narrowing for Grassley and other E15 advocates who say they’re on the cusp of the long-sought goal, which could spur millions of acres of additional corn production by some estimates.

Senate panel sets vote on bill to create State Department energy office - The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will mark up legislation this week to establish a State Department office tasked with shoring up energy and minerals abroad to counter China’s grip on global markets. The committee will take up an amended version of S. 4392, the “Energy Security Pacts Act,“ from Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.). It would set up an Office of Energy Security Pacts to be led by someone appointed by the secretary of State. The office would be required to coordinate with other parts of the federal government — including the Energy, Interior and Commerce departments — to establish 10-year pacts with low- and middle-income partner countries to develop their energy and electricity sectors. The bill also calls on the president to appoint a council to oversee the creation of those pacts. The goal, according to the legislation, is to increase U.S. and the host country’s access to energy and electricity, as well as critical mineral supply chains that Beijing currently dominates.

Energy and Commerce lawmakers to introduce data center bill - House Energy and Commerce lawmakers from both parties will introduce legislation Thursday to make sure ratepayers don’t foot the bill for data center expansion.Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) is pitching the “Ratepayer Protection Act” as the panel’s answer to growing political and regulatory concerns about the electricity and infrastructure demands of the artificial intelligence boom.“Families and small businesses across the country shouldn’t be left to foot the bill for this new development, though the benefits of these innovations will be felt by all of society,” Guthrie said. “The Ratepayer Protection Act is a bipartisan effort which would ensure that the costs of grid upgrades are appropriately paid for according to demand.”The legislation will be introduced by Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) and co-sponsored by Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), ranking member of the Energy Subcommittee.

FERC acts to force US markets to protect electricity ratepayers - Federal regulators on Thursday initiated a sweeping investigation into the way power grids and utility companies are dividing up the huge costs of delivering electricity to America’s data centers. The five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directed regional electricity grids serving nearly two-thirds of the country to show that the rates and conditions that apply to big data center connections are “just and reasonable” — or face federal fixes. “Today we’re taking historic action to push our country’s electric markets and economy into the future,” said FERC Chair Laura Swett. “We are simultaneously protecting customers and giving the states what we’ve heard they want,” Swett said. “Each market must show that it has adequate safeguards against cost shifting or take steps to create them.” FERC is wading into questions that have loomed over the build-out of data centers across the U.S., including who pays for multibillion-dollar grid upgrades, how quickly tech companies can tie onto the grid and the role of the federal government over a process traditionally left to state regulators. Since October, the commission’s wrestled with a request from Energy Secretary Chris Wright to assert power over the interconnection process. In doing so, FERC would have to push the limits of its jurisdiction under the law and by tradition — setting off a potential fight with state regulators. Under the order, FERC chose not to deliver a nationwide approach to interconnecting so-called large loads to the grid. Instead, it is giving the organized power markets a few months to show they can get data centers onto their sprawling interstate grids in a timely way or enable data centers to co-locate with existing or future power generation. The commission is steering clear of the closely guarded domain of state regulators to set retail utility rates. But FERC ordered regional transmission organizations and independent system operators under its jurisdiction to show that agreements with data centers keep those high costs of accessing the nation’s biggest, most reliable power systems from finding their way onto people’s electricity bills. The stakes have always been high for Google, Amazon and other tech giants betting on the future of artificial intelligence. To make it all work long term, data centers need access to the high-voltage power grid. “FERC’s actions today are a win for ratepayers, grid reliability, and American competitiveness,” said a statement from Nvidia, the largest AI chip maker in the world. “By speeding the integration of large energy customers, FERC ensures these new loads help shoulder infrastructure costs, lowering rates for everyone while bringing new generation online alongside new demand.” Today’s FERC orders come as tech companies and utilities working with the major power markets spend billions of dollars to add more power generation and transmission to meet unprecedented demands from AI and electrification across the U.S. economy. And it comes as bipartisan leaders from President Donald Trump to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and state and federal lawmakers push for more protections for utility ratepayers. Data centers that require enough electricity to power a city have triggered a public backlash, partly the result of double-digit increases to people’s utility bills starting last summer.

Trump DOJ wants to sideline citizens in pollution fights - The Trump administration is making the case that the federal government can quash citizen Clean Air Act lawsuits against polluters, a move environmental lawyers warn would rewrite decades of enforcement law. If successful, the argument, made by the Department of Justice in a court filing supporting Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, would dramatically undermine the power of U.S. residents to fight pollution at tens of thousands of industrial sites across the country. “It would be a pretty sweeping change in the way enforcement works for the federal pollution control statutes,” said Tom Mariani, former chief of environmental enforcement at DOJ. The Clean Air Act allows citizens and environmental groups to sue alleged polluters. Typically, the federal government or a state can move to intervene if it has plans to step in and take over enforcement of the case. The act itself only limits citizen suits once the government has “commenced and is diligently prosecuting a civil action.” But now, DOJ says it can intervene if it does not want to prosecute a case and prevent citizens from taking actions themselves. The department says the Clean Air Act gives the government a “right of dismissal” that “entitles the United States to dismiss the entire action” and that preventing the government from dismissing citizen suits would violate the Constitution. “Ultimate responsibility for enforcing federal law belongs to the Executive Branch, not private interest groups,” said Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr., DOJ’s No. 3 official, in a press release supporting the motion. “The Department of Justice is committed to maintaining that constitutional order while protecting national security and promoting American energy and innovation.” Legal experts say DOJ’s approach is the opposite of how things are supposed to work. “This is the government saying we can intervene for the purpose of not prosecuting and making sure nobody else can either,” Mariani said. Pat Parenteau, an emeritus professor at the Vermont Law and Graduate School, agreed. He said DOJ’s position “is insane” and incorrectly interprets the law. Still, it could have sweeping implications for environmental challenges beyond the Clean Air Act. “When you invoke Article 2 of the Constitution to say that citizens have no rights to enforce the law, that sweeps across everything — that’s what’s at stake here,” he said. Similar arguments have recently been deployed by a conservative law firmin a Clean Water Act case, but this is the first time the federal government has co-signed the position. DOJ’s filing comes amid controversy over Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, and the way it has powered its data centers near the Tennessee-Mississippi border. The NAACP, Earthjustice and the Southern Environmental Law Center sued the company in April. The groups allege xAI has been running at least 59 polluting turbines at its gas plant without first obtaining permits or installing pollution controls required by the Clean Air Act. Such turbines can emit cancer-causing chemicals and ones that cause respiratory illnesses. The groups sued, in part, because Mississippi environmental regulators have told xAI the company does not need permits for turbines that operate for less than a year. DOJ says that means no one else can sue. “The best interpretation of the Clean Air Act — which ensures the Executive Branch retains its primacy over the enforcement of federal law — is also necessary to avoid grave constitutional problems with the statute’s citizen-suit provisions,” the department told Chief Judge Debra Brown, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama to the federal court in Mississippi that is handling the xAI case.

Heat waves and drought imperil data center operations, report says --More than half of data centers worldwide are in areas facing extreme heat or drought, making them vulnerable to periodic shutdowns from power outages or water restrictions, according to a new report.Data centers require enormous amounts of electricity and water for operations and cooling. But the analysis — released early Thursday by First Street climate modelers — found that 54 percent of all data centers are located in areas facing “chronic stress conditions such as extreme heat or water scarcity.” “In other words,” the analysis said, “scale is being built where operating conditions are hardest, not where they’re easiest.”The analysis follows a March report by Swiss Re Institute showing that a large number of data centers are in areas vulnerable to disasters such as extreme winds and damaging hailstorms. Swiss Re said that the needs for land and renewable energy to build the warehouse-sized centers “are increasingly driving their development in more natural-catastrophe exposed areas.”

Ohio Lawmakers Eye Data Center Tax Break Reforms - Democrats and Republicans took another victory lap Tuesday over a major, bipartisan energy law enacted last year. But while the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Energy committees sung high praises for that legislation (HB 15), they also maintained strong interest in taking up a high profile data center proposal that recently fizzled.With no plans for the Senate to return until after the general election, however, the immediate pathway for that legislation (HB 646) remains murky. Questions over the data center sales and use tax exemption and nondisclosure agreements remained the focal points during the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners conference in Columbus. The growing scope of the tax exemption agreements, particularly those awarded to major tech companies like Amazon, Meta and Google during the Kasich Administration, is a top issue for Sen. Kent Smith.The amount of foregone tax revenues through the data center tax break irked the Euclid Democrat and many lawmakers, especially after recent reporting revealed that the state lost out on $1.6 billion — a figure much higher than originally estimated by state officials.“The biannual budget for Ohio is $45 billion, so there’s not a large number of categories that you spend a billion dollars on,” Smith said. “I don’t know if the biggest tech companies in the world should be one of those.”The data center bill, which failed to advance to a Senate floor vote last week, would not eliminate those existing agreements but reduces the maximum exemption granted to data center developers from 100% to 50%.Sen. Brian Chavez, R-Marietta, said data centers could receive the 50% tax break if they brought their own generation or entered into a long-term power purchase agreement.Chavez chairs the Select Committee on Data Centers with Rep. Adam Holmes, R-Nashport. At the event, both said they hope the work of the bicameral panel could lead to legislative action or at least provide more transparency into the surging development of the energy-intensive facilities.“I think 646 is a great opportunity for Ohio,” Chavez said. "It puts a lot of additional protections in place and we’re going to continue on with it.”Given that PJM Interconnection’s capacity auction is coming up in September, Smith expressed a sense of urgency for the Legislature to act before the regional transmission organization does.Absent action, he warned that “if states don’t take some steps to mandate that data centers will pay for that additional power…that could get spread over all ratepayers in the state.”Rep. Tristan Rader, D-Lakewood, added that he also wanted more transparency regarding local officials’ ability to use NDAs and environmental protections in the legislation.“I think HB646 did some work towards highlighting that we do have pretty decent public records laws, but we can do a lot more when it comes towards limiting those NDAs to create more transparency,” he said.With HB15, panelists noted that the law provides for improved permitting processes and access to behind-the-meter energy generation in addition to eliminating subsidies for two Ohio Valley Electric Corp. power plants linked to the FirstEnergy Corp. scandal.Holmes said the legislation was designed to address concerns of supply shortages amid surging supply demand.Asked how the measure helped expand behind-the-meter generation, he told Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chair Jenifer French that permitting reform was vital toward that aim.“You allow the economy and the sector to go as fast as they possibly can because we’re certainly in a national security imperative to grow this capability, while at the same time growing generation for those users…[and] protecting the existing grid,” he said.

A debate on tax breaks stalls new data center laws in Ohio. What now?  - An eleventh-hour effort before summer recess to send data center regulations to Gov. Mike DeWine died late Wednesday night. The last-minute legislation Ohio lawmakers were considering would have created an electric rate class for the state’s data centers, cut local tax abatements of facilities at 50%, and regulated water usage and discharges by them, among other measures. But objections by House members to extend a sales and use tax break ultimately killed negotiations. The amended version of House Bill 646 is unlikely to see any substantive action before November. Sen. Brian Chavez (R-Marietta) said the legislature is limited in how much it can do because of multi-decade commitments. “That was established in the Kasich administration,” Chavez told reporters. “We can’t go back, that cake is baked and half eaten. There may be some things that we can do, but that’s not anything that we can do right now.” Most existing contracts between the Ohio Department of Development and existing data centers stretch years, and sometimes decades, into the future. Amazon, Meta and Google are benefitting for any facility they build statewide through at least 2055, 2056 and 2058, according to Department of Development contract documents obtained by the Statehouse News Bureau. Director Lydia Mihalik suggested Ohio could try and renegotiate. “But candidly, they’re going to make those decisions based on the best movement forward for their business,” Mihalik told the Joint Data Center Committee on Thursday morning. The state underestimated the cost of the sales tax break in 2025 by more than $1.4 billion. Rep. Chris Glassburn (D-North Olmsted) said the lack of insight into the real revenue lost has left him “angry” and “exhausted.” “We need to renegotiate those agreements,” Glassburn told reporters. “I also think if … we don’t even know what we’re doing, we’re going to look like idiots, and right now, we look like idiots.” The Ohio House could reconvene June 24, but Chavez said Thursday the Senate won’t be.

How Ohio's data center tax break became worth billions - Cleveland.com  -- When Ohio approved Amazon’s data center tax break nearly 12 years ago, officials highlighted the company’s investment, the jobs created and a 15-year sales tax exemption worth $81 million. What appears not to have been discussed publicly was some important fine print. A clause that could extend Amazon’s tax break all the way to 2055 and apply the 100% exemption to any qualifying facility built or upgraded anywhere in Ohio. Cleveland.com could find no mention of that long-term extension in the Ohio Tax Credit Authority meeting minutes from 2014, nor in news coverage, a recorded press conference or a records request made to Ohio History Connection.

Ohio's data-centers tax break that ballooned from millions to billions - cleveland.com - Ohioans are figuring out that huge, tax-subsidized data centers popping up in pastures like toadstools after a summer shower benefit Silicon Valley and Wall Street, not working Ohioans. That, at a time when Ohio median household income ($80,520 in 2024) lags the national median ($83,720), according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, while gasoline and grocery prices skyrocket. Ohio’s data-center tax break appears to have originated as a 2011 Senate amendment to Ohio’s 2011-13 state budget, passed in mid-2011 by a party-line vote – Republicans “yes,” Democrats, “no” – and signed by Republican then-Gov. John R. Kasich. At the time, the legislature’s nonpartisan research arm, the Legislative Service Commission, estimated the computer center tax break would cost the state “several millions of dollars,” according to budget analyses. But last week, cleveland.com’s Anna Staver, who has pioneered coverage of what’s become a lush tax break for Big Data, reported that “[Ohio] gave up more than $1.5 billion in tax revenue [in 2025],” thanks to the data center giveaway. Meanwhile, the General Assembly claims it cannot fairly fund public schools, which in turn drives up homeowners’ property taxes while the legislature unconstitutionally lavishes tax money on religious schools. Among legislators voting “yes” on the 3,200-plus-page 2011 budget that initiated the tax break for data centers were then-state Sen. Keith Faber, a Celina Republican who is the current state auditor (and running for Ohio attorney general), and now-House Speaker Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican. At the time the General Assembly passed the 2011 budget with the data-centers tax break, the late William G. Batchelder, a Medina Republican, was House speaker. The Senate president was Thomas Niehaus, a suburban Cincinnati Republican, now a Statehouse lobbyist whose lengthy list of clients includes data center companies Cologix and Vantage Data Centers Management. Meanwhile, Amazon is fielding seven Statehouse lobbyists; Google is fielding 22 Statehouse lobbyists; and Meta Platforms (Facebook) is fielding eight lobbyists. Now, like Capt. Renault in “Casablanca,” people who know better say they’re “Shocked! Shocked!” to find that the General Assembly hands out tax breaks to data centers as if the Statehouse were a giant Pez dispenser. Which, come to think of it, if you have the right ... friends... it kind of is.

Ohio residents sound the alarm over AI data center 'threat' – YouTube – (includes aerial photography of ongoing construction) Meta's Bowling Green data center and power plant face local opposition over environmental and transparency concerns, as such off-grid projects grow rapidly in the US.

Secret Gas Plants Power AI Data Centers Near Homes -  From the front window of her home in Middleton Township, Ohio, Breanne Kidd used to watch the sun come up over open farmland while having her morning coffee before children arrived at her home daycare. That view has since been overtaken by cranes, steel, and construction dust as crews erect Meta’s massive 800-acre Bowling Green data center. What caught her off guard, though, was something no one had mentioned: a large natural gas power plant going up right across the street to supply the project. “We’re literally across the street,” said Kidd, gesturing toward the Apollo Generating Station site in Wood County, roughly 25 miles south of Toledo. “I’m living next to a threat.” The Apollo plant is one of dozens of off-grid power facilities being approved rapidly, and often quietly, across the country to meet the tech industry’s surging energy appetite. A Reuters review of regulatory filings and interviews with residents, officials, researchers, and executives found that these plants, built exclusively to power individual data centers, are being greenlit in weeks or months rather than the years typically required for conventional energy projects. Developers contend that facilities serving private customers are exempt from many standard rules, leaving communities with little say about projects that affect their air and climate. Transparency has been further eroded by the use of non-disclosure agreements with local governments, shell companies, and redacted public documents, the reporting found. According to Harvard postdoctoral researcher Michael Cork, the AI industry’s off-grid natural gas generation is becoming one of the largest underexamined air-quality risks in the country. The Apollo facility, which has enough capacity to power around 100,000 homes, was approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board on February 3, fewer than three months after plans were filed. The state’s draft air permit wasn’t made publicly available until March, after construction had already begun. Though the plant serves only Meta, paperwork identified the client as a subsidiary called Liames LLC. Research firm Cleanview’s data provided to Reuters shows at least 57 off-grid power plants are proposed or under construction in the US to serve individual data centers, with a combined capacity of 73,000 megawatts. Reuters identified more than a dozen such projects approved in under a year with little or no community notice. Two are already running, including a facility outside Memphis tied to SpaceX’s xAI operation and another in Ashburn, Virginia serving Vantage Data Centers. Most of these plants burn natural gas, which releases nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter tied to respiratory illness, along with greenhouse gases. Supporters argue these projects are critical to AI development and keep costs off consumer electricity bills. The Trump administration, framing China as a competitor, has pushed to speed up permitting for AI infrastructure. The EPA and several states, including Ohio, West Virginia, Texas, and Utah, have proposed or enacted policies to accelerate approvals. Ohio passed a law last year allowing certain plants to be approved in as little as 45 days with no public hearings, which helps explain Apollo’s swift greenlighting. State officials view data center development as an economic boon, particularly in northwest Ohio, where land availability, water access, and proximity to natural gas pipelines have attracted major tech companies. The Regional Growth Partnership’s Gary Thompson said officials are hoping to land ten hyperscale data centers in the area. “These companies need certainty, and they need power,” he said. Some residents are pushing back. “One gas plant and one data center may be manageable,” said Perrysburg resident Lauren Berlekamp, “but four or more becomes a regional public health event.” The Apollo project is being built by Will Power LLC, a subsidiary of pipeline company Williams Companies, which is developing four similar projects in Ohio. A company spokesperson said the facilities comply with state regulations and noted that the Ohio EPA held a public hearing on Apollo in April. Meta said its partners are required to meet air-quality rules. Ohio lawmakers have also recently enacted provisions shielding major projects like data centers from public records laws, with officials potentially facing criminal charges for releasing such information. The provision was inserted into an unrelated college athletics bill by Republican state Senator Brian Chavez, whose top two donors in 2025 were a construction union supportive of data center development and utility NiSource, each contributing $10,000. Supporters say such measures protect sensitive business information. Critics see it differently. “It undermines our fundamental concepts of democracy: transparency and accountability,” said Andrew Kear, a political scientist at Bowling Green State University. Retired police officer Christine Coultrip, of Perrysburg Township, said neighbors have been approached to sell property for a possible data center but that local officials won’t share details. “I’m very disturbed that legislators can be charged if they talk about data center economics with their constituents,” she said. Pushback has emerged in other states as well. Microsoft announced in March it would stop using non-disclosure agreements nationwide following criticism tied to projects in Wisconsin. Meta said confidentiality agreements are standard in site selection and do not stop partners from engaging with the public. Musk’s xAI has also faced scrutiny in Tennessee and Mississippi for operating gas turbines without permits to power its Colossus data centers, claiming the units are exempt as temporary and off-grid. In West Virginia, legislation passed last year exempted certain data center microgrids from local zoning laws. A large gas plant proposed in Tucker County received a state air permit that year, with key technical details redacted from public documents. Near Columbus, Ohio, township trustee Brian Rothenberg said his community recently learned of plans for a gas fuel-cell power plant, potentially the largest of its kind in the US, to serve an Amazon Web Services data center. Local officials have been seeking safety details for a nearby elementary school, but utility AEP and state regulators have not provided them. “My biggest concern is health and security,” Rothenberg said. “I don’t want my constituents to be lab rats if something goes wrong.” AEP said it has shared emergency information directly with local fire departments and first responders. Ohio’s EPA said it cannot comment on the project while a legal challenge to its permit is pending. Back in Middleton Township, Breanne Kidd says the uncertainty weighs on her. “For my family and my daycare families, their safety is my number one priority, and I feel like right now I can’t guarantee that. It’s all out of our hands.”

Hubbard trustees discuss their tour of a data center -— Trustees who went on a tour of a data center location nearly two hours southwest of them agreed that the experience felt like an episode of “The Truman Show.” Earlier this week, trustee Eric Lamb said he traveled to New Albany, Ohio, to participate in an economic development tour that was focused on data center construction and operations, as well as construction practices and utility demands associated with a large-scale data center. New Albany is home to 40 completed data centers across 15 companies, with 28 more announced or under construction in its “IT and Mission Critical Cluster,” a high-availability infrastructure designed to host applications and services that cannot experience downtime without severely impacting business operations or safety, according to a presentation from the city. The city welcomed its first data center investment in 2010, its first hyperscale investment in 2015, and Meta in 2017, with Google following two years later, according to a timeline in the presentation. The timeline shows that more than 15 total data centers were under construction by 2024, with 40-plus being completed in 2026. Lamb said the visit “skewed” his mind away from the thought of having one in the area. “In this area, we’ve been talking about like one, two data center (projects) in areas and stuff like that; this is a town that took and put 40 in,” Trustee Jason Tedrow said. “They’ve taken this to the hyperscale more or less.” Tedrow said the tour was “kind of disappointing” in the sense that he felt it was trying to be a sales pitch, as opposed to informing leaders, and expressed belief that some of the information wasn’t presented properly. Tedrow said he asked officials if anyone had an issue with the data centers, questioning if they saw a shift in their voter base because people coming to town to work there wouldn’t vote against it. Lamb said they drove for about 12 miles, and they saw 20 houses, with half of them boarded up. “They built a 15-minute city — it was surreal. No high signs, like a town of 11,000 people had Verizon stores, AT&T stores,” Lamb said. “All the fast food and restaurants you could possibly think of, brick buildings, white picket fences everywhere.” “It was 88 miles of horse fence through the town with asphalt sidewalks,” Tedrow said. “Everything was a lot of commercialized stuff, and everything was highly controlled; it felt like you were in an episode or in the movie ‘The Truman Show.'” “The Truman Show” is a 1998 American comedy-drama directed by Peter Weir starring Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, a man who is unaware that he is living his entire life on a colossal soundstage, and that it is being filmed and broadcast as a reality television show that has a huge international following. All of his friends, family and members of his community are paid actors whose job is to sustain the illusion and keep Truman unaware that the world he inhabits is scripted and fake. Tedrow said that, after doing research, major cities will run 800 to 3,500 strand fiber-optic cables, but New Albany is running 5,000-plus strand trunk lines all over the place. “They have the main facility for American Electric Power Company for 11 states centralized down there, they’re putting in Meta facilities, they’re putting in the Intel semiconductor facility down there,” Tedrow said. “And that building is massive, and they went 40 feet down, basically, and put a basement in, something like General Motors in Lordstown for us.” Tedrow said such an endeavor is a huge expense, but it was explained that it was a partnership between the city and a land developer called the New Albany Company, which he noted was founded and co-worked on by Les Wexner and Jeffery Epstein. “That kind of gave me a little bit of a — I don’t know if that’s really what I want to trust on you selling me that this is a good idea,” Tedrow said. Tedrow said the community is considered a “master plan community” — a large-scale, self-contained residential development designed comprehensively from day one. “Everything is HOAs, homes starting in the mid to high $400,000s; a lot of the stuff is, your landscaping is part of the HOA fees, everything else. You can walk to the city, you can ride golf carts around there,” Tedrow said. “Depending on which neighborhood you’re in, looking up into it, some of the HOA fees include the country club membership.” Tedrow said they basically privatized the entire government, but Lamb said it was more of a business. “They have a mission statement, and then pillars they’re holding on what they want to do to grow this community out,” Tedrow said. Lamb noted his own experiences running a business, and called it “hard-pressed” to see $100 million corporations and holding pillars for 30 years — especially when the community only had a population of 1,000 back then. “It definitely put a different perspective on it, I think it was a little concerning,” Tedrow said. Tedrow said he spoke with a Lake to River representative while he was there, who informed them that even though the township has a moratorium and their zoning commission is working on a moratorium, there is a developer interested in Hubbard Township — aside from the one in the city. Tedrow said the zoning commission tried for an outright ban on data centers, but they legally can’t do one, which is why they pushed for the moratorium. He said the commission has some draft items, but trustees are giving them time so they can be thorough, and the community will have time to voice opinions and concerns.

Urbana set to vote on ordinance that would cut off zoning for data centers - A company looking to put a data center in Urbana just dropped about $3.5 million to purchase another 100 acres near the planned site. However, a new city ordinance that passed Tuesday night may upend those plans. After around two years since land was first purchased for a new data center, Ordinance 4634-26 could prevent a new data center from even breaking ground. Tuesday’s vote by the Urbana City Council was the third and final time the rezoning ordinance would be reviewed before it is officially codified. This new measure would remove data centers from being permitted under the zoning distinction M1, which already allows uses for light manufacturing and office buildings. “We don’t need that data center,” said an Urbana resident who wished to remain nameless. “I don’t feel we need anything like that…I don’t think it’s going to benefit the city at all.” Residents say they are also puzzled because Thor Equities, the developer heading the project, had just purchased another 100 acres for $3.4 million adjacent to the first parcel. “These kinds of things are pretty troubling,” said Champaign County Commissioner Nino Vitale, “but we live in an environment where sometimes these big companies with a whole lot of money get what they want.” Vitale says the final of the three parcels, one that was owned by the county, is currently locked under a contract for another year before they can take back control. “We’ve consulted with several attorneys,” he says. “We are doing everything we can to not sell that land.” When asked to comment on Thor Equities’ land purchase and the potential ordinance, Urbana City Councilor Amy Jumper responded in part: “My responsibility is to represent my constituents and make decisions that protect the long-term interests of our community.” Neither the office of Urbana Mayor Bill Bean nor Thor Equities responded for comment.  Update: The measure to remove data centers from being permitted unanimously passed.

Alliance City Council restricts data centers to I-2 industrial zones - Canton Repository - Until now, Alliance was largely ripe for the picking for data centers, with few limits on where they could locate. City Council approved legislation June 15 to restrict future data centers to I-2 industrial zones.  The vote was 7-0. Councilman Phillip Mastroianni called the change a "baseline" to protect commercial and residential areas from data centers. There is no current proposal for new data centers in Alliance, but Mastroianni said he expects more debates and potential action in the future. "It is a fluid conversation," he said. The vote followed a fiery, emotional public hearing that drew more than 110 people to the banquet room at Alliance Area Senior Center. Tarah Renee Bentley and her husband, Kenneth, collect signatures on a petition to fight data center expansion in Ohio on June 15, 2026, at Alliance Area Senior Center. At least 30 people signed the petition. Many residents seized the moment to fire a warning shot against any future proposals, despite the fact that the focus of the hearing was a zoning change, not an actual project. The residents who spoke raised concerns about the strain data centers can have on water use, power grids, noise, tax breaks and potential long-term effects on neighborhoods. Similar concerns have been raised across many Ohio communities. They also threatened to elect new council members if they allow data centers, and demanded a moratorium or outright ban. At least one person wanted the issue put on a ballot. "Our vote counts," the Rev. Nick Myers Jr. warned. To ban or allow: The possibility of moratorium was raised Several council members raised the possibility of a ban or moratorium, but there is no current legislation to debate or vote on. Stephanie Lambert of Alliance vehemently opposes data center growth in Ohio, including in the Alliance area, and was joined by about 100 others at a public hearing June 15, 2026, in Alliance. Mastroianni seemed unlikely to support a moratorium and said it might show that Alliance is "not open for business" and drive away economic growth. Alliance resident Stephanie Lambert said there are already too many data centers across the country, including more than 200 in Ohio, and argued against them for Alliance. "We don't need more here," she said. A couple of residents said the city should fix its power system and water quality before a data center attaches to both. They claimed there are too many outages and poor water taste. Resident Aaron Maltarich was upset because he recently got a letter stating that his water might have lead issues. He said the water has made his cats sick and affected his health. More than 100 residents attended a public hearing on June 15, 2026, regarding data centers in Alliance, with at least 15 people speaking in opposition to centers at Alliance Area Senior Center. There are currently no projects in the city. "I beg each and every one of you to hear these people speak, weigh the consequences. It's not just going to magically disappear because you voted for it," he said. Ashley Huff, another city resident, argued against tax breaks for data centers. "Look across Stark County right now, Canton City Council and Perry Township trustees rolled over and gave Amazon a 30-year, 75% property tax abatement," and created a subprime investment, Huff argued. "The facilities are resource parasites." Only one person spoke in favor of data centers. Mark Fedor, chief executive officer for Morgan Engineering, said the concerns over data centers are valid and legitimate and should be addressed. Mark Fedor, chief executive officer of Morgan Engineering in Alliance, says he supports data center growth in the Alliance area, calling it the future. He also validated people's concerns over power grids and water supplies. He said it will take civic and community leadership to create policies and plans to make sure data centers are responsible neighbors in communities. However, he said data centers are the future for the economic welfare of a community, saying today's growth is driven by the digital industry, a long-term shift in the world. "The data centers are the backbone of an economy that supports business, healthcare, education and emerging technology," Fedor said. "This isn't a short-term trend."

Data center discussion spans 3+ hours as Shalersville mulls 257-acre project – WEWS - — Forty minutes before the meeting started, the Shalersville Town Hall was at capacity for Bitdeer’s pitch to township trustees to put a data center campus in a business park next to the Ohio Turnpike. Rows of people lined the open windows outside to listen in and learn what Bitdeer’s plans would look like for 257 acres at the Turnpike Commerce Center in Shalersville Township. Around 200 people filled inside the Shalersville Town Hall, while another 80 or so stood outside and listened in through the opened windows. The publicly traded company, based in Singapore, aims to fill much of that site with a 15-building computing hub to meet growing demand for artificial intelligence. The company is partnering with Streetsboro-based Geis Development, part of a family-owned real estate and construction business, on what is expected to be Bitdeer's largest facility in the U.S. A site plan shows the two phases of the proposed Bitdeer data center project in Shalersville, just north of the Ohio Turnpike. Bitdeer; Geis Cos. A site plan shows the two phases of the proposed Bitdeer data center project in Shalersville, just north of the Ohio Turnpike. The meeting, spanning 3.5 hours, consisted of an hour-long presentation from Bitdeer and Geis, followed by questions from the audience and from township trustees. Much of the discussion centered on issues such as energy consumption, water usage, noise and other environmental impacts. The first phase of the project would span two data halls and a 51,500-square-foot office building at the southwestern end of the property. A site plan shows 12 additional data halls in the second phase of the project, with a total capacity of 750 megawatts of power when completed. The power will be used to help fuel artificial intelligence. Drone video shows the proposed site for Bitdeer's data center campus, spanning both sides of Beck Road. The plan in Portage County calls for 400 local construction jobs over a five-year period, as well as between 150 and 200 local jobs at Bitdeer when the project is fully built out. Bitdeer said it would generate $2.17 million in real estate tax revenue annually when Phase 1 is complete. The company added that would mean a 35% tax revenue increase for Crestwood Local Schools, a 115% increase for Shalersville Township, and a 39% increase for the joint fire department. Small computing halls like these, at Bitdeer's cryptocurrency mining facility in Massillon, are similar to what the company's proposing in Shalersville. Bitdeer currently operates a 26-building cryptocurrency mining facility in Massillon on 31 acres, which company representatives referenced repeatedly during the meeting as a sign of success. However, the Shalersville project would involve 257 acres. Paul Hanson, Bitdeer's senior project manager, told the crowd why the company sought out this specific location. "The size of the land, an industrial location that's close to a very good transportation hub, and the availability for long-term power — that's what made this property very attractive to us," Hanson said. At times, the meeting got heated, as many called for Bitdeer to abandon its plans or for township trustees to deny the proposal. "This is America," said one woman. "We’re about to celebrate 250 years. What does that mean if we can’t say no?" At one point, a room full of hands went up as one local asked for those against the data center to raise their hands. Jim Tighe and his wife sat in the front row for the entire meeting. They live about a mile from the proposed site. "There's obviously a lot of anger in the community about it," Tighe said. "There's a general uncomfortable feeling about AI, and this is what it's going to do. There's just a lot of unknown about it." Last month, Bitdeer hosted hundreds inside a nearby warehouse for a community informational meeting. Watch that story here:

Southern Ohio community embraces world's largest AI data center – YouTube - Increasingly, people across the country are protesting proposed AI data centers, concerned that the centers will drain resources, strain power grids, and cause noise and pollution. But a plan to build the largest AI data center in the world in southern Ohio is being welcomed by many with open arms

Amid nationwide backlash, an Ohio county welcomes the world's largest AI data center --- (SOA) — Increasingly, people across the country are protesting proposed AI data centers, concerned that the centers will drain resources, strain power grids and cause noise and pollution. But a plan to build the largest AI data center in the world in southern Ohio is being welcomed by many with open arms. On March 20th in Pike County, Ohio, under a large tent filled with music and lights, Trump Cabinet members and a long list of elected leaders gathered for a major announcement. Before addressing the crowd, a big screen played a video, setting the stage for their major announcement. As renderings of power plants and a massive new AI center appeared on screen, it became clear how big this day would be. The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS), a Cold War-era, uranium enrichment plant that once armed America’s nuclear bombs, will soon be the site of the largest power and technology campus on the planet. "PORTS Technology Campus, where the future begins and the American people win,” boomed the voice of the video’s narrator. Then, one-by-one, the leaders came to the podium. "We are embarking on the next era of American dominance," said Assistant Secretary of Environmental Management Tim Walsh. A dominance that’s centered on what will soon be the largest AI data center on earth, combined with a massive $33 billion natural gas-powered power plant and 18 new, nuclear fueled small modular reactors (SMR) to power it. Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of Energy drove home how truly big this project is. "This facility that's going to be built here is bigger than any facility ever built in world history," Secretary Wright told the crowd. To build it all, Co-CEO of SB Energy, Rich Hossfeld said it will take an army of workers. “35,000 will build the new Ports Technology Campus, transforming it into a beacon for not only the US, but the entire world,” Hossfeld proclaimed. Japanese investment group SoftBank is funding it with the mind-bending budget. "$1.5 trillion." Across America, AI, from Maine to Washington, data centers are increasingly driving dissent and outright protest, as people pack meetings, gather on streets and sidewalks, carrying signs that read, “NO A.I. DATA CENTERS.” Obstinance to the construction of the AI data centers vary, but many times is rooted in the perceived use of water and electricity that such facilities will drain at the expense of people who live and work nearby. Others note the noise and air pollution caused by back-up generators already utilized by centers that already operate in places like Northern Virginia. But in Pike County, Ohio, many are welcoming the newest and largest AI data center on earth with open arms. "I think it's important for the community," said Stephen Woloschek, an employee who’s working to demolish the old PORTS plant, adding that the jobs will help the area that is economically depressed, ranking third lowest in the state of Ohio for per capita income. The announcement to build the biggest project on the planet stunned many here in this Appalachian pocket of the state, including Steve Shepherd, executive director of the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative, or SODI, the organization tasked with redeveloping PORTS after the old plant is gone. "I would say very surprised. Maybe, still in shock," Shepherd told us, weeks after the announcement. It might have caught him off guard, but no one is more supportive of the new data center than he is, saying it’s a “perfect fit” for the new, gigantic AI data center because of the infrastructure that already exists for the Cold War plant that once consumed 30,000-to-40,000 gallons of water a day, the same amount the gigantic AI data center is expected to need. And a power grid that was built for the old plant provided an epic amount of electricity for the old plant, as well. "We used 3-percent of the nation's electric, the same amount that New York City used," he said. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is spending $14 billion to $18 billion to decontaminate, dismantle and dispose of the old equipment and buildings at PORTS. But as the old plant is being erased and replaced, its radioactive legacy remains. "I got people living on properties they shouldn't be living on," said Jennifer Chandler, who chairs the Scioto Valley-Piketon Area Council of Governments (COG). For years, Chandler has been balancing the drive to reindustrialize the PORTS site, while leading the push to clean up or move families out of dozens of homes that a recent report reveals the properties are riddled with unsafe levels of radioactive contamination. Click here to view the PDF file. Darwin Pettit’s farm was found to be one of the most contaminated. "This is the most contaminated place around here," Pettit told us, adding that he believes no one truly cares enough to do anything about it. But Chandler, who has been working with the state of Ohio and DOE to move the families or remediate the contaminated properties, says the redevelopment of the PORTS complex to the new tech campus may be providing the perfect solution. While the contamination is too high for families to live on, Chandler says they are safe for industrial use, due to the limited exposure and other factors considered by the U.S. EPA. And in a lucky twist of fate, Chandler says a dozen of the contaminated residential properties have already been purchased to make way for the expanding footprint of the future tech campus. "That land will now be appropriately industrial use," she said with a smile. As other parts of the country increasingly protest AI data centers, it’s clear that people surrounding the old PORTS plant are embracing the opportunity to repurpose a dirty past by rebuilding a future with AI.

A half-trillion dollars for Pike County? Many questions linger on mega data project  -  Columbus Dispatch - Superlatives filled the air just as the dirt was being slung from the shovels of Japanese investors, Trump officials and local politicians who broke ground March 20 on a proposed gas-fueled power plant in Pike County.

Ohio proposed constitutional amendment to ban data centers will not be on this year's ballot - Ohio voters will not have a chance to vote to ban data centers in the November election. Conserve Ohio, the grassroots organization behind the proposed constitutional amendment, said they are now hoping to make the 2027 ballot. The amendment would prohibit building data centers with a peak load of more than 25 megawatts per month, which would prevent most modern data centers.  “We want to make it clear: we will not be stopping,” Conserve Ohio said in a statement. “Construction won’t be stopping, so signature gathering and community action will not be stopping.”  Conserve Ohio originally was trying to make this year’s ballot after the Ohio Ballot Board gave petitioners the green light to start collecting signatures in April, but they were up against a tight deadline. “The July 1st deadline was our best case scenario for the quickest possible action,” Conserve Ohio said in a statement. “Internally, we set that as our ideal target and it just didn’t pan out. We are not going to be submitting this year.”The amendment would have needed more than 413,000 signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties by July 1 to get on this year’s ballot. The signatures they have collected so far remain valid since they did not submit them to the Ohio Secretary of State. Conserve Ohio has collected more than 70,000 signatures as of June 18, according to their campaign. The counties with the most signatures are Lucas County (6,482), Stark County (6,329), and Butler County (4,030).“We can’t change when we began, but we can determine how it ends,” Conserve Ohio said. “All is not lost. The end goal has not changed. Our resolve has not changed.” Conserve Ohio is only using volunteers to collect signatures, and they have more than 1,000 volunteers. Ohio has more than 200 data centers, the sixth-highest state in the country, according to Pew Research Center. Most of the data centers are in central Ohio. Cincinnati has 26 and Cleveland has 22, according to the Data Center Map.  More than a dozen Ohio cities have enacted temporary moratoriums on data centers.Ohio lawmakers have yet to pass any data center legislation. Ohio House Bill 646 would, among other things, limit the size of new sales tax breaks from 100% down to 50%. But this would not apply to any of the companies with existing contracts, like Meta, Google and Amazon. The state provided almost $1.57 billion in sales-tax exemptions on purchases of data center equipment and construction materials last year, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation. A large data center can use as much electricity as 100,000 homes, according to the Office of Ohio Consumers’ Counsel.Data centers used 4% of all U.S. electricity in 2023 and that is expected to grow to 9% by 2030, according to the counsel. A large data center can use up to five million gallons of water per day, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.  Lawmakers in at least 14 states — Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin — have introduced legislation that would temporarily ban data centers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Will Ohio become one big data center? Here is what you can do about it - Sierra Club  - Ohio is rapidly turning into one of the primary digital hubs of North America. Tech conglomerates like Amazon, Google, and Meta are investing billions of dollars to construct massive data center campuses across the state, particularly in Central Ohio. These facilities house thousands of servers that process everything from cloud storage to advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms. However, behind the sleek, windowless facades of these centers lies an insatiable appetite for resources that threatens Ohio’s environmental future.The primary concern is energy consumption. A single large data center can consume as much electricity as a moderately sized city. Because Ohio’s energy grid is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels—particularly coal and natural gas—this sudden surge in demand is prolonging the lifespan of dirty power plants. Instead of transitioning toward renewable energy, utility companies are scrambling to build new natural gas infrastructure and keep aging coal plants online just to keep pace with the tech industry’s demands. Beyond electricity, data centers require millions of gallons of water daily to cool their overheating servers. In areas already facing localized water strain, this places a massive burden on municipal water systems and aquifers. Furthermore, consumers are left holding the financial bag; utility companies routinely pass the infrastructure costs of building new transmission lines and substations onto everyday ratepayers. What You Can Do About It: Citizens are not powerless against this rapid expansion. Here is how you can take action:

• Demand Transparency and Regulation: Write to your local zoning boards and city councils. Demand that any proposed data center undergo rigorous environmental impact assessments regarding water and energy use before approval.
• Advocate for Renewable Energy Mandates: Push the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) and state legislators to mandate that data centers secure 100% of their power from newly built, localized renewable energy sources (like solar and wind) rather than drawing directly from our fragile, fossil-fueled grid.
• Hold Tech Giants Accountable: Support campaigns that demand these multi-billion-dollar corporations fund local conservation projects, improve water-cooling efficiencies (such as transitioning to closed-loop air cooling), and pay their fair share of infrastructure upgrades so the financial burden doesn't fall on Ohio families.

NEPA Landowners Line Up to Become AI Millionaires by Selling Land -- Marcellus Drilling News -- Three months ago (March 2026), MDN reported on a northeastern Pennsylvania landowner from Luzerne County who sold his farm to an AI data center project and overnight became a multimillionaire (see NEPA Landowner Sells Small Farm to Data Center for $17.8 Million). Other landowners in the same township (Salem) have banded together, some 194 landowners, and are on the cusp of doing the same thing for a new/different AI data center project that wants to build in the township. In our research for the March story, we found landowners being offered $60,000 to $175,000 *per acre* to sell. This new deal that the 194 landowners are contemplating blows that out of the water! Chump change.

PGW Considers Electrification Suicide in Pursuit of “Net-Zero” --- Marcellus Drilling News ---The name Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) pretty much says it all. PGW is a natural gas utility serving the Philly region. PGW is the country’s oldest and largest municipal-owned gas company, serving 500,000 customers. It’s NOT an electric company; it’s a natural gas company. Yet PGW is now seriously considering two strategies to reduce “carbon emissions” as part of its Low Carbon Pathways project. The first option involves full electrification, shifting from natural gas to electric systems for heating, cooking, and appliances. Again, PGW has ZERO electric infrastructure in place. In Philadelphia, PECO (formerly the Philadelphia Electric Company) is the sole local utility company responsible for delivering electricity. In other words, PGW is considering committing suicide (going out of business) by giving all of its business to PECO. Bring out Old Sparky.

A Commonsense Approach to AI Data Centers for Local Communities -- Marcellus Drilling News --  Pennsylvania has become a hotspot for data center proposals, prompting community backlash, writes Penn State law professor Michael Helbing, whose hometown is Archbald, PA, a suburb of Scranton. You may recall that last week we wrote about another Scranton suburb (virtually next door to Archbald, see the map) by the name of Olyphant, and how the leaders of that borough had developed zoning regulations to protect residents yet allow data center projects to proceed (see 2 PA Towns Show How to Move Forward with Data Center Projects). Archbald is facing the same issues, and the debate is intense. Helbing weighs in on a way forward for communities like Archbald.

Ohio residents sound the alarm over AI data center 'threat' | Reuters video - Many Ohio residents are angered about the construction of Meta's 800-acre Bowling Green data center, as well as a large natural gas power plant meant to serve the project. The plant is one of dozens of large, off-grid power projects being approved rapidly and often under a cover of secrecy across the United States to supply the tech industry’s booming demand for powering data centers, according to a Reuters review. This report produced by Jillian Kitchener.

Why the Kinder Morgan Utopia Pipeline stays quietly crucial for US plastics and farmers - Kinder Morgan's Utopia Pipeline looks unspectacular from the outside, but for US ethane producers and Ohio's plastics industry it is one of the quiet workhorses in the background. What the system moves, how it is built, and why its capacity still matters. From the outside, the Kinder Morgan Utopia Pipeline is just a buried steel line cutting through quiet farmland, but along this route ethane flows toward Ohio's plastics industry and keeps crackers humming on gray weekdays and bright harvest mornings alike. Pipelines like Utopia feed directly into Kinder Morgan's fee-based earnings model and help explain why investors follow the group's long-term project portfolio so closely. The Utopia Pipeline is a roughly 270-mile system moving purity ethane and ethane-propane mix from the prolific Utica and Marcellus regions in the US Midwest toward petrochemical demand hubs in Ohio. It starts near Harrison County in Ohio, ties into existing midstream infrastructure, and delivers feedstock to Nova Chemicals' Geismar-area and Ontario-linked customers, enabling steady production of polyethylene and other plastics building blocks. Kinder Morgan originally designed Utopia with a capacity of around 50,000 barrels per day, with expansion potential baked in via additional pumping power and possible looping if demand grows over time. For people living along the right-of-way, the pipeline is mostly an underground presence: occasional maintenance crews, small fenced valve stations, warning signs at field edges, and the low mechanical hum of pumping sites set back from local roads. Ethane is a light hydrocarbon extracted from natural gas streams, and in steam crackers it turns into ethylene - a core feedstock for polyethylene, PVC intermediates, and a long list of everyday plastic products from packaging film to cable insulation. By securing a direct ethane supply from shale basins to Midwest and Great Lakes chemical plants, Utopia helps reduce feedstock volatility for operators that would otherwise depend more heavily on railcars, truck deliveries, or imported liquids. The line does not stand alone. It plugs into Kinder Morgan's broader NGL and petrochemical infrastructure, including storage caverns and interconnections with other pipeline systems that move natural gas liquids toward the Gulf Coast and Canadian markets. Because Kinder Morgan typically operates on long-term, fee-based transport contracts, throughput on Utopia tends to translate into relatively predictable cash flows rather than commodity-price-driven swings, as long as contracted volumes hold. Like other interstate liquids pipelines in the US, Utopia falls under the oversight of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which sets rules on integrity management, inspections, reporting and emergency preparedness. In practice, that means periodic in-line inspections with smart pigs, cathodic protection to limit corrosion, aerial patrols checking rights-of-way, and drills with local fire departments so that response plans are more than just paperwork. Demand for ethane and other NGLs in the Midwest and along the Great Lakes will depend on how aggressively plastics production grows, how many new crackers or derivative plants reach final investment decision, and how recycling and regulation reshape long-term volumes. For a buried asset like Utopia, that can translate into incremental debottlenecking projects, tie-ins to new customers, or, in a slower-growth case, a focus on optimizing operations and keeping utilization high with a stable, contracted shipper base.

Yaw: Bradford County and municipalities to receive nearly $17M in gas impact funds — Sen. Gene Yaw announced Monday that the Marcellus Shale Impact Fee is continuing to deliver millions to both county and local governments across Yaw’s 23rd Senate District. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said Bradford County is slated to receive $6,081,855 in Act 13 funds. Since 2011, the PUC has disbursed approximately $87.2 million to Bradford County. The PUC also announced $10,704,310 will be disbursed to local governments within the county. Since 2011, the PUC has distributed $146.5 million to municipalities within Bradford County. “The Impact Fee not only funds critical projects locally but also a wide variety of important environmental projects in communities throughout the state,” Yaw said. “The natural gas industry has been a great partner in creating new jobs and opportunities, and today’s announcement is another reminder of the importance of this industry in Pennsylvania.” Since 2011, the Impact Fee has reportedly generated more than $3.12 billion in revenue to support county and local governments. Yaw’s district has received more than $531 million for counties and municipalities during that time. In the most recent round of funding based on natural gas production in 2025, $243.9 million was distributed statewide. Of that, nearly $39.1 million will be provided to counties and municipal governments in Yaw’s district, which covers Bradford, Lycoming, Sullivan, Tioga and Union counties.

XTO Energy Looks to Compel Arbitration in W. Pa. Royalties Case -- Marcellus Drilling News --  In February, MDN told you about the Kriley v. XTO Energy lawsuit (see Long-running Lawsuit Against XTO Energy Over Royalties in W. Pa.). The lawsuit began in 2019 and involves seven landowners in Butler County, PA. The landowners claim that XTO Energy (a subsidiary of ExxonMobil) systematically underpaid natural gas royalties. Over the past six years, the lawsuit has evolved and was certified as a class action in late 2025, meaning it has expanded from affecting 7 landowners to over 2,000. XTO is trying to reduce that number significantly by demanding that leases with an arbitration provision be sent to individual arbitration and excluded from the larger class action.

Seneca Finds Zero-Permeability (Frac Proof) Upper, Lower Utica Frac Barrier - Hart Energy - Appalachia-focused Seneca Resources has found a “seismite” frac barrier between the upper and lower Utica in its north-central Pennsylvania wildcatting in Tioga County.

Seneca Finding Success with Upper AND Lower Utica on Same Pad -Marcellus Drilling News - Based on recent industry reporting from Hart Energy (published June 15, 2026, by veteran energy journalist Nissa Darbonne) and corporate commentary from National Fuel Gas (NFG), Seneca Resources has made a major geological discovery in its north-central Pennsylvania Utica shale acreage in Tioga County. Seneca Resources has identified a unique geological feature—a "seismite" frac barrier—located precisely between the Upper and Lower Utica shale intervals in north-central Pennsylvania. What does it mean?

Quiet workhorse in shale, EQT Corporation's Marcellus drilling program shows its real strength --EQT Corporation’s Marcellus drilling program does not glitter like a gadget, but for gas buyers and midstream partners it is the quietly decisive product line - long laterals, disciplined costs, and a clear methane-reduction strategy set the tone. EQT Corporation’s Marcellus drilling program is not something you can put on a shelf, but you feel its presence every time a gas-fired power plant hums a little steadier on a cold evening. It is EQT’s core “product line” in the Appalachian Basin, a technical routine that has quietly become highly optimized. Production strategy in the Marcellus Shale and capital discipline sit at the heart of EQT’s investment story. Think of EQT’s Marcellus drilling program as a series of long, horizontal wells stitched under Pennsylvania and West Virginia, feeding a steady river of natural gas into U.S. pipelines. The company is now the largest U.S. natural gas producer, anchored in this play. On its latest investor materials, EQT outlines how the Marcellus and adjacent Utica volumes support a firm production profile of roughly 6 billion cubic feet equivalent per day, with a drilling inventory that stretches well beyond a decade. For utilities and LNG exporters, that depth matters more than glossy branding. Core to the program are long laterals - often more than 12,000 feet - and multi-well pads that let one location feed several boreholes. Fewer surface sites mean less local disruption, more efficient logistics, and lower per-unit costs for fuel buyers. EQT describes a completion design that relies on high-intensity hydraulic fracturing, dense stage spacing, and proppant-heavy fluid to open up the Marcellus’ dense rock. In plain terms, each well is pushed hard early, giving gas marketers robust initial volumes that then decline predictably. For investors and large gas buyers, the “feel” of this product is really about cost per thousand cubic feet produced. EQT’s published numbers show unit operating costs in the low $1 per Mcfe range, helped by scale and tight pad operations. That gives room when Henry Hub prices are moody. On the ground, that efficiency looks like well-organized pads with fleets of trucks cycling water, sand, and equipment in tight choreography. The noise and light are intense during completion, then the site settles into a humming, fenced installation tucked behind tree lines and farm fields. EQT has leaned hard into positioning its Marcellus production as lower-emission gas. The company highlights independent certification for a large portion of volumes and has signed onto frameworks that target methane leakage below 0.05 percent of production. For European buyers, that badge matters. The program includes routine leak detection with optical gas imaging cameras, replacement of high-bleed pneumatic devices, and electrification where midstream infrastructure allows. Those steps do not make the wells silent or invisible, but they do address the dirtiest parts of traditional gas production. There are trade-offs. The same dense development that brings cost savings can heighten local resistance to new pads, truck traffic, and compressor stations. Permitting in parts of the Appalachian Basin remains contentious, particularly for new gathering and takeaway pipes. Geologically, the sweetest Marcellus zones are already well mapped and increasingly developed. That pushes incremental drilling into rock that may be just a little tighter or deeper, where maintaining the same returns requires relentless tinkering with completion recipes and spacing. Most molecules from EQT’s Marcellus drilling program end up burned in U.S. power plants, industrial boilers, and home heating appliances, with a growing wedge slated for LNG export terminals along the Gulf Coast. It is a product that rarely carries EQT’s name by the time it reaches an end user. Yet in gas trading books and long-term supply contracts, reliability and volume matter as much as brand. Here EQT’s scale and concentrated Marcellus footprint allow it to offer firm volumes and hedging strategies that appeal to utilities planning multi-year fuel mixes. Company context and stock snapshot EQT Corporation describes itself as the largest producer of natural gas in the United States, with operations focused in the Marcellus and Utica shales and a strategy built around scale, efficiency, and emissions performance. The Marcellus drilling program sits squarely at the center of that model.

AI is Reshaping How Oil & Gas Wells Get Drilled in the Marcellus -- Marcellus Drilling News --- As we so often say, we love how creative and innovative the oil and gas industry is! We spotted an article that discusses how AI (artificial intelligence) is transforming oil and gas drilling operations across diverse environments—from Alaska’s harsh North Slope to deepwater operations off Guyana to U.S. shale fields like the Permian Basin and (yes) the Marcellus Shale. AI-driven systems now interpret real-time sensor data from drill strings, adjust drilling parameters automatically, optimize directional drilling, monitor drilling fluid chemistry, and evaluate cement integrity faster than human operators. Results include drilling speeds up to 50% faster and pressure-imbalance detection 10-12 minutes earlier than with conventional methods.

Data Shows West Virginia Bucks Trend, Uses More Gas Than Renewables --- Marcellus Drilling News -- Despite renewable energy growth across the globe, fossil fuels still dominate in the U.S. and West Virginia in particular, where EIA data shows natural gas production climbing nearly 20% over five years while renewables stagnate. GO-WV President-Elect Rebecca McPhail attributes this to abundant resources, established infrastructure, a skilled workforce, and surging demand from data centers and manufacturing. West Virginia, the nation’s fifth-largest oil and gas producer, faces topographic and climatic challenges that limit the use of unreliable renewable energy sources. In the PJM Interconnection, gas and nuclear lead, with renewables under 10%.

WV DEP Reviews Gas Pipe Permits for Data Center in Mason County - Marcellus Drilling News -- In early May, MDN brought you details about a proposed NSCALE data center project in Mason County, WV (see Mason County, WV Data Center: 3 Bldgs, 984 NatGas, Diesel Engines). The owners filed an application (on April 20) for a construction permit. The first phase of the project will be a 2.16-gigawatt, natural gas-fired off-grid data center. It’s going to produce its own electricity, so pipelines are needed to transport gas to the site. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) is currently reviewing a construction permit for the pipelines that will flow gas to the data center.

Virginia Business Leaders Make Strong Case for Expanded MVP Boost - Marcellus Drilling News -- With all the recent news about EQT moving forward with an extension of the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) into North Carolina by an extra 31 miles, called Southgate, it’s easy to overlook and forget that EQT has a plan to expand the capacity of the existing MVP by an extra 600 MMcf/d, called MVP Boost. EQT filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in October of last year to build Boost, which includes building a new compressor station in Montgomery County, VA (see MVP Asks FERC to Approve Expanded Capacity by Extra 600 MMcf/d). The Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Salem-Roanoke County Chamber of Commerce, with a combined membership of over 1,000 businesses, are pushing hard for MVP Boost.

Northeast Gas Pipe Projects Focus on PA, Regional Enhancements - Marcellus Drilling News -- Rising natural gas demand across the U.S. Northeast and adjacent southern and western regions is driving a wave of pipeline projects that will let Marcellus/Utica producers boost output into the 2030s. A fourth installment of RBN's series about gas market dynamics in the Northeast groups the planned expansions into five buckets: Pennsylvania projects, regionwide enhancements, MVP/Transco-tied projects, expanded Ohio capacity, and more distant related efforts. Highlights include National Fuel Gas's Pennsylvania builds, Enbridge's TETCO "Appalachia to Market II" upgrades that add compression and looping, and the MVP Boost Project, which expands Mountain Valley Pipeline from 2 Bcf/d to 2.6 Bcf/d by mid-2028 (via additional West Virginia and Virginia compression).

Golden Pass LNG Flows Rebound Sharply After Early June Lull  - Feedgas nominations to Golden Pass LNG have ramped to the highest point to date after a quiet start of the month with multiple days of minimal flows.North America LNG export flows reach 18.35 million Dth, with Sabine Pass and Plaquemines leading US LNG feed gas deliveries.  At a Glance:
Latest nominations top May high
Train 1 startup flows remain uneven
Train 2 startup poised to lift demand

Venture Global Inks Another Short-Term LNG Supply Deal  -  Venture Global has signed another five-year LNG supply deal, this time with German utility EnBW, as it works to market volumes from a rapidly expanding portfolio. At a Glance:

• Fourth 5-year deal for Venture Global
• Others likely under marketing strategy
• Germany working to diversify supplies

Marubeni Acquires EagleRidge in Latest US Shale Move by Japanese Trading House -Japanese trading house Marubeni has acquired privately held EagleRidge Energy II LLC, adding to a growing list of other companies from the country working to diversify energy supplies with US shale assets. Chart showing Japan LNG imports declining from 75.1 Mt in 2021 to 66.3 Mt in 2025, highlighting weakening Japanese LNG demand trends. At a Glance:

• Terms of deal undisclosed
• Expands global gas portfolio
• Follows others in Haynesville, DJ Basin

US LNG Exports Rebound Near Record High Despite Gulf Coast Heat, Maintenance - A look at the global natural gas and LNG markets by the numbers.  North America LNG export flow tracker showing US natural gas deliveries to LNG export terminals reaching 18.29 million Dth on June 17, 2026, led by Sabine Pass and Plaquemines LNG.

• 18.4 Bcf/d: Despite a wind down in maintenance impacting pipeline to LNG facilities, feedgas demand is estimated to remain comparatively softer in the next seven days. Nominations to terminals reached 19 Bcf/d on Wednesday, according to Wood Mackenzie data. However, the firm estimated flows pulling back through the coming seven days to average 18.4 Bcf/d. Several Gulf Coast and South Central pipeline constraints, including Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America’s Gulf Coast Mainline remediation and Gulf South compressor work, could affect regional flow flexibility into LNG corridors until the middle of next week. Despite the near-term dip, LNG feedgas demand remains well above year-ago levels.
• 2.73 Mt: US LNG exports rebounded sharply in the week of June 8, rising to about 2.73 Mt, according to Kpler data. The period saw exports rise nearly 30% from the prior week and rivaled the all-time weekly high of 2.76 Mt set in February. Kpler data currently points to a modest pullback in the week of June 15, with exports forecast at roughly 2.55 Mt, down about 6.7% week/week. The surge in US exports has come despite several maintenance events across the Gulf Coast and scorching temperatures throughout the region, which typically decrease efficiency of LNG equipment.
• 325,000 MMBtu/d: Feedgas deliveries to Shell's Elba Island LNG terminal near Savannah, GA slipped roughly 10% Wednesday as scheduled maintenance on the Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) system weighed on flows through the facility's primary supply corridor. Nominations on the Elba Express pipeline fell to about 325,000 MMBtu/d on the June 17 gas day, down from a steady 360,000–365,000 MMBtu/d range that had held for the prior two weeks, according to NGI data. TGP is conducting a crankcase inspection on Station 200 Unit 1B through Friday, with an associated scheduled outage on Segment 204 BH running through the same window, according to a public notice.
• 1.68 Mt: China’s LNG imports jumped to a 24-week high in the week of June 8, with arrivals rising to about 1.68 Mt, according to Kpler data. Deliveries to Chinese terminals rose 45% from the prior week, marking the strongest weekly total since late December as rising temperatures challenged the country’s storage and pipeline imports. US volumes to China fell to just 0.07 Mt, in the week of June 8 after reaching 0.21 million tons a week earlier. The rebound coincided with the first US LNG deliveries to China in more than a year.

US natgas futures rise on lower output, rising flows to LNG export plants --(Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures climbed about 3% on Thursday on lower output and higher flows to liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants in recent weeks, which energy analysts believe will cut the surplus of gas in storage over the next month or so. Front-month gas futures for July delivery NGc1 on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 8.8 cents, or 2.8%, to settle at $3.233 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). The U.S. Energy Information Administration said energy firms added a near-normal 73 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas to storage during the week ended June 12. That was in line with the 75-bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an increase of 97 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year (2021-2025) average increase of 73 bcf for the period. Financial group LSEG said average gas output in the U.S. Lower 48 states fell to 109.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in June, down from 109.7 bcfd in May and a monthly record high of 110.6 bcfd in December 2025. Meteorologists forecast the weather will remain mostly warmer than normal through July 3, which should boost the amount of gas power generators burn to keep air conditioners humming. About 40% of U.S. power generation comes from gas-fired plants. But with slightly cooler weather expected next week, LSEG projected average gas demand in the Lower 48 states, including exports, would fall from 103.7 bcfd this week to 102.5 bcfd next week. Those forecasts were lower than LSEG's outlook on Wednesday. Average gas flows to the nine big U.S. LNG export plants held at 17.1 bcfd so far in June, the same as in May due to lingering spring maintenance at several plants. That compares with a monthly record high of 18.8 bcfd in April. The average for June is up from earlier in the week. The remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur were moving across the U.S. Southeast and had a small 10% chance of re-strengthening into a cyclone after reaching the Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina over the next week, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Since most U.S. gas comes from shale formations located far from the Gulf of Mexico, analysts have said tropical storms tend to reduce gas demand more than output by knocking out power to homes and businesses and shutting LNG export plants. The remnants of Arthur caused some of the roughly 309,400 customer power outages seen in various states across the country on Thursday, according to power outage tracker PowerOutage.us.

“Top 5” Shareholder in Devon Energy Pushes Company to Sell Itself = Marcellus Drilling News - Devon Energy completed its merger with Coterra Energy just over one month ago, on May 7, paying Coterra $21.4 billion in Devon stock (see Devon and Coterra Complete Merger, Launches $8B Buyback Program). It’s been no secret that one of the larger investors in Coterra and Devon (owning about 1.4% of Devon’s stock), so-called activist investor Kimmeridge, lobbied Coterra prior to the merger to sell off its Marcellus assets (see Activist Investor Declares Coterra Merger Failed – Sell Marcellus). Kimmeridge has some new company. Another so-called activist investor, TOMS Capital Investment Management, recently invested big money in the combined Devon (now a “top 5” investor in Devon) and is pressuring the recently merged company to sell assets and (in a complete surprise), consider selling itself! Just a month after merging!

US strategic oil reserve hits lowest level since 1983 --The U.S. supply of emergency oil has hit its lowest level since 1983, according to newly released federal data. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is down to 340.3 million barrels, according to the data released on Monday.The last time that levels were this low was 1983, when the Reagan administration was filling up the reserve for the first time. The U.S. established the emergency oil reserve in 1975 after an oil producer embargo against the country triggered an energy crisis.  The low SPR level is not a shock — the Trump administration announced in March that it would release 172 million barrels from the reserve over the course of 120 days.Levels were also lowered recently after the Biden administration released 180 million barrels in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent oil prices spiking. The administration said in 2024 that it had replenished the reserve. The reserve can hold up to 714 million barrels of oil. The U.S. consumes about 21 million barrels of oil on any given day. Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Gulf Oil, told The Hill ahead of the data’s release, “I’m not really worried about the SPR,” adding that the U.S. appears to be in decent shape.The news comes as the U.S. and Iran say they’ve reached a deal that’s expected to end the war and allow more ships into the Strait of Hormuz, which has been a key oil shipping chokepoint since the war’s start.

War drains oil inventories to critically low level at US hub (Bloomberg) -- Customers desperate for oil are draining so much of it from giant storage tanks in Oklahoma that producers are having trouble keeping up. Inventories at Cushing, the largest commercial crude oil storage hub in the US, have fallen for eight weeks in a row and now stand at about 20 million barrels, according to government data published Wednesday. That’s the equivalent of less than two days of American crude production, and a level that most traders consider an operational minimum. Even though Washington and Tehran are on the cusp of a peace accord that could fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the loss of so much Persian Gulf crude supply during the Iran conflict — equal to about 20% of global shipments — has left global supply chains extremely stretched.  The US has stepped in as the seller of last resort to the global oil market during the past three months and has seen its exports surge to a record. But that’s come at the cost of severely depleted domestic buffer against future supply shocks. The broadest measure of inventories in the US - a total that includes not just barrels stored in Cushing but the nation’s strategic stockpiles, plus oil that’s been refined into fuel - is now the lowest according to data going back to 1985. Earlier this week, data showed the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, created after the 1970s Arab oil embargo, dropped to roughly 340 million barrels, the lowest since 1983. The Trump administration is releasing 172 million barrels from the reserve to help ease fuel prices driven up by the war. Cushing is a massive complex of oil tanks west of Tulsa that’s the most important physical storage hub in the US crude market. It sits at the confluence of dozens of inbound and outbound pipelines that fan out across North America, connecting oilfields in Canada, Texas, North Dakota and elsewhere to Gulf Coast and in Midwest refineries. Its nickname is the “Pipeline Crossroads of the World.” Storage levels at Cushing play a crucial role for traders to determine the value of benchmark US oil futures. West Texas Intermediate futures, in turn, help underpin pricing for millions of barrels of crude traded around the Americas. The slump in inventories at Cushing is set to take a toll on the storage facility. Pulling oil out of tanks when levels fall below the so-called “suction line” of around 20 million barrels is difficult and expensive, and the quality of crude can be compromised by water and sediment. Cushing’s role in global oil markets has diminished since the US lifted its export ban in 2015. Barrels now flow straight from oilfields in Texas and elsewhere to the coast, where they’re shipped to overseas buyers. Still, the drawdown in Cushing crude stockpiles helped support the spread between the nearest two US crude futures contracts. The so-called backwardation in the spread indicates near term supplies in the region remain tight. Refineries in the Midwest, which rely on crude supplies from Cushing, processed a record volume of oil last week, according to the EIA, highlighting that demand is high domestically even if exports wane following a peace deal.

Xcel's gas build-out plans rankle Colorado commissioners - Colorado regulators pushed back on plans by the state’s largest power provider to spend nearly $600 million on gas infrastructure, saying the investments don’t account for a trend towards electrification and could leave ratepayers with unnecessary costs on redundant equipment.Xcel Energy had sought a sweeping set of investments to expand its natural gas network, including pipelines and compressor stations. The $567 million request — which Xcel had proposed to be covered by ratepayer funds — is part of a broader spending plan of nearly $3 billion in infrastructure by the end of the decade.But those planned investments also come as the company is complying with a first-in-the-nation state law designed to wean homeowners and businesses off fossil fuel infrastructure. The Clean Heat Plan requires state gas utilities to cut emissions 22 percent by 2030, compared to 2015 levels, in part by investing in energy efficiency and electric appliances.The Colorado Public Utilities Commission rapped Xcel for not doing enough to consider how the electrification policy might reduce the need for new gas infrastructure. In a 92-page ruling issued earlier this month, commissioners wrote that the company appeared to be requesting ratepayer funds for both a future with more gas and more electrification, potentially leaving customers on the hook for redundant construction.

Great Basin Pipeline Expansion Wins BLM Approval in Nevada — The Bureau of Land Management has approved a right-of-way for Great Basin Gas Transmission Company's Carson Lateral expansion project, allowing the proposed natural gas pipeline expansion to move forward across federal lands in western Nevada. The approval covers public lands in Washoe and Lyon counties and follows completion of federal environmental review led by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. FERC issued an environmental assessment for the project in December 2025 and concluded that the expansion would not significantly affect the human environment. As a cooperating agency, the BLM participated in the review process and concurred with FERC's findings. The agency's decision authorizes Great Basin Gas Transmission to expand its Carson Lateral pipeline system across public lands administered by the BLM. The project is currently subject to a 30-day administrative appeal period. According a July 2025 FERC filing, the 2026 Great Basin Expansion is designed to increase firm natural gas transportation capacity by 8,129 dekatherms per day (Dth/d) to serve growing demand from existing customers in northern Nevada and northern California. The project includes construction of approximately 2.3 miles of new 20-inch-diameter pipeline looping alongside the existing Carson Lateral in Washoe County and replacement of approximately 2.4 miles of existing 10-inch-diameter pipeline with new 20-inch-diameter pipe in Lyon County.

Court nixes oil and gas lease sales in sage grouse country - A federal judge has ruled for a third time that the Interior Department failed to protect greater sage grouse habitat when it issued oil and gas lease sales spanning more than a million acres of public lands in Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas. On Friday, Chief Judge Brian Morris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana found that Interior failed to prioritize development outside of the bird’s habitat, as required under agency policy established in 2015. He ordered the lease sales to be tossed out. The ruling resolves the third phase of litigation before Morris that challenged a series of lease sales held in the Great Plains from 2019 and 2020, as the first Trump administration sought to expand domestic oil and gas drilling. The new leasing came after the Obama administration introduced protections for sage grouse on public lands in an effort to keep Interior from having to list the bird as endangered. Morris, an Obama appointee, found Interior failed to consider how oil and gas development on the leases would fragment key sage grouse breeding grounds. While he acknowledged the economic consequences of the ruling, Morris also said the failure by Interior’s Bureau of Land Management to avoid development in key habitat warranted vacatur, or a decision to scrap the lease sales.

EDF Files Lawsuit Against Trump Rollback of Onerous EPA Methane Regs -- Marcellus Drilling News --- In early April, the EPA revised certain Biden-era oil and natural gas regulations, specifically aspects of the 2024 Clean Air Act rules (OOOOb/c, known as “Quad O”), to reduce compliance burdens and lower energy costs (see EPA Issues Final Quad O Rule Overturning Biden-Era Onerous Regs). Key revisions include extending temporary flaring allowances from 24 to 72 hours and adjusting Net Heating Value (NHV) monitoring requirements, both of which are expected to reduce unnecessary testing without affecting emissions. The so-called Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) sued the EPA last week to force the agency to keep the onerous Biden regs in place.

California Natural Gas Prices Soar as Traders Eye Energía Costa Azul LNG Ramp-Up -- Natural gas spot prices in Southern California are rallying despite comfortable inventories, relatively benign weather and fierce competition from renewables in the state’s electricity mix.NGI chart showing SoCal Citygate forward basis premiums through 2028, with winter natural gas basis peaking above $2/MMBtu. At a Glance:
SoCal prices at highest since January
ECA seen tightening regional market
Prices rallying despite renewable competition

Questerre Advances Commercialization of HCCO Oil Shale Technology After Successful Brazil Test  -Questerre Energy Corporation has reported successful results from a commercial-scale test of its patented HCCO oil shale technology at the PX Energy facility in southern Brazil. The trial, conducted for the first time in a full commercial-sized vessel, confirmed the engineering and technical viability of the process beyond earlier lab-scale reactors. The company now plans a longer-duration test to define operating parameters for continuous use and intends to deploy the technology at PX Energy to cut internal fuel oil consumption and improve project economics. Questerre is also incorporating the findings into the design of a small-scale commercial demonstration plant, advancing its strategy to commercialize oil shale resources under its licenses and potentially strengthening its position in next-generation hydrocarbon technologies. Questerre Energy Corporation holds a significant natural gas discovery in the Quebec Utica shale, considered one of the most important undeveloped gas resources in Eastern Canada, and emphasizes clean technologies and transparency in the energy transition.

A lot riding on gas-rich Utica shale in Quebec - Petroleum News A stable of juniors is looking to a couple of thoroughbreds to lead the field to riches in what has emerged as one of the best resource bets in North America. Talisman Energy and Forest Oil are rolling out plans for various shale properties, with the province of Quebec suddenly thrust into the spotlight. Wellington West Capital Markets analyst Kim Page said the presence of majors gives weight to the Utica and Lorraine plays in the St. Lawrence Lowlands. If the play becomes commercially viable, “the return opportunity … is very high,” he said. Vic Vallance of Fraser Mackenzie, Northern Rivers Capital Management hedge fund manager Alex Ruus and Sprott Asset Management Chief Executive Officer Eric Sprott are all hitching their wagons to the juniors. But it may take Talisman and Forest to establish that new fracturing technologies can unlock the full potential of the shales — something they are gearing up to tackle. Forest focusing onshore Having pulled out of the Gulf of Mexico to focus on the “repeatable, low-risk opportunities” of onshore North America — the strategy that has made EnCana so successful — Forest is already buoyed by results from two vertical wells in the Utica shale, which have tested at 1 million cubic feet per day. Based on its holdings of 339,000 gross acres and 270,000 net acres, Forest has rated its net unrisked potential at 4.12 trillion cubic feet, with two prospective horizons, and access to major markets in the northeastern U.S. Forest, which has several junior partners in the region, said its Quebec assets may hold as much as 4 tcf and describes the Utica shale as having similar rock properties to the Barnett shale in Texas. It has scheduled three horizontal wells this summer, is targeting initial production in 2009 and plans to start full-scale drilling in 2010. Talisman, in deciding to jettison several global assets and concentrate heavily on evaluating its unconventional resource potential in North America, could spend up to C$130 million over the next 18 months on its Utica and Lorraine holdings alone. It plans to test three to four pilot areas, drilling six vertical and 10 horizontal wells, as it aims to enter the development phase about mid-2010. Once it has drilled four wells by early 2009 it expects to have 760,000 net acres on land that has an estimated 48 tcf of original gas in place at 75-350 billion cubic feet for every 640 acres. Well costs at depths of 5,000-9,000 feet are calculated to cost C$5 million each. The “ponies” in the field include Gastem, Questerre Energy, Junex, Altai Resources, Epsilon Energy and Petrolympic, all of which have posted staggering market gains on what were mostly penny stocks entering 2008. Sprott Asset, which holds 14 percent of Gastem, 15 percent of Questerre and 13 percent of Altai, started to build those interests late in 2007. Northern Rivers owns 11 percent of Gastem through its four funds — a fact that Ruus said “reflects how bullish we are.” When Forest started drilling on Gastem’s property last summer, he “became convinced that there was probably a commercial discovery” in Quebec. Page initiated coverage of Gastem, Questerre and Junex in late May, confident the most prospective area of the Utica play has the potential for about 25 tcf of recoverable resource. He believes Junex, with 1.2 million acres making it the largest land-holder in the Lowlands, could be sitting on 1.25 tcf of gas. However, Questerre Chief Executive Officer Michael Binnion has injected some cautionary notes, suggesting the engineering and commerciality still pose risks and are the main issues that the Talisman and Forest programs will address over the next 18 months. “We have a play that in terms of its potential value is currently being risked as a full exploration play,” he told a Calgary investor conference. “We think we’re past the exploration phase, but we certainly are not into the proven commerciality phase.” Binnion said much more information is needed on the recovery rates per well and what the decline curve will look like.

Shell signs deal with Venezuela for 7 Tcf natural gas development | UpstreamThe Venezuelan government has signed five contracts with Shell that will give the European supermajor rights to operate the giant Loran natural gas field. The agreements formalise Shell’s participation in Loran, a cross-border reservoir shared with Trinidad & Tobago that is estimated to hold 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, while also covering oilfield expansion and efforts to reduce gas flaring. “For the first time, the Hydrocarbons Law, which was recently reformulated and amended, is allowing us these forms of negotiations and flexible business agreements where we will also boost production, and where we can make better use of resources for the people of Venezuela,” said Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez. She emphasised the strategic step seeks to enhance the country’s energy capabilities through direct collaboration with key international players, thus ensuring concrete progress in the infrastructure needed for hydrocarbon extraction in the Loran field. Loran is expected to play a central role in Venezuela’s offshore gas ambitions, as it will be developed along with the Dragon project, also involving Shell, in Trinidad & Tobago, estimated to hold 4.2 Tcf. In addition to Loran, Shell also agreed to a technical alliance to support procurement and output expansion at fields in Monagas North, and to a separate pact to buy equipment and parts to reduce gas flaring. The agreements move Shell to the top of Venezuelan state-owned energy company PDVSA’s list of partners for key oil projects. UK supermajor BP is also set to participate in the Loran gas field and in the neighbouring Cocuina-Manakin offshore gas project, according to separate deals with the Venezuelan government.

‘A bit of FOMO’: Oil companies give Venezuela a second look amid Mideast chaos - President Donald Trump’s policy misfires in the Middle East are having one unexpected beneficiary — his policy goals in Venezuela.  Oil companies large and small are showing new interest in committing to drill in Venezuela, after months of reluctance following the Trump administration’s call for them to do so in the wake of the U.S. removing its former president, industry lawyers and consultants familiar with the issue said. One of the largest deciding factors, they said, is the newly exposed fragility of the Middle East as an energy supplier that the fighting between the U.S., Israel and Iran have put on full display. “You see this view industry-wide, right or wrong, that there’s a long-term disruption going on all over the market,” said Jason Bennett, global projects director at law firm Baker Botts. Venezuela is “looking pretty good right now, despite their historical problems.”While the White House has in the past several months highlighted nonbinding agreements that some smaller companies have signed to develop Venezuelan oil fields, industry officials are saying they expect big contracts to land soon. Formal, binding deals would be a big win for the White House, which has tried with little luck so far to cajole the industry to get into Venezuela even before it captured the country’s former president, Nicolás Maduro, in January. Larger international companies are now giving Venezuela — and its South American neighbor Argentina — a closer look as oil supply out the Strait of Hormuz remains all but shuttered, Bennett said. Trump announced a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran on Sunday that he said would “fully authorize the toll-free opening” of Hormuz.The Venezuelan government’s reforms to its laws regulating the industry are still not perfect but are going enough in the right direction to assuage the worst fears of U.S. industry executives, Bennett added.Companies are in discussions with White House officials about committing to develop specific oil fields in a country with the world’s largest crude reserves. The mood is becoming more serious as companies are overcoming their earlier worries about working with Venezuela’s government and oil prices remain higher than the $67 a barrel they were before the fighting with Iran started, the industry officials said. The Venezuelan government has started to hold aside fields for companies that sign non-binding memorandums of understanding, essentially allowing those companies to informally claim areas as long as their deal-making continues, people familiar with the talks said. “I’ve signed up probably as many new clients over the last few weeks than I did when things first ‘opened up,’” said an industry lawyer whose clients have talked to the White House about the possibility of drilling in Venezuela and who was granted anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press.“Fields and opportunities are essentially getting ‘allocated’ in the engagement with the White House and with PDVSA,” this person said, referring to Venezuela’s state-run oil company.“Certainly the diversity [of operations] outside of the Middle East is a factor, especially as the industry is realizing that the uncertainty in the Persian Gulf may linger much longer than originally expected.”White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement that Trump was “right” that oil companies would flock back to Venezuela. “The Trump administration is successfully fostering productive relationships with the Venezuelan authorities while facilitating much-needed changes to the country’s laws and contracts,” Rogers said. “Now, thanks to the President, companies are rushing back to invest billions, Venezuela’s oil exports have jumped to the highest levels since 2018, and oil is flowing into the United States.”Jarrod Agen, executive director of the White House’s National Energy Dominance Council, said at POLITICO’s Energy Summit last week that Venezuela is moving from the MOU phase to binding contract phase. Small independent firms like Hunt Oil, HKN Energy and Crossover Energy have signed MOUs, essentially pledging to keep discussing the possibility of more permanent deals to drill in a country with the world’s largest oil reserves but also a history of appropriating industry assets. Companies are also growing fearful of missing out on prime Venezuelan real estate as the Trump administration and Caracas are promising fields to companies who sign memorandums of understanding, the industry lawyer said.

Venezuela flags environmental risk from Trinidad & Tobago oil spill - Venezuela has raised concerns over an oil spill it says originated from neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago and has now reached its coastline, warning of potential environmental and economic impacts on marine ecosystems and coastal communities. In a statement Venezuela’s foreign ministry said the spill, identified through satellite imagery, is placing fragile marine environments at risk and disrupting fishing activity in affected areas. Caracas urged Trinidad and Tobago to take immediate action to prevent further incidents and to provide full transparency regarding the cause, scale and consequences of the spill. “There is a threat to the marine ecosystems and fishing activities and coastal communities,” the ministry said, calling on Port of Spain to assume its responsibility and implement urgent containment measures. The Venezuelan government did not specify the exact locations impacted but said the presence and movement of pollutants had been confirmed via satellite monitoring. It has also demanded clarification from Trinidad and Tobago, amid rising diplomatic attention over the incident. The latest allegations echo a similar episode in February 2024, when a vessel incident in Trinidad and Tobago’s waters led to oil pollution spreading toward Venezuelan territory, raising broader concerns about spill response coordination in the region.

LNG Market Outlook Still Cloudy Despite Preliminary Peace Deal in Iran --A preliminary agreement to begin negotiating the end of the Iran war has done little for consensus about how the global natural gas market could emerge from the conflict, and when it may return to normal. At a Glance:

• Early peace deal lacks clarity
• Safe passage via Hormuz questioned
• LNG demand dented

TTF, Asian LNG Prices Tumble as Hormuz Reopening Hopes Build - Global LNG and natural gas prices dipped sharply Monday as traders reacted to a major step in a peace resolution between the US and Iran and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.Map of Persian Gulf LNG import and export terminals showing major liquefied natural gas infrastructure across the Middle East. The graphic highlights LNG export facilities in Qatar, the world’s largest LNG exporter, along with terminals in the United Arab Emirates and Oman. LNG import terminals are identified in Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and other Gulf states. The map illustrates key LNG trade routes through the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy chokepoint for natural gas exports to Europe and Asia.  At a Glance:
Qatari LNG export fears fade
US natural gas reacts to weather
Shipping normalization remains key risk

Europe Heat Supports LNG Demand Outlook as Mild US, Asia Forecasts Cap Weather Risk -Weather signals for key LNG and natural gas markets continue to split as late-June heat in Europe offers demand support against milder Asian and US forecasts.Europe and Asia weather data show trailing 365-day temperatures in Northwest Europe, Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo versus seasonal norms through June 2026. At a Glance:
Storms raise Gulf Coast shipping risk
Asia’s cooler shift limits upside
Europe heat supports LNG demand

Ichthys LNG Workers Endorse Deal to End Strike, Resume Normal Operations - Workers at Ichthys LNG in Australia have reached a deal with Japan’s Inpex to end labor strikes at the facility that started earlier this month and curbed output at a time when global supplies have been cut significantly by conflict in the Middle East. At a Glance:

• Strikes cost $200 million
• Output curbed
• Normal loading resumes

Oil spill response underway after vessel grounding in the Philippines - Authorities in the Philippines have intensified containment and cleanup efforts following an oil spill caused by a cargo vessel that ran aground along the shoreline of Barangay La Virgen Milagrosa in Badoc, Ilocos Norte on 8 June. As stated, personnel, government workers and volunteers have deployed absorbent pads and oil spill booms to contain pollution leaking from the grounded vessel, identified as MSCI 1. Following a meeting of the multi-agency oil spill response team, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Victor Dabalos instructed the vessel’s manager to immediately seal the engine leak to prevent further environmental damage and protect the livelihoods of local fishing communities. According to Dabalos, the vessel departed Omnico Port in Currimao, Ilocos Norte, carrying aggregates bound for Calayan, Cagayan province. The vessel was forced to undertake an emergency beaching on 8 June amid adverse weather conditions. Fortunately, all 15 crew members were safely evacuated and were reported to be in good condition. Inspections carried out after the grounding confirmed the presence of an oil leak from the vessel’s engine compartment, while reserve fuel tanks remained intact and fully sealed. Responders detected a strong petroleum odour at the site and promptly deployed two segments of containment boom to limit the spread of pollutants. The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported on 9 June that approximately 100 litres of oily water mixture had been observed along a 15-metre stretch of shoreline near the incident site. Authorities also noted that previously deployed containment booms had shifted due to prevailing sea conditions. In response, additional absorbent booms and pads were deployed and recovery operations were launched. Contaminated absorbent materials have been collected and stored in drums for proper disposal. A coastal cleanup operation remains underway around the grounding site, while the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Philippines (DENR) continues to assess the environmental impact of the spill. The agency is conducting field inspections of affected coastal habitats, coordinating debris management activities and monitoring potential impacts on marine ecosystems and local fisheries. The response team comprises the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Philippine Marines, Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection and the local government of Badoc.

Coast Guard: Oil spill in Ilocos Norte contained - The oil spill caused by a cargo vessel that ran aground in the sea of Badoc, Ilocos Norte has been successfully contained through the coordinated efforts of government agencies, local authorities, and community volunteers, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported. Ensign Aeron Paul Sotiangco, deputy commander of the Coast Guard Station Ilocos Norte, said the cargo vessel LCT/MV MSCI 1 was enroute from Omnico Port in Ilocos Norte to Calayan, Cagayan, carrying aggregates and 15 Filipino crew members when it was forced to conduct an emergency beaching on June 8 due to rough seas and adverse weather conditions. “The captain decided to perform an emergency beaching to prevent the vessel from capsizing and ensure the crew’s safety. No fatalities were reported,” Sotiangco said. Authorities traced the oil spill to excess oil from the vessel’s engine room, noting that the ship’s oil reserve tank remained intact and securely sealed. Following the incident, the PCG, local government units, and residents immediately launched containment operations, deploying spill booms, absorbent pads, and other materials to prevent the oil from spreading further. The cleanup effort resulted in the collection of approximately 80 liters of oil-contaminated waste on a 15-meter stretch of shoreline. As of June 11, authorities reported that coastal waters in the affected area were visually free of oil sheen, and no fuel odor was detected, indicating that containment measures had been effective. Despite the successful cleanup, water activities in the area remain prohibited as a precaution while monitoring and environmental assessment activities continue. Meanwhile, the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) of Badoc said assistance has been extended to 228 affected families to help mitigate the impact of the incident on their livelihood. Medical consultations were also conducted to address possible health concerns related to the spill. The PCG remains in close coordination with the vessel’s shipping company, which has hired a salvor firm to recover and relocate the stranded vessel. Underwater inspections and recovery operations are expected to begin once sea conditions improve.

Oil executives are sounding the alarm over dwindling stockpiles --President Trump’s deal with Iran is set to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but how quickly it can arrest a steep decline in oil stockpiles will determine the trajectory of energy prices in the coming weeks. For more than 15 weeks, the U.S. and other countries around the world have had to dip into oil tanks, salt caverns and strategic reserves to make up for the millions of barrels of oil trapped behind the strait. Now, the stocks are nearing critical levels, and energy executives say without an influx of more oil, prices will have to surge to stop the run on supplies. Mike Wirth, chief executive of Chevron, has repeatedly warned on television that the supply crunch will soon manifest itself around the world.  Neil Chapman, the No. 2 at Exxon Mobil, has said the U.S. is approaching “unheard-of inventory levels.” Other executives, such as Wil VanLoh, of Quantum Capital Group, say “it’s going to get ugly.” “The world has never had to destroy 10 million barrels a day of oil demand,” VanLoh added, referring to the crude production not making it to global markets. Relief could be on the way. The U.S. and Iran agreed Sunday to a deal—set to be signed Friday in Switzerland—that would quickly reopen the strait, through which 20% of the world’s petroleum typically passes. But even if that deal holds, it would likely take months for the oil market to return to normal. Since late March, the U.S. has drawn about 66 million barrels of oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a system of salt caverns on the Gulf Coast that was created in 1975 after the Arab oil embargo. The Trump administration authorized the release of 172 million barrels—and if drawdowns continue at the current pace, that allotment could dry up in early September. The current release—if fully exhausted—is set to bring inventories down to 243 million barrels, a historically low level. Drawing further from the stocks after that would limit the U.S.’s ability to respond to new oil disruptions on the world’s stage, or natural disasters such as hurricanes that can damage fuel supply chains. The SPR peaked at more than 700 million barrels in 2009. Commercial stocks are also under stress. At the key storage hub in Cushing, Okla., inventories have dropped to 21 million barrels, down roughly 1 million barrels in the latest week. At roughly 20 million barrels, tank operators begin running into a variety of complications. Tanks typically have to have 10% to 15% of their capacity in storage to guarantee smooth operations. That is in part because the outlet allowing oil to flow is set at that level and sludge builds up at the bottom, said John Auers, managing director of refined fuel analytics at RBN Energy, part of analytics firm Novi Labs. “Whenever you get to tank bottoms, the whole operation gets bogged down,” he said. He cautioned the 20-million-barrel limit isn’t hard and fast, and operators would likely try to keep pumping crude out of the facility—albeit at a slower rate. Chapman, a senior vice president at Exxon, said physical oil prices could rise as high as $150 or $160 a barrel once the limits at global hubs are hit. “You can debate whether that’s going to hit those really low levels in two weeks or three weeks. But once you get to that point, then you’ll see prices shoot up,” he said at a conference in New York. Even if the strait soon reopens, Trump said steps will be needed to ensure mines have been removed. Oil shippers and their insurers are expected to remain cautious about traveling through the waterway. It would likely take even longer for the U.S. and other countries to replenish their depleted oil inventories, keeping prices elevated. U.S. oil prices fell 4.1% to $81.42 a barrel on Sunday evening shortly after trading opened. They have fallen more than 25% from early April, when they approached $113. Prices at the pump have fallen, too. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told The Wall Street Journal last week that Trump has been briefed on the inventory situation and the administration doesn’t foresee a jump in energy prices. “I don’t think so…we got a challenge, but I think we’re solving the challenge,” he said. At a Bloomberg event on Friday, Wright said 7 million barrels a day of oil and refined products were making it out of the strait with the help of the U.S. military. Wirth, speaking at that same event, seemed skeptical of that claim. “Our view would be it’s probably not quite that much,” he said.

OPEC’s Oil Demand Bet Is on India, Not Europe Every year, OPEC releases a long-term outlook that says oil demand will keep growing. Every year, critics roll their eyes. This year, OPEC doubled down. In its World Oil Outlook 2026, the producer group said global oil demand will climb from 105.1 million barrels per day in 2025 to 113.3 million bpd by 2030 and top 124 million bpd by 2050. More importantly, OPEC says there is still no peak oil demand in sight. That's a bold claim in a world where EV sales dominate headlines, governments continue talking about net-zero targets, and energy transition advocates have spent years forecasting oil's slow decline. But buried inside OPEC's latest outlook is an argument that's harder to dismiss than the forecast itself. The organization is essentially saying that the peak-demand crowd has become obsessed with what is happening in rich countries while ignoring what is happening almost everywhere else. Much of the conversation around oil demand revolves around EV adoption in Europe, California, and China. OPEC's outlook is based on a much simpler observation: billions of people outside the OECD still want cars, air conditioning, air travel, consumer goods, and reliable electricity. India alone is expected to add more than 8 million barrels per day of oil demand by 2050. Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and the rest of developing Asia are expected to contribute most of the remaining growth. In other words, OPEC isn't betting on Berlin, it's betting on Bangalore. The report also throws cold water on another favorite assumption of the transition narrative: that electric vehicles will quickly eliminate oil demand. OPEC expects EV adoption to continue growing rapidly, but still sees internal combustion vehicles accounting for roughly three-quarters of the global vehicle fleet in 2050. Cars aren't even the biggest story. Petrochemicals, aviation, trucking, shipping, data centers, manufacturing, and growing middle classes all require energy. And a lot of it. Meanwhile, OPEC now sees U.S. shale growth slowing significantly and approaching a plateau around 2030, removing one of the biggest sources of supply growth the market has relied on for the past decade. None of this guarantees that OPEC is right. The organization has every reason to be optimistic about oil's future. But after years of predictions that demand was about to roll over, the world keeps consuming more oil, not less. At some point, it becomes fair to ask whether peak demand keeps getting pushed into the future because it was never as close as everyone thought.

Crude oil prices plunge 5% after US-Iran peace deal: What it means for India - The Tribune -Global crude oil prices fell by almost 5 per cent on Monday after the announcement of a tentative peace deal between the United States and Iran that is expected to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most vital oil shipping routes in the world. The development led to a significant correction in oil prices and eased fears of supply disruptions in West Asia. Brent crude, the global benchmark, plunged to about $83 per barrel and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dipped below $81 per barrel, as traders wiped out the geopolitical risk premium built into oil prices during months of turmoil. Approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and the deal is expected to restore the flow of gas and oil exports through this route. Earlier, the fears of potential disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz could limit global energy supplies drove oil markets to soar, reaching as high as $120 per barrel during the initial phases of the US-Iran war in March. However, the latest peace agreement indicates a gradual normalisation of oil exports from the region. The agreement reportedly calls for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as well as more extensive talks to put an end to hostilities and restore trade. The sharp drop in oil prices was caused by traders reducing their bets on higher crude prices as the probability of a prolonged supply disruption subsided. Over 85 per cent of India’s crude oil requirements are met by imports, making it the third-largest oil user in the world. The country’s economy, inflation, fiscal health, and company earnings are all directly impacted by changes in the price of crude oil globally. Every persistent drop in crude oil prices improves India’s current account balance, reduces pressure on the currency, and cuts the country’s import bill. On the other hand, an increase in oil prices often results in higher trade imbalances and inflation. India’s top import is crude oil. The country spends less foreign exchange on energy imports as prices around the world drop. The current account deficit (CAD), which measures the difference between the imports of a country and exports, can be reduced with a lower oil import bill. In general, a lower CAD strengthens the currency and reduces reliance on inflows of foreign capital. Refiners and oil marketing firms are less inclined to demand US dollars when oil import bills are lower. The Indian rupee’s value in relation to the US dollar may stabilize as a result. In conclusion, a stronger or more stable rupee reduces the cost of imports and contributes to the stabilization of imported inflation. Additionally, currency stability encourages capital inflows into Indian financial markets and boosts investor confidence. On Monday’s opening trade, the rupee gained 43 paise.

Iran Peace Deal Sends Oil Prices to March Low | NewsGhana -Oil prices fell to their lowest since March on Monday as the United States and Iran announced a deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude fell 4.7 percent to $83.25 a barrel in early Monday trading, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropped 5.1 percent to $80.53. Both contracts hit their lowest levels since March 10, extending a slide that began after President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday that “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete.” He said the strait would open without a toll system and that the United States would end its naval blockade of Iran. An official signing ceremony is set for Friday in Switzerland. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the two sides had declared an immediate and permanent termination of military operations, while Iran’s deputy foreign minister confirmed the initial agreement. Trump’s announcement nonetheless stops short of a final signed deal, and analysts cautioned that meaningful implementation risks remain before markets can treat it as certain. The scale of the disruption the agreement aims to end has been severe. The International Energy Agency estimated the strait’s closure caused a daily global oil shortfall of approximately 14 million barrels. About a fifth of the world’s oil supply had passed through the waterway before tanker traffic plunged in early March, when Iran attacked shipping in response to United States and Israeli strikes. Brent climbed above $114 a barrel in the weeks that followed, a rise of more than 40 percent from pre-war levels. The prospect of Iranian crude returning to global markets deepened Monday’s price declines. Analysts estimate Iran could restore more than one million barrels a day of exports if sanctions are lifted and production facilities return to full capacity. That supply would add to increases already being staged by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+), which has been raising output targets in recent months, shifting market concern from shortage toward the possibility of oversupply. The impact extended well beyond the oil market. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 5.5 percent on Monday morning, South Korea’s Kospi jumped 5.7 percent and Australia’s benchmark index gained about 1.5 percent, with equity investors pricing in the prospect of lower fuel costs supporting growth. The benefits of a reopened strait reach further than Iran’s own exports. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar all route substantial crude volumes through the waterway. Restoring normal shipping is expected to reduce freight insurance premiums, ease supply chain delays and lower fuel costs in regions that have absorbed sustained energy price pressure since March, including economies across Africa, Asia and Europe. Implementation, however, remains ahead of confirmation. The formal signing has not yet taken place, political opposition within both countries could complicate the process, and earlier ceasefire attempts in the conflict collapsed before holding. Any breakdown before Friday’s ceremony could rapidly reverse the week’s gains and reignite the volatility that has gripped energy markets since February.

Oil Slips to 3-Month Low on US-Iran Peace Deal Announcement (DTN) -- Oil futures slumped to their lowest since early March Monday morning after the U.S. and Iran announced they had agreed to an interim deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. By 7:30 a.m. ET, ICE Brent for August delivery was down $4.46 to trade near $82.87 bbl, and NYMEX WTI for July delivery fell $4.70 to $80.18 bbl. Downstream, NYMEX ULSD futures for July delivery retreated $0.1064 to $3.2980 gallon, and front-month NYMEX RBOB futures plummeted $0.1180 to $2.9318 gallon. The U.S. Dollar Index softened by 0.22 points to 99.525 against a basket of foreign currencies. U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said that a deal with Iran was "now complete" and announced a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as well as the immediate lifting of the U.S. blockade on Iranian maritime trade. The President clarified in a second statement that flows through the Strait of Hormuz will resume once both parties sign the deal on Friday in Switzerland. The memorandum of understanding mediated by Islamabad extends the ceasefire for another 60 days to allow for negotiations about yet unresolved issues like Iran's nuclear program and the lifting of sanctions. Hundreds of laden tankers continued to idle in the Persian Gulf as shippers were seeking clarity on a timeline for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the blockade of which has cut the world off almost a fifth of petroleum liquid supply for now three and a half months. The largest oil supply disruption in history caused oil prices to rally and global inventories to dwindle from five-year highs to the lowest in a decade. Iranian news outlets, meanwhile, reported that the deal granted Iran 30 days to reopen the strait. The timing of the restart of flows is crucial given rapidly shrinking oil and fuel stockpiles. The International Energy Agency has repeatedly warned that inventories could hit a "red zone" by the July-August period should traffic not be restored, jeopardizing fuel supply safety and raising shortage risks. While markets can expect some immediate respite once the shipping disruption ends, oil supply will take months to approach pre-war levels. In addition to hurdles such as damaged energy infrastructure and a shortage of empty tankers, production at many oil fields forced shut by the lack of takeaway capacity will be slow to ramp up.

Oil settles at three-month low after Trump says deal signed to end Iran war  (Reuters) - Oil prices settled down $4 a barrel to a three-month low on Monday after President Donald Trump said the United States and Iran have signed a memorandum ​of understanding aiming to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude futures settled down $4.16, or 4.76%, to $83.17 a barrel and ‌U.S. West Texas Intermediate settled at $80.75, down $4.13, or 4.87%. Both contracts erased a chunk of the war-risk premium they had accumulated over the last few months, with Brent and U.S. crude futures closing at their lowest levels since March 4. The memorandum of understanding has been signed by Trump and Vice President JD Vance and Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, one U.S. official said. An official ​signing ceremony for the agreement is due to be held on Friday in Geneva. Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency said the draft deal called for reopening ​the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days under Iranian arrangements. "With a wall of oil supply very possibly on the way, the ⁠selloff looks justified," Iran lowered the official selling price for its light crude oil grade for Asian buyers to $7.15 ​a barrel above the Oman/Dubai average for July, the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company said on Monday, compared with the previous month's premium of $13 a barrel. Citi on Monday cut ​its average Brent crude forecasts to $75 and $70 per barrel for the third and fourth quarters of 2026, respectively, citing expectations that the Strait of Hormuz trade flows will resume and normalize. The world has lost millions of barrels of oil and gas supply since the war closed the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, ​for more than three months. It is unclear how quickly those barrels will return to market once the waterway is opened. "Getting the vessel supply chain in place and ​the restarts all running smoothly within the Arab Gulf will be tough. And some vessel owners will be hesitant to ballast towards the Arab Gulf until we hear from insurers," Investors are also watching cautiously how quickly Middle Eastern producers can resume oil production and exports following damage from the war, and whether more ships will enter the region. More than 14 million barrels per day of oil output is shut, or about 14% of world demand, according to the International Energy Agency's . A full return to pre-war production and refining levels is likely to take weeks, months or even years, industry officials say. Lower oil inventory levels, a slower ​process to restart production and the refilling ​of strategic oil inventories should support ⁠oil prices in the longer term, Stockpiles in the world's largest economies are headed toward their lowest levels since at least 2003, due to the lost Gulf output, according to the U.S. Energy Information ​Administration. Stocks of crude oil in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell to 340.3 million barrels, the lowest level since 1983, according ​to data from the ⁠Department of Energy on Monday. Inventories in the government's emergency stash fell by 8.9 million barrels, the third-steepest draw on record. The drawdowns are a part of a U.S. agreement to release 172 million barrels from the facility. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military would remain in security zones in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza indefinitely in order to protect the border and ⁠Israeli settlements. The ​fate of Iran's nuclear program, another thorny issue, will also be addressed in those later talks, sources previously ​told Reuters. E4 nations, which include the UK, France, Germany and Italy, said on Sunday the countries were prepared to lift sanctions on Iran in response to steps on its nuclear program.

Oil Prices Plunge to Three-Month Low – Iran Wire -- Oil prices fell by another 4% on Tuesday, hitting their lowest level in three months. The drop comes as markets simultaneously evaluate the outlook for resuming oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, weak physical demand, and the lack of clear details surrounding the initial agreement to end the war with Iran. According to Reuters, Brent crude futures fell by $3.20, or 3.85%, to $79.97 a barrel by 12:53 GMT, approximately 3:30 p.m. Tehran time. The benchmark had earlier dropped to as low as $79.61, its lowest level since February 22, slipping below the $80 mark for the first time since that date. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude also dropped by $3.52, or 4.36%, to $77.23 a barrel. Its daily low hit $76.88, marking its lowest level since March 11. Before the outbreak of the war on February 28, prices for both Brent and WTI crude had been hovering within the $65 to $70 range. Oil had already plunged nearly 5% on Monday after Donald Trump announced a tentative agreement to end the war with Iran, even though the specific details of the deal have not yet been made public. In a related statement, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), emphasized that the "unconditional" reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is vital to preventing further shocks to the energy market, noting that the move could help stabilize trading. He also welcomed the understanding between Iran and the United States, describing it as "very good news." To manage the crisis, hundreds of millions of barrels of oil have already been released from the emergency stockpiles of the 32 IEA member countries, with approximately 164 million barrels drawn from these reserves in May alone.

Oil Prices Extend Decline on Hormuz Reopening Hopes (DTN) -- Oil futures slid to the lowest in more than three months Tuesday morning, extending the decline from the previous trading session on growing signs that shut-in Middle Eastern oil flows may soon return. By 8:30 a.m. EDT, ICE Brent for August delivery was down $3.00 to trade near $80.17 bbl, and NYMEX WTI for July delivery fell $3.09 to $77.66 bbl. Downstream, NYMEX ULSD futures for July delivery slid $0.1030 to $3.1635 gallon, and front-month NYMEX RBOB futures retreated $0.0487 to $2.8985 gallon. The U.S. Dollar Index remained little changed, up 0.035 points to 99.410 against a basket of foreign currencies. U.S. and Iranian officials are set to sign an interim deal in Switzerland on Friday, which would reportedly end the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran on Tuesday confirmed that the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is being lifted, and vessel tracking data showed several Iranian oil tankers moving toward the Gulf of Oman. Hundreds of laden oil tankers are idling in the Persian Gulf, but few have so far attempted to traverse the chokepoint following Sunday's peace deal announcement as shippers were waiting for more clarity about navigational safety, including the clearing of Iranian sea mines. A wave of crude oil ready to flow once a deal is signed could soon provide much needed respite to a supply-starved market. While some analysts expect oil supply to return to pre-war levels by the end of July, others are more cautious given the extent and duration of the supply disruption. Damaged energy infrastructure, shut-in oil fields and logistical hurdles can pump the brakes on the expected supply surge and drag out the return of oil output for months. Demand destruction caused by the largest oil supply disruption in history is also weighing on price expectations. The lack of crude deliveries and high prices has caused a global refining trough, and inflationary pressures stymying growth may render some of this lost demand permanent. Chinese customs data showed the dearth of imports and refining extending into May as demand remained at the lowest in nearly a decade. Spot prices have also recently indicated some demand weakness, with the premium of physical barrels over futures returning to pre-war levels in many markets.

Oil Market Retreats as Strait of Hormuz Supply Flows Near Return -- The oil market continued on its downward trend as the market weighed the prospects for a resumption of oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz and few details on the interim deal to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. The crude market traded sideways in overnight trading, posting a high of $81.58 before it breached the $80 level and continued to trend lower. The market extended its losses to over $5.20 as it breached a support line at $77.80 and sold off to a low of $75.52 in afternoon trading. The market was further pressured by The Wall Street Journal report stating that the U.S.-Iran deal allows Iran to immediately resume its oil sales once the agreement is signed this week. The oil market later retraced some of its losses ahead of the close. The July WTI contract settled down $4.70 at $76.05 and the August Brent contract settled down $4.21 at $78.96. The product markets ended the session lower, with the heating oil market settling down 9.63 cents at $3.1702 and the RB market settling down 6.67 cents at $2.8805. Hezbollah said it believes Iran will not sign a final nuclear deal with Washington unless Israel withdraws from Lebanon, as Iran’s top diplomat said Israel’s continued troop presence in Lebanon would be considered a breach of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding. U.S. average retail gasoline prices fell below $4/gallon for the first time since mid-April, as optimism grew that a preliminary deal between the U.S. and Iran would lead to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. According to GasBuddy data, U.S. national average retail gasoline prices fell to $3.997/gallon on Sunday, though prices are still up 90.8 cents from the same time last year. National average prices were at $4.065 on Monday, according to motorist group American Automobile Association. As of Monday, Americans have collectively spent about $46 billion more on gasoline since the start of the war. Goldman Sachs lowered its fourth-quarter Brent crude oil price forecast to $80/barrel from $90/barrel and cut its 2027 average estimate to $75/barrel from $80/barrel, after the U.S. and Iran signed a preliminary agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Analysts at the investment bank said they now assume that Gulf exports normalize to pre-war levels by the end of July versus the end of August expected previously. Goldman expects WTI to average $75/barrel in the last quarter this year and $70/barrel in 2027. Morgan Stanley has lowered its Brent crude oil price forecast for the third quarter to $90/barrel from a previous forecast of $100/barrel. It also lowered its Brent crude price forecast for the fourth quarter of this year by $15/barrel to $80/barrel. Barclays maintained its $100/barrel forecast for Brent crude in 2026. It said the timing of the restoration of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz could fall in line with its end of June baseline. It forecasts a small deficit in the third quarter. Commerzbank maintained its Brent crude price forecast of $85/barrel for the end of this year. It said it does not expect Brent to return towards pre-war levels of around $65/barrel until next year.

Global Oil Prices Drop Amidst Potential Iran Deal and Fed Meeting Focus | Ratopati - International market crude oil prices have fallen significantly with signs that Iran's oil could return to the global market. This has increased expectations of lower inflation and also decreased government bond yields. Investors' attention is currently focused on the first policy meeting of the new chairman of the US central bank Federal Reserve (Fed), Kevin Warsh. The international benchmark Brent crude oil price fell below $80 per barrel on Wednesday. On Wednesday, oil prices fell to their lowest level since the start of the US-Iran conflict. At the ICE Exchange's Comex division in London, Brent came down to $78.22 per barrel. This is 0.94 percent less than the market closing on the previous day. Meanwhile, at the New York Mercantile Exchange's Comex division, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices are also being traded at $75.16 per barrel, down 1.09 percent. According to a senior US official, the US is preparing to lift sanctions on Iranian oil under a peace agreement. This has increased expectations that millions of barrels of additional oil could be supplied to the global market. Following this news, US government bond yields have fallen. The impact of this has also been seen in Asian markets. The yield on Japan's 10-year government bond fell by 1.5 basis points to 2.63 percent, while Australia's 10-year yield also fell by 5 basis points to 4.787 percent. According to Kim Fustier, a senior energy analyst at HSBC Bank, the market is assessing the high probability of oil transportation from the Strait of Hormuz returning to normal. However, it is estimated that it may take until the end of September for this process to fully normalize. Many details of the US-Iran agreement, reportedly to be signed on Friday, have not yet been made public. For the past three months, with movement in Hormuz almost halted, global oil storage has been under pressure. US oil inventories are said to have reached their lowest level since 1983. Investors are currently waiting to see what signal Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh gives regarding interest rates. The market is anticipating interest rate hikes this year. According to analysts, the possibility of interest rates changing at this meeting is low. However, Warsh's press conference and the economic projections of Fed officials will be closely watched. According to Xiao Cui, a senior economist at Pictet Wealth Management, Warsh may signal a patient monetary policy approach rather than providing immediate clear guidance. If he supports the possibility of interest rates rising, the market will interpret it as a hawkish policy signal.

Cushing Stocks Crash To 'Tank Bottoms', Seasonally Lowest Since 2005; SPR Sees Another Huge Drain - Oil prices have tumbled in recent days as optimism grew there would be a lasting Middle East peace agreement, which would mean supplies would be back on track - but investors are taking a breather today with prices marginally higher this morning, rising off three month lows (and the 200DMA) after Trump threatened to 'start bombing again' if he doesn't like the deal (or how Iran is behaving). Solid US macro data also helped lift oil prices (demand). "The collapse in oil has changed the tone of global markets, supporting bonds (prices) and reducing near-term inflation pressure," noted Tickmill market strategist Patrick Munnelly. Oil industry experts and shipping companies have warned that it will take time to restore normal operations after the waterway's near shutdown. Crude inventories held by OECD member countries fell in May to the lowest level since 1990 as governments drew down stocks to offset the blockage of Gulf crude shipments during the Middle East war, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday. The drawdown since the start of the conflict has reached 163 million barrels in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development club of wealthy countries, the IEA said in its monthly report. And so, all eyes on the official situation in the US today for any signs of those drawdowns slowing (API's report suggest not). API

• Crude -8.33mm
• Cushing -1.5mm
• Gasoline +2.47mm
• Distillates -461k

DOE

• Crude -8.263mm (-3.5mm exp, -5.2mm whisp)
• Cushing -1.606mm
• Gasoline -906k
• Distillates +951k

Crude inventories fell for the 8th straight week (-8.3mm) and Cushing saw another major drop in stocks. Products were mixed... Graphics Source: Bloomberg. At Cushing, Oklahoma, stockpiles declined for the eighth straight week, taking inventories to just above 20 million barrels. That’s the lowest inventories have been at the storage hub since October 2014, and takes us to what are considered essentially 'tank-bottoms', the point at which the hub is unable to fully operate. This is the lowest level for Cushing stocks for this time of year since 2005... The Strategic Petroleum Reserve saw yet another massive drawdown (8.9mm barrels), down almost 75mm barrels since the war started... The US rig count continues to rise along with US Crude Production (now back near record highs)... WTI was trading around $76.50 ahead of the official data and rallied uyp to $77 on the report... Finally, we note that The International Energy Agency warned on Wednesday that the conflict is causing a bigger hit to demand than previously thought, while adding in its first look at next year’s balances that it expects a renewed glut. Crude prices are down by almost 40% from their peak during the conflict. Producers, shippers and traders are now assessing whether the interim peace agreement will prove to be durable, and how long it will take for vessel transits of the Hormuz chokepoint to be revived in earnest. Sticking points remain, including opposition in Israel, which launched the war with the US in late February. But the scale of the price drop is already quashing concerns about a further energy-induced inflationary spike. “This decline is not merely a reduction in the geopolitical risk premium; it is a recalibration of the global oil balance for the months ahead,” said Tamas Varga, an oil analyst at brokerage PVM. “With oil prices tumbling, inflation expectations are likely to decline, while increases in consumer and producer prices should moderate.”

Oil rises 1% on US-Iran deal doubts; IEA warns of supply glut  (Reuters) - Oil prices ​gained nearly 1% on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said the new ceasefire agreement with Iran ‌was not final and the Iran war could resume if he is unsatisfied, but concerns over excess supply next year limited the gains. Brent crude futures settled 59 cents, or 0.75%, higher at $79.55 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate gained 74 cents, or 0.97%, to $76.79. Trump ​said on Wednesday that a memorandum of understanding with Iran was not final, and that he could resume a ​bombing campaign if he did not like it or if Iran did not "behave". The U.S. ⁠and Iran on Sunday said they had on terms to end the war and reopen the Strait of ​Hormuz. There's "still a bit of uncertainty in terms of the U.S. situation... (it) makes sense for oil to bounce back from these ​levels after staging what has been quite a sharp decline in the last few days," said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com. There were fresh Israeli air strikes and artillery fire in several towns of southern Lebanon on Wednesday. Lebanese security sources ​said Hezbollah had also launched two drone attacks on Israeli forces in the south. The memorandum calls for a halt ​to hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon. On the supply side, U.S. crude oil inventories fell for a 10th ‌straight ⁠week last week as demand surged, pushing total stockpiles to their lowest level since 1985, as the Iran war continued to upend global energy markets, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. "The U.S. and the rest of the world continue to draw down strategic inventory reserves as well as commercial inventories in an attempt to mitigate the disruption ​in the Middle East," said ​Andy Lipow, president of ⁠Lipow Oil Associates. However, a supply glut looms on the horizon. In its first look at 2027, the IEA said the oil market will enter a significant supply overhang, with global ​supply set to surge by 8 million barrels per day and demand rising by ​just 2 million. In ⁠the near term, the agency said the Iran-U.S. deal should provide an opportunity to replenish depleted inventories or build new strategic reserves. "Markets may be underpricing the depth of the supply glut coming online," said Crispus Nyaga, research analyst at Empire FX. Still, ⁠industry officials ​say a full return to pre-war production and refining levels is ​likely to take weeks, months or even years.

Oil Prices Fall After Trump and Pezeshkian Sign US-Iran Deal - Khaama Press - Global oil prices fell in early trading on Thursday after the United States and Iran signed a preliminary agreement aimed at ending hostilities and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices declined in early global trading after the United States and Iran signed a temporary agreement to end the conflict and restore maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Reuters reported early Thursday that market concerns over potential disruptions to global energy supplies eased following the breakthrough between Washington and Tehran. Brent crude futures fell by 89 cents, or 1.12 percent, to $78.66 per barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude also dropped by 98 cents, or 1.28 percent, to $75.81 per barrel. The decline came after US President Donald Trump signed the Persian-language version of a 14-point memorandum of understanding with Iran, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed the agreement on Tehran’s side. The accord is intended to serve as a framework for ending hostilities, reopening the Strait of Hormuz and launching broader negotiations between the two countries. Energy markets have closely monitored developments around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route through which a significant share of the world’s oil exports passes. Concerns over potential disruptions during the recent conflict had pushed oil prices higher in recent weeks. The agreement includes commitments to restore maritime navigation through the waterway, reduce regional tensions and advance negotiations on economic and security issues. The deal is also linked to discussions on phased sanctions relief and a proposed international investment package reportedly worth up to $300 billion for Iran. The memorandum is expected to receive formal endorsement during a ceremony in Switzerland, while regional actors, including Israel, continue to scrutinize the agreement and its implications for Middle East security and Iran’s future nuclear activities.

Oil Hits Lowest Levels Since Iran War as Hormuz Reopens - Crude prices hit their lowest levels on Thursday since the start of this year's Middle East conflict, after the U.S. and Iran signed a remote agreement to permanently end active military hostilities between them and reopen shipping to oil and gas tankers on the Strait of Hormuz. By 9:10 a.m. ET, NYMEX WTI for July delivery was down $2.39, or 3%, to $74.40 bbl after dropping to as low as $74.13. Front-month WTI was at around $67 bbl just before the start of U.S.-Israeli bombings against Iran on Feb. 28 and peaked at $ 117.63 by March. ICE Brent for August delivery slid by $1.65, or 2.1%, to $77.90 bbl, after tumbling to $77.10. Front-month Brent traded at around $72 bbl on the eve of the attacks on Iran and rose to as high as $126.41 by April. Among refined products, NYMEX ULSD futures for July dropped by $0.0975 to $3.0971 gallon, while NYMEX RBOB for July retreated by $0.0058 to $2.9096 gallon. The U.S. Dollar Index rose by 0.599 points to 100.465 against a basket of foreign currencies. Analysts noted that energy traders were aggressively pricing in an accelerated return of Iranian barrels to the market after the 14-point memorandum of understanding signed between Iran and the U.S. on Wednesday, June 17. The preliminary accord guarantees immediate toll-free transit through the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint for at least two months. Iran has indicated that it may charge vessels a service fee after the initial free period. Prior to the deal on Wednesday, the Hormuz remained largely impassable over 3-1/2 months to approximately 20 million bpd of petroleum liquids and liquefied natural gas. Goldman Sachs said it expects regional crude exports to fully normalize by the end of July, supported by a 13 million bpd surge in transit flows. It projected Iranian production to achieve a complete structural recovery by October, though subsequent inventory restocking could limit further steep price declines. Highlighting ongoing supply losses elsewhere, BNP Paribas viewed $75 bbl for Brent as a durable price floor for the foreseeable future compared to pre-war trading ranges. Long-term demand headwinds also weighed on sentiment as PetroChina forecast China's total 2026 crude consumption to drop 4.9% to 753 million metric tons. Notwithstanding the anticipated relief to Middle East supplies, ongoing structural disruptions to global refining capacity continued as Ukrainian long-range drones successfully struck a major oil refinery in the Russian capital.

Brent rises after Vance warns Israel against breaking ceasefire - (Reuters) - Brent crude oil prices rose on Thursday after U.S. Vice President JD Vance warned Israel ‌against further attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, raising doubts about the durability of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement. "The vice president's ‌statements about Israel may have put things back on edge," . "I think the slightest sort of disturbance is going to register ​in the market." Brent crude futures settled at $79.85 a barrel, up 30 cents, or 0.38%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate fell 19 cents or 0.25% to finish at $76.60 a barrel. Before Vance's comments, Brent touched its lowest level since March 2, which was the first day of trading after the initial U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. WTI was at its lowest since March 4. Ultimately, oil markets will be focused on what happens in the Strait ‌of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's ⁠oil flowed before the start of the war. "Full resumption of oil flows through the strait has been priced back in," Kilduff said. "Anything short of that will be a problem." The 14-point memorandum of understanding between the ⁠United States and Iran establishes a 60-day negotiation period during which Iran will allow toll-free passage through the Strait of Hormuz. The deal calls for traffic through the strait to be restored to its full capacity within 30 days. The agreement is also binding on the two countries' allies in ​the ​Middle East and applies specifically to Lebanon, where Israel has been waging ​an air and ground campaign against Hezbollah. The preliminary accord ‌defers many of the more difficult issues, such as Iran's nuclear program, and also requires the United States and its partners to come up with a $300-billion plan to finance Iran's recovery. Analysts expect a gradual recovery in flows through the Strait of Hormuz, while industry experts have cautioned that prices may not plummet as demand recovers and inventories are refilled. Investment bank Goldman Sachs expects Gulf exports to normalize to pre-war levels by end-July, with crude production recovering by October. The bank estimates that a normalization in exports to pre-war levels might be ‌achieved with a 13 million barrel-per-day increase in Hormuz flows from current levels ​to around 70% of pre-war levels. BNP Paribas does not currently anticipate a return ​to pre-war prices and views $75 per barrel as a "durable floor ​for the foreseeable future," it said in a note, given ongoing supply losses and higher demand. Brent ‌traded around $60 to $70 per barrel in the first two months ​of the year before the war. China, ​the world's second-largest oil consumer, is forecast to consume 753 million metric tons in 2026, down 4.9% from 2025 amid a pivot to new energy and high oil prices, according to a report published by PetroChina's research unit. Ukrainian drones hit ​the Russian capital's oil refinery for the second ‌time this week in what Ukraine cast as a demonstration of its growing capabilities.

Oil Prices Rebound as U.S.-Iran Peace Talks Are Postponed   - Oil prices began to climb once again in early Asian trade on Friday due to uncertainty over the outcome of peace talks between the United States and Iran after Switzerland confirmed the talks had been postponed. At the time of writing, Brent crude had climbed back above $80 per barrel while West Texas Intermediate had risen to $76.28.Reuters reported on the statement, issued by the Swiss foreign ministry, without providing details. The statement followed earlier reports that said Vice President J.D. Vance, who had been scheduled to attend the talks, had canceled his trip. Reports did not specify the reason for the cancellation, although the IDF has confirmed striking southern Lebanon throughout the night. Separate reports cited the U.S. Vice President as warning Israel not to criticize Trump’s deal with Iran and not to try to undermine it or risk having the U.S. pull its military support for Tel Aviv. Iran’s agreement to the peace deal is contingent on Israel stopping its war in Lebanon, which Israel has indicated it has no plans to do.“Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time, and he happens to be the head of state of the world's superpower. If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” Axios cited Vance as saying.  On Telegram, the IDF confirmed that it “struck southern Lebanon throughout the night and continues to strike Hezbollah terrorists and infrastructure sites in several areas across southern Lebanon.” It claims that those strikes were in retaliation for “repeated violations of the ceasefire” by Hezbollah.Prior to this latest escalation, oil prices had been falling throughout the week, dropping below $80 per barrel as traders assumed the ceasefire agreement would allow oil to start flowing more freely out of the Persian Gulf.Reports about tankers lining up to exit and others coming in to load helped reinforce this perception. It seems apparent, however, that normalization of oil flows from the Middle East will take a while yet.

Oil prices rise after US-Iran talks in Switzerland postponed -- Oil prices rose on Friday as hopes for a lasting US–Iran truce faded after peace talks in Switzerland were called off, while Israel stepped up attacks on Lebanon. By 0645 GMT, Brent crude futures gained 51 cents, or 0.64%, to $80.36 a barrel, and US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.28, or 1.7%, to $77.88 a ​barrel, with the front-month July contract expiring on Monday. Both contracts were headed for a weekly ​loss of about 8%. The more actively traded WTI August contract was up 59 cents at $76.44 ⁠a barrel. Switzerland said US talks with Iranian negotiators on a pact to end the Middle East conflict would not ​take place on Friday, as Vice President JD Vance dropped his travel plans, adding to uncertainty over the prospects ​for a lasting truce. "Prices may have bottomed out and we may see a renewed climb accompanied by plenty of volatility as cracks have already emerged in the memorandum of understanding," said Vandana Hari, founder of oil market analysis provider Vanda Insights. "This is not ​the geopolitical backdrop that would give the market any confidence in resuming Hormuz transit." On Thursday, both benchmarks touched their lowest since early March as several ⁠tankers, including three Saudi-flagged vessels carrying 6 million barrels of crude, sailed through the strait ​hours after the presidents of Iran and the United States signed an interim deal to end ​their war. Analysts expect the deal to release more than 85 million barrels of oil stranded in the Middle East Gulf into global markets. The agreement also includes the lifting of US sanctions on Iranian oil, which would ​further swell supply. "Traders are still waiting for hard evidence that tanker traffic through the Strait ​of Hormuz is actually normalising before committing to the next leg lower," said Tim Waterer, chief market ‌analyst at ⁠KCM. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas transited the strait prior to the war, and analysts have suggested trade could return to normal in the coming months if the US-Iran deal holds. Middle East producers are also gearing up to resume exports. Kuwait Petroleum Corp ​said on Thursday it ​had lifted, with immediate ⁠effect, all force majeure notices issued during the war. Iraq's oilfields are ready to resume production and output will gradually return to normal, restoring ​previous rates, Oil Minister Basim Mohammed said. However, Israel has continued its war ​against Hezbollah in ⁠Lebanon, raising questions about whether the US-Iran peace agreement will hold. In another disquieting sign for markets, US Vice President JD Vance pulled out of a planned trip to meet Iranian negotiators in Switzerland on ⁠Friday. "This ​is not the geopolitical backdrop that would give the market ​any confidence in resuming Hormuz transit," said Vandana Hari, founder of oil market analysis provider Vanda Insights.

How Quickly Can the Strait of Hormuz Get Back Up and Running? – WSJ -  Oil prices are trading below $80 a barrel after President Trump signed a deal to end the Iran war, a move investors expected will ease one of the biggest supply disruptions in decades. But energy traders and executives say the market for oil and other ingredients critical to the global economy will remain tight for weeks, potentially months. Ships need to reposition, damaged infrastructure has to be repaired and drained inventories will have to be rebuilt.

US Military Notice Says US Blockade on Iranian Ports Is Still in Effect, Contradicting Trump - The US military said in an advisory to merchant ships on Monday that the US blockade on Iranian ports remains in effect “pending execution” of a ceasefire deal between the US and Iran, The Hill has reported, a notice that contradicts President Trump’s declaration that the blockade has been lifted.The MOU will be officially signed on Friday to begin nuclear negotiations, but the end of the US blockade and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz were supposed to take effect immediately. Iranian media reported on Monday that several ships had made it to Iranian ports and that the blockade had been officially lifted, but the US military’s advisory suggested there was still a threat to commercial ships entering and leaving Iranian ports. “A military blockade of Iranian ports remains in effect, restricting all traffic inbound and outbound from these ports. Do not attempt to cross until explicit direction is given,” the notice said, according to Reuters. The notice told ship captains to consider “the health and safety of their crews,” warning that failure to comply with US orders “may result in rapid escalation to disabling or destructive fire.” The US bombed at least nine civilian commercial ships in its enforcement of the blockade since April, and one attack last week killed three Indian mariners.   Also on Monday, US officials told reporters that the US would maintain its current military posture in the Middle East and suggested it won’t pull any troops out of the region until some sort of nuclear deal is reached.“We want to see again the Iranians do what they promise they’re going to tell us that they’re going to do, and the agreement contemplates the reduction of military forces in the region upon the agreement of a final deal, which again is the agreement that we assume we can make, so long as the Iranians make some concessions and give up some of their activities and some of their nuclear program,” a senior Trump official said.

Exclusive: Iranian oil tankers, cargo vessels sail through as US naval blockade officially lifted - At least three Iranian oil tankers and two cargo ships carrying essential goods have successfully broken through the US naval blockade, Press TV has learned from highly informed sources. The vessels sailed through on Monday evening, marking the first operational victory of the newly finalized memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States. The vessels, which had been stranded for months amid the illegal American blockade aval campaign against Iranian shipping, sailed through international waters unimpeded, according to informed maritime sources speaking exclusively to Press TV. It came less than 24 hours after the finalized memorandum of understanding (MoU) mediated by Pakistan and Qatar mandated an immediate end to the illegal US naval blockade against Iran as part of a wider cessation of hostilities on all fronts. The secretariat of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) early on Monday confirmed that Tehran and Washington have finalized the text of an MoU on ending the imposed war, bringing an immediate and permanent halt to US-Israeli hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, and terminating the US naval blockade against Iran. The statement noted that the Islamic Republic, under the guidance of its martyred Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the directives of the current Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei, the unwavering support of the Iranian people, and the tireless efforts of the country’s armed forces, has completed a period of difficult and intensive negotiations. “Based on the approval of the Supreme National Security Council, the text of the memorandum of understanding regarding the end-of-war negotiations between Iran and the United States was finalized on the evening of June 15,” the statement read. “Under the agreements reached, the war and military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, are ended immediately and permanently. Furthermore, the naval blockade against Iran is terminated immediately and completely.” The SNSC secretariat added that the MoU will be officially signed on Friday, June 19. Talks toward a final agreement will be postponed until after the other side has implemented its commitments under the memorandum, the secretariat said.

Iran to define Hormuz future with Oman, Gulf states: U.S. officials -Iran and Oman will define how the Strait of Hormuz is administered in discussion with other Persian Gulf states under the agreement to end the war in the Middle East, senior U.S. officials told reporters Wednesday. Tehran and Washington are expected to formally sign a memorandum of understanding to end the war on Friday in Geneva. The U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the terms that hadn’t been made public, read the contents of the MOU to reporters on a conference call.Under the MOU, Tehran will allow the safe passage of commercial ships without tolls for 60 days only. Iran will then “conduct dialog” with Oman “to define the future administration and maritime services” in Hormuz in discussion with the other Gulf states, according to the agreement.President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that the strait be un-tolled after the war ends. There were no tolls imposed by Iran or any other entity before Trump began the war.The discussions on to how administer Hormuz should be “in line with the applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz,” according to the MOU.A senior U.S. official acknowledged that the Iranians will likely “assert their rights as aggressively as they can” in the regional discussions on how to administer Hormuz. But the official said the other Gulf states “will never agree to an arrangement that doesn’t permit toll-free access.”The U.S., meanwhile, will begin to lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports immediately after signing the MOU and will completely end the blockade within 30 days, an official said.Ships transited Hormuz freely without any fees or conditions before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. But Tehran has sought to impose its control over strait since the war began.Traffic through Hormuz has changed little since the U.S. and Iran announced they reached a deal on Sunday. Six tankers were among 13 commercial ships that transited Hormuz on Tuesday, according to data shared by Kpler. More than 100 vessels sailed through the strait daily before the war.The Joint Maritime Information Center on Tuesday downgraded the threat level to ships crossing Hormuz to “substantial” from “severe” previously. It warned shippers still face a strong possibility of attack, but the behavior of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard “has become less volatile.”The center is a maritime security organization led by the U.S. and headquartered in Bahrain that coordinates among allied navies and merchant ships in the Middle East.Here is the full memorandum of understanding as read by a U.S. official:

80 Million Barrels of Crude Are Lined Up to Exit the Strait of Hormuz -Tankers carrying a total of 80 million barrels of crude are preparing to move through the Strait of Hormuz after the signing of the preliminary deal between the United States and Iran, Bloomberg reported today, citing data from Vortexa.The crude is on 40 tankers, of which 21 will be heading for Asia, with five going to China as their final destination and five others bound for Malaysia and Singapore, key regional transshipment hubs. None of the tankers is carrying Iranian crude, Bloomberg also noted.On Thursday, Bloomberg estimated the amount of crude waiting to get the green light to pass through Hormuz at some 62 million barrels destined for Asian markets. The supply waiting to exit the Strait of Hormuz could prompt some refiners to increase processing rates or opt for replenishing commercial stock tanks that have been drawn down over the past three months, the report suggested.The news that there is so much crude about to head out into global markets will likely pressure oil prices further, after they slid down approaching pre-war levels already, even though some uncertainty remains as to the safe passage of tankers via Hormuz.There are, however, indications that both sides in the peace negotiations mean it this time, reducing the risk of a reignition in the hostilities that prompted the closure of the chokepoint. This led several oil price forecasters to slash their outlook on crude earlier this week, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Citi. The latter is the most bearish, expecting Brent crude to average $75 per barrel in the next quarter. Morgan Stanley, on the other hand, sees Brent crude at $90 in the third quarter, despite the reopening of Hormuz.  At 12:42 AM CDT, Brent was trading at $79.96, with WTI at $75.97 per barrel, both slightly up from Thursday’s close.

Three Saudi oil tankers carrying 6 million barrels cross Strait of Hormuz -- Three supertankers from Saudi Arabia loaded with 6 million barrels of oil have crossed the Strait of Hormuz, according to data from the global trade intelligence firm Kpler. The Saudi tankers switched their transponders on Thursday in the Gulf of Oman after hiding their location for more than two months. The crossings come after President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a deal Wednesday that is supposed to reopen Hormuz. Vice President JD Vance told reporters later Thursday that more than 12 million barrels of oil passed through Hormuz overnight. “That is a high since the beginning of the conflict,” Vance said at a White House press briefing. Around 14 million barrels per day of oil and 6 million bpd of refined products passed through Hormuz before the war. U.S. Central Command later announced that the Navy had ended the blockade of Iran. Kpler had not observed a major traffic increase as of Thursday morning. More than 100 ships, dozens of which were tankers, transited the strait daily before the Iran war. “The floodgates haven’t opened, there is no mass exodus as yet,” said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at Kpler. Shippers still appear hesitant to cross Hormuz, Smith said. The Saudi tankers are very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, that can each carry up to around 2 million barrels of oil. The Shaden is sailing to Kiire, Japan, and the Awtad is en route to Ulsan, South Korea, according to Kpler. The Jaham’s destination is not clear yet. At least five Iranian ships have crossed the U.S. blockade line since June 16, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. Three of those vessels were state-owned oil tankers that exited the Gulf of Oman. Kpler estimates that 118 tankers stuck in the Persian Gulf could exit through Hormuz within 15 days once the shipping industry is confident in the Iran deal. A dozen tankers might enter the Gulf daily to fetch oil within 30 days of the deal, which is still well below prewar levels, according to Kpler’s forecast. The Joint Maritime Information Center downgraded its threat assessment for Hormuz to “substantial” from “severe” this week. The center is a U.S.-led maritime security organization headquartered in Bahrain that coordinates among allied navies and merchant ships in the Middle East. The JMIC cautioned shippers that attacks in Hormuz are still a “strong possibility” and mines in the sea lane remain a threat. However, it noted the behavior of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard “has become less volatile” since Washington and Tehran announced their deal.

Oil tanker traffic in Strait of Hormuz jumps after U.S. and Iran implement deal to open sea lane -- At least 20 oil tankers have crossed the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Iran began to reopen the sea lane to commercial ship traffic, according to the trade intelligence firm Kpler. Tanker transits on Thursday hit the highest level since June 2, the firm said. However, traffic is still below prewar levels when more than 100 ships, including dozens of tankers, transited Hormuz daily. In total, 25 ships transited Hormuz on Thursday including cargo, container and other vessel classes, in addition to the tankers, according to Kpler. Traffic has picked up after the U.S. Navy ended its blockade of Iran, while Tehran is allowing ships to cross Hormuz for 60 days without paying tolls. U.S. Vice President JD Vance told reporters Thursday that the Iranians so far “are honoring their end of the commitment.” “Traffic was broadly balanced, with 13 crossings moving West to East and 12 moving East to West,” said Matt Smith, Kpler’s commodity research director. Three supertankers from Saudi Arabia and one from the United Arab Emirates crossed Hormuz on Thursday, according to Kpler. These huge ships, called very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, can haul up to 2 million barrels of oil.Iranian supertankers are switching on their transponders after going dark during the war, Kpler analysts told clients in a Friday note. Five Iranian supertankers loaded with oil were observed departing the region on Friday, the analysts said. “Two-way vessel flows suggest Iranian crude trade is gradually returning closer to normal operating patterns,” the analysts said. Eighteen ships that crossed Thursday followed the route designated by Iran to cross Hormuz, according to Kpler. Just one vessel used the route defined by the International Maritime Organization. The routes used by six ships couldn’t be confirmed, Kpler said. The U.S.-Iran deal has raised questions about how Hormuz will be governed. After the 60-day toll-free period ends, Iran will hold talks with Oman and the Gulf states on how to administer the strait, according to the deal terms. This appears to leave open the possibility that tolls could be imposed in the future.

Iran issues new passage guidelines for ships transiting Strait of Hormuz - Iran has issued a compulsory online clearance system requiring all vessels intending to transit the Strait of Hormuz to register their passage requests through a new centralized online system, effective immediately, as per a newly-inked Islamabad memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States. The Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) issued the binding directive on Friday, introducing a 60-day window during which transit fees will be waived by the Iranian government. Under the new protocols, shipping operators must submit their processing passing requests exclusively via the official PGSA website (PGSA.ir) or through a designated email address (info@PGSA.ir), the PGSA said in a post on its X account. It added that no other communication channels will be recognized, and that the vessels must provide “valid, accessible” contact details in the submitted request. The agency mandated an “essential” 48-hour pre-arrival notice for all vessels approaching the strategic waterway aim to "avoid delays at the entrance or exit of the Strait". “During the 60-day period, tariffs for security, safety, and environmental services, as well as related Iranian insurances, will not be collected from shipowners and will be borne by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” it said. The PGSA issued a stern warning given the presence of mine-affected areas and the necessity of ensuring safe passage and preventing collisions. “Coordination of the designated route and scheduled passage time for each vessel prior to moving toward the strait is mandatory; failure to comply shall be the responsibility of the vessel owner,” it emphasized. The agency’s post came a day after the Secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council said that Iran has introduced a temporary transit framework for commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, under which shipping operators must submit passage requests to the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA.ir), while outlining that no fees will be levied for an initial 60-day period, with all associated costs covered by the Iranian government. The 14-point “Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” was formally signed by the presidents of both countries early on Thursday, with the text finalized and the agreement officially in effect. It was finalized on Sunday, following months of intensive negotiations mediated by Pakistan, with support from other regional countries. Under the MoU, the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, has ended immediately, and the US naval blockade against Iran has been lifted. It also provides for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will conduct dialog with the Sultanate of Oman to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz in discussion with other Persian Gulf littoral states in line with the applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz,” the MoU said.

Hormuz Traffic Stalls as U.S.-Iran Talks Collapse -   A day after a rush to exit the Strait of Hormuz started, tanker traffic at the chokepoint is dwindling again as shippers pull back from immediate passage amid the collapsed U.S.-Iran talks before they even began.On Friday morning, no tanker was observed to have moved outbound from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Donald Trump said, "We didn’t meet out of desperation, Iran did. They are FINISHED! We’ll play out the 60 days. They get no money, not ten cents!" Inbound into the Gulf, one Norway-flagged products tanker and one Iran-linked LPG carrier made the crossing on Friday, according to observable data of tankers that haven’t gone dark. The thin Friday traffic compares to dozens of vessels that left the Gulf outbound from the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, which marked the reopening of the chokepoint.A total of 18 transits were recorded across the June 17 to 18 window, the highest single-window count of the conflict, according to data from maritime intelligence firm Windward. Chinese-affiliated, Chinese-linked, European, Japanese, and Saudi tonnage were among the early departures.Three Saudi-flagged supertankers carrying approximately six million barrels of crude transited the Strait dark in the hours following the signing of the U.S.-Iran deal, Windward noted.In addition, tankers carrying a total of 80 million barrels of crude were preparing to move through the Strait of Hormuz.But this reopening was put into question by the collapse of the U.S.-Iran talks even before they began. The talks were set to begin in Switzerland on Friday after the memorandum of understanding started the 60-day countdown for negotiations for a deal.The U.S.-Iran deal has raised hopes that the oil supply disruption in the Middle East could be nearing its end, but the biggest international tanker operators aren’t rushing to return to the Strait of Hormuz.“Given the experiences in the last couple of months, I think it’s reasonable to assume that it may take at least a couple of weeks or if not a month,” Jotaro Tamura, chief executive officer at Mitsui OSK Lines, the world’s largest tanker operator, told the Financial Times in a recent interview.

Iran declares Strait of Hormuz 'closed' over MOU 'breach' -- Iran’s military has declared the Strait of Hormuz “closed,” citing air strikes in Lebanon as “America’s blatant breach” of the Memorandum of Understanding to end the war, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported—even as politicians on both sides insisted the key shipping lane was open. “The Strait of Hormuz will be closed to vessel traffic,” a message attributed to the Iranian military’s operation command and posted on Tasnim’s Telegram account said about 9:10 a.m. ET The claim directly contradicts comments made just hours earlier by Iran’s foreign ministry, which told Tasnim that shipping through the strait was “operating normally” and denied any closure. U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News in a live interview about 9:30 a.m that “the straits really are open,” pointing to ongoing efforts to keep shipping lanes clear. He said: “We are not seeing any evidence that the Iranians are still closing down the Strait of Hormuz.” U.S. Central Command announced on X, meanwhile, that “commercial ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz increased June 20 as U.S. forces continued operating in the general area to support freedom of navigation.” Tasnim is a semi‑official Iranian news agency associated with the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, meaning its reporting often reflects military or hardline positions rather than unified government policy. The conflicting signals add fresh uncertainty to the status of one of the world’s most important oil chokepoints, through which roughly one‑fifth of global energy supplies pass under normal conditions. Newsweek contacted the White House, the U.S. State Department, Iran’s foreign ministry, and shipping giant Maersk for comment via email on Saturday morning, asking for clarification on whether the Strait of Hormuz is currently open, how they interpret the ceasefire terms, and what this means for global shipping and security. Global shipping, oil markets, and diplomatic efforts to end the wider Middle East conflict are all directly impacted by the uncertainty over whether the strait is open or not. This latest announcement underscores how fragile the U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal remains, particularly as fighting linked to Israel and Hezbollah continues to escalate.

Iran Says It Closed Strait of Hormuz as Fighting Flares Again in Lebanon – WSJ -  Iranian security officials said they had closed the Strait of Hormuz, citing a U.S. failure to stop the fighting in Lebanon as required under the agreement signed earlier this week by President Trump. The announcement by Iran’s joint military command came as clashes between Israel and Hezbollah flared again in Lebanon on Saturday, just hours after the two sides agreed to a renewed ceasefire. It undid for now the main achievement of the deal, which was to set the stage for reopening a waterway vital to world energy markets. The U.S. Central Command, which oversees forces in the Middle East, said Saturday that traffic continued to flow and that the military was monitoring to make sure that remained the case. Even before Iran’s announcement, the recovery of traffic through the strait had been halting. Iran had imposed new procedures, including a demand that ships register to cross two days in advance, and wary shipowners were monitoring the still-uncertain environment in the waterway. The flare-up in fighting comes as the U.S. and Iran work to get their next round of peace talks back on track. Iran said Saturday its delegation would attend talks in Switzerland after postponing plans to travel Friday, a hiccup that followed an earlier round of heavy Israeli strikes carried out in retaliation for a Hezbollah drone attack that killed four Israeli soldiers. Iran said its delegation would include chief negotiator and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and oil officials. The U.S. was expected to send Vice President JD Vance, who said in an interview on Fox News that envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were already there engaging in technical discussions. The memorandum of understanding that aims to reopen the strait and end the fighting, signed Wednesday by Trump, says at the outset that the war on the Lebanese front must end as well. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said Saturday the country’s negotiators would press the U.S. to meet those obligations. Israel and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group that acts independently of Lebanon’s government, agreed to a renewed ceasefire that took effect at 4 p.m. local time Friday. But on Saturday, Lebanese state media reported a new round of Israeli attacks including around the southern city of Nabatieh. The Israeli military carried out the attacks after Hezbollah fired more than 50 times at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, a military official said. Lebanese health officials said seven people were killed in the strikes. They said 83 people had been killed and 141 wounded in the earlier attacks, in which Israel said it killed dozens of militants. Saturday’s strikes extended the fallout of what had been one of the most serious escalations in Lebanon since a ceasefire was reached in April. The fighting had never stopped for long despite the truce, as Israel continued to hold territory in southern Lebanon and the two sides repeatedly clashed.

Iran emerges from war with its economy in free fall and inflation on some food items above 400%. If the regime doesn’t fix it, there will be trouble -- The regime in Tehran is still standing after the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, but its economy is collapsing and could spark more unrest among the population.Iran’s economy was already in shambles before the war began more than three months ago, with high inflation and a currency crash spurring mass protests in late December.But the war has only made conditions worse. Unemployment and prices have soared, including for basic food items. The Iranian government’s own data showed that the price of cooking oil is up 430% compared with a year ago, with eggs up 345%, rice 287%, and milk 139%.“We have all become poor,” a resident of Tehran told Radio Free Europe’s Radio Farda earlier this month. “Those of us who were once middle-class, or a little above it, are now financially destitute.” He added that he has sold his furniture, appliances, carpets, and other household items to survive. On top of that, he’s unemployed and has resorted to making sandwiches to sell on the subway. Meanwhile, his phone bill and electricity bill have jumped fivefold.Iran has estimated that the war inflicted $270 billion worth of damage, nearly equal to its GDP. The International Monetary Fund expects the economy to contract by 6.1% this year, and the United Nations warned 4.1 million more Iranians could drop below the international poverty line.  But the regime has also mismanaged the economy for decades and worsened its wartime crisis with policies like an internet blackout that put more people out of work.In addition, the U.S. naval blockade cut off oil revenue for Iran, putting pressure on its foreign exchange reserves, which Capital Economics estimated in April were only enough for three months’ worth of imports at prewar levels. Iran-based economist Javad Rahimpour told Radio Farda that people are draining their savings and economic discontent is very high. “The conditions for protests may not currently exist,” he added. “But that should not lead us to think there is some kind of convergence between the state and the people.”However, an Iranian government employee who has attended pro-regime rallies expressed more impatience with the country’s leadership.He told the New York Times last week that he exhausts all his pay by the middle of the month and must buy groceries on credit—only to find that prices double when it’s time to settle the bill.“Everybody is angry over the economy, and if the government doesn’t fix things, there will be trouble,” he said. Former U.S. diplomat Dennis Ross, who has extensive experience in the Middle East, pointed out that Iran’s leaders must face up to their failures to provide for the people without being able to use the war as an excuse.But the regime will attempt to rebuild its military and defense industrial base, diverting resources away from a civilian economy that’s already weighed down by water and electricity shortages, he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed last week.“But even with aid, Tehran’s ability to manage its domestic woes will remain limited, and the internal pressures will build,” Ross predicted. “They may not lead to the collapse of the regime, but they could produce what Khamenei greatly feared: the emergence of an Iranian Gorbachev—a leader who wants to prioritize domestic development, reach out to the public, and end confrontation with the outside world as organizing principles.”

India Receives First Post-Deal LNG Cargo Through Strait Of Hormuz   - India on Friday received the first LNG tanker that had passed through the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Iran announced a deal this past weekend.The LNG carrier Disha, flying the flag of Malta, arrived at the Dahej Port on India’s West Coast on Friday, after having crossed the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week.The vessel safely anchored at the Petronet LNG jetty, the Bharuch port authority told Indian media. Petronet LNG had chartered the LNG tanker, which is managed by an India-led shipping consortium.The Disha cleared the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, June 15, hours after the United States and Iran on Sunday announced a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz more than 100 days after its closure.The tanker had loaded LNG from Qatar’s Ras Laffan in early March, just when the Gulf state halted LNG production and exports amid the closed Strait of Hormuz and Iranian missile hits on its LNG infrastructure at Ras Laffan.Since the Disha cleared the Strait of Hormuz on June 15, no India-flagged vessel has exited the Persian Gulf, according to Opesh Kumar Sharma, director in India’s Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.“As of now, no other Indian-flag vessel has moved out after Disha,” the official told a briefing on Thursday.Tanker owners and operators await clearance to proceed and are not rushing to test the passage until they have assurances it is safe to do so.Qatar has started to return LNG tankers back to the Middle East in anticipation of an imminent reopening of the Strait of Hormuz that would allow the world’s second-biggest LNG exporter to start producing and moving LNG supply again.The situation took another twist early on Friday after Switzerland confirmed the U.S.-Iran talks that were set to begin in Geneva had been postponed.

Israel Continues Attacks on Southern Lebanon, Orders 29 Villages Evacuated -  While discussion of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon Sunday primarily focused on a deadly attack on the capital city of Beirut, the IDF continued to carry out operations across southern Lebanon as well, and continuing to try to force the population out of the area.The IDF issued two distinct statements on Sunday ordering people living in southern villages, 13 in the first statement and 16 in the second one, to flee their homes and move north of the Zahrani River.Several of the villages were ordered evacuated for the first time during the war, as many lie north of the Litani River, which was meant to be the deepest the IDF was going during this invasion. More than 20 other towns in and around Nabatieh were ordered evacuated on Saturday. In addition to the deaths of three in metro Beirut attacks, others were reported killed over the weekend in attacks on southern Lebanon, including one slain in a strike on the city of Sidon. Lebanon’s Health Ministry put the death toll of the Israeli war at 3,783 killed and 11,699 wounded since the invasion began in early March.IDF officials claimed a person they killed on Friday, Ali Mussa Daqduq, was actually a “senior” commander within Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force. Hezbollah has yet to confirm such a loss, but the sheer volume of senior Radwan commanders reported slain over the course of Israeli attacks belies the long-standing believe the organization was quite small and selective. Israeli security sources were quoted over the weekend saying that, irrespective of any US-Iran peace deal that might be negotiated, they intend to keep ground troops inside Lebanon. That suggests that speculation that the peace deal was conditioned on ending the Lebanon occupation is running into more challenges.

Israeli Air Force Chief Says Major Attack on Iran Was Called Off Last Week - - The head of the Israeli Air Force has said that a major strike on Iran using the “entire Air Force” was called off last week after Iran bombed northern Israel in response to Israel’s strikes.Israel did launch strikes against Iran following the Iranian attack, but according to media reports, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scaled down the strikes after a phone call with President Trump, who initially said he would tell Israel not to respond at all.Israeli Air Force Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Omer Tischle did claim that Israel hit “dozens of targets” in Iran on Monday, June 8, but added that a much larger operation didn’t go forward.According to The Times of Israel, Tischle told Israeli soldiers on Tuesday that “the entire Air Force was ready to take off for a broad strike sortie” that would have included attacks on “hundreds of targets in the heart of Iran.”He added that “the strike was halted while we were briefing in the squadrons, just one hour before the departure for the sortie.”According to The Wall Street Journal, when Trump spoke with Netanyahu before the Israeli strikes, and it became clear the Israeli leader wouldn’t call off his plans to attack Iran, Trump asked him to keep it limited.Another escalation between Israel and Iran could come soon, as the Iranian military has warned of a “harsh response” if Israel continues its war in Lebanon, which is supposed to end under the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding, but Israeli attacks have continued and killed at least four people on Tuesday.

Israeli Ministers Say Israel Isn't Bound by US-Iran Deal, Won't Withdraw From Lebanon - --In the wake of the US and Iran announcing a Memorandum of Understanding to end the conflict between the two nations that includes a ceasefire in Lebanon, Israeli ministers have said Israel isn’t bound by the agreement.Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed that the IDF will not withdraw from its so-called “security zones” in southern Lebanon, which include a major swathe of Lebanese territory, and will also continue the occupation in southwest Syria and Gaza.“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I are leading a clear policy that determines that the IDF will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, without any time limit, to protect, from there, the border and Israeli communities against jihadist elements,” Katz said.Netanyahu later put out his own statement reaffirming what Katz said, vowing that Israel will not withdraw from Lebanon, Syria, or Gaza.The Israeli defense minister said that the IDF will continue its destruction campaign in southern Lebanon and its forced displacement of Lebanese civilians. “We oppose an IDF withdrawal from Lebanon, despite all the existing pressures and those that will still come,” he said. Katz added that Netanyahu “made these points clear to US President Trump and to other senior American officials,” which aligns with a report from Ynet that said Netanyahu told Trump that Israel is not bound by the Lebanon clause of the US-Iran MOU. Katz also said that if Iran strikes Israel over its continued war in Lebanon, Israel will hit Iran “with full force.”Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich slammed the agreement Trump reached with Iran, saying it is “bad for Israel and for the entire free world. Period.” Israeli opposition leaders also attacked Netanyahu, with former Prime Minister Yair Lapid saying there has “never, ever, been a more absolute failure than Netanyahu’s diplomatic failure on the Iranian front.”Iranian officials on Monday reaffirmed that an end to Israel’s war in Lebanon was key to a lasting deal with the US. “Lebanon and the termination of the war in Lebanon are an inseparable part of the understanding on ending the [US-Israeli] war [on Iran]. We have shown that we are determined in this regard and have proven in practice that we are serious, and we will continue to monitor developments carefully in the future,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei.“The word Lebanon is used three times in the understanding. It is mentioned that ending the war includes Lebanon and respecting the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity … The United States must honor its commitments and ensure that the Zionist regime fulfills its obligation not to attack Lebanon,” he added.While Baghaei said Israel must respect Lebanon’s “territorial integrity,” a US official claimed to reporters on Monday that the MOU doesn’t include an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, just a “ceasefire.” Israeli attacks and military operations appear to have eased since the announcement of the US-Iran deal, but at least one person was killed by an Israeli drone strike on Monday, and as long as the occupation remains, the war will continue at some level.

Iran's Military Warns of 'Harsh Response' If Israel Continues Attacks in Lebanon -  The Iranian military’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters on Tuesday called for Israel to halt its continued attacks in Lebanon, warning there would be a “harsh response” if it doesn’t.  The headquarters said in a statement that Israel has violated the ceasefire deal between the US and Iran, which calls for an end to Israel’s war in Lebanon, 84 times over the past two days, and that Israel had been continuing “crimes and the killing of the oppressed people of Lebanon.”“If the child-killing army of the Zionist regime does not end its evil acts in southern Lebanon, it must await a harsh response from the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Iranian military command added. While there’s been a decline in Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon since Sunday, they haven’t stopped, and at least four people were killed by Israeli drone strikes in the country on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that continued Israeli attacks and Israel’s continued occupation constitute a violation of the Memorandum of Understanding between Washington and Tehran, which is scheduled to be formally signed in Geneva this Friday.“The end of the war includes the end of occupation. Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories they occupied during this war, the war will have not been fully brought to an end,” Araghchi said.Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have vowed that Israel won’t withdraw from southern Lebanon, and a senior Trump administration official speaking with reporters on Monday appeared to back the Israeli position, saying an Israeli withdrawal wasn’t a condition of the deal.

Ben Gvir Says Israel Cannot Stop Destroying Houses in Southern Lebanon - Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir said on Wednesday that Israel cannot stop destroying homes in southern Lebanon despite the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding that calls for an end to Israel’s war in the country. “Israel cannot stop the demolition of houses in southern Lebanon. We simply cannot stop, that’s all,” Ben Gvir said, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, which cited the Israeli Knesset’s broadcast channel. “We cannot allow the residents of southern Lebanon to return. We must continue to control the territory even if we disagree with Trump, we are an independent state,” Ben Gvir added. Iranian officials have made clear that they will insist on a real ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as part of their deal with the US, though Ben Gvir and other senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have vowed that Israel will not pull out of the country. Israeli attacks continued in Lebanon on Wednesday despite the US-Iran MoU, and at least two people were killed. The war could unravel the potential US-Iran deal as Iran’s military is warning of a “harsh response” if Israel continues its attacks in Lebanon. Ben Gvir is more explicit about Israel’s designs for Lebanon, as he said last month that Israel has a “settlement plan” for southern Lebanon, while Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz frame their desire for an indefinite occupation of the territory the IDF has seized in the country as necessary for “security” purposes. Israeli media reports that Ben Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power party, suggested at a recent cabinet meeting that the IDF should kidnap women and children in Lebanon as a way to pressure Hezbollah.

Amnesty Warns Israel Committing War Crimes With Lebanon Population Transfers - -While the large number of civilian deaths and the large number of healthcare worker casualties have rightly garnered considerable attention during Israel’s ongoing invasion of Lebanon, the mass displacement of civilians has been relatively under-reported given the sheer scale and the legal implications.Early in the war Israeli officials bragged about displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians from southern Lebanon and not allowing them to return while the war was ongoing. Only yesterday, the UN noted the displacement was actually substantially higher than that, around 1.4 million or roughly a fifth of the entire population of the country. How we got there is part of the problem though.Amnesty International, in their latest report, noted Israel has been using evacuation orders against populated areas an inordinate amount of times, and similarly using no-return orders to keep the displaced from coming back home when the situation is over.That has not only led to the displaced numbers spiraling, it also effectively amounts to a forced population transfer, a serious war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Since these orders come in the wake of Israel advancing a plan in late 2025 to create a “Trump Zone” out of a forcibly depopulated and militarily occupied southern Lebanon, it’s difficult to argue this is purely unintentional.It is not uncommon for Israel to issue an evacuation order for dozens of villages any given day, and as the war expands, the number of formal “no return” orders issued has spanned in excess of 6% of Lebanon’s land mass.That problem is compounded because even if nominally “no return” zones aren’t imposed in a lot of southern Lebanon, Israeli forces have regularly attacked people trying to return, particularly to municipalities that were heavily Shi’ite, and after ordering the populations of towns and cities north of the Litani River, Israel also destroyed all the bridges over those rivers, making return logistics incredibly challenging, even if it’s not strictly disallowed.In the southernmost parts of the country, Israel has leveled some towns and villages, meaning the displaced will have nothing to return to at any rate, and with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz saying those areas are going to remain security zones “indefinitely” and “cleared” of residents, again there’s not much room for plausible deniability.Not that Israeli officials aren’t trying, of course. Israeli officials were quick to reject Amnesty’s statement, insisting the evacuation orders are only technically “advanced warnings” of imminent attacks and that technically, no prohibition exists on the civilians trying to return to their homes. If that works as a loophole for the Geneva rules against forcible population transfers, then a large chunk of Lebanon’s population is facing an uncertain future indeed.

Lebanon Tells UN That Israel Is Using Herbicide as a Weapon - Before the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in March, they were still attacking Lebanon on an almost daily basis at any rate. Starting in late January, some of those attacks involved the spraying of concentrated herbicide on Lebanese farmland and other agricultural lands. Those operations continued to be reported intermittently after, but were mostly overshadowed by the invasion and the thousands of people killed directly by Israeli attacks. Lebanon, however, has finally gotten its investigation to the point where they could formally complain to the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council that Israel is using herbicide as a weapon. They cited studies conducted by labs that found the concentration “greatly exceeded” the levels found in the soil even after it was regularly used by farmers for ordinary weed control. Glyphosate, the herbicide in question, has a controversial history the world over, though it is still used, with caution, in a lot of the developed world as an effective herbicide. Exposure has been linked to cancer, and that’s not considering concentrations 20 to 30 times normal usage like is being seen across border villages and farmland. The strikes are part of an Israeli campaign that has done massive damage to Lebanese farmland, particularly in the southernmost parts of the country, that Israel has had designs on forcibly depopulating outright.Though Israel has maintained in communications with the UNIFIL peacekeepers in Lebanon that the deployment of glyphosate was itself just “non-toxic” chemicals, they also admonished those same peacekeepers to take cover when they were being used in the area. Israel has similarly been deploying those chemicals off and on in the border areas of southwest Syria.Though deployment of herbicides in a warzone isn’t automatically a violation of international law in and of itself, it likely does when the chemicals are of dubious safety at such high concentrations, and when their use against farmland threatens the long-term survival of the population.It was also presumably violate the Environmental Modification Convention, an international treaty meant to prevent the use of defoliants and other modification techniques that would have long-term impact on the targeted nation. Israel, however, is not a signatory to that convention.

Iran strongly condemns Israel’s latest bloody aggression against Lebanon -- Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned in the strongest terms Israel’s latest aggression against Lebanon, placing a premium on Washington’s accountability for the consequences of the regime’s war mongering. Israeli warplanes bombed residential areas in southern and eastern Lebanon before dawn Friday. At least 31 Lebanese have been killed as Israel keeps attacking the country despite the US-Iran deal coming into force. Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that strikes targeted inhabited homes in the towns of al-Sharqiyah, Harouf and Kfar Sir in the Nabatieh district. Earlier strikes on Thursday had already killed at least three people, including two in Kfar Tibnit and one in Zebdine, according to Lebanese state media. In a statement on Friday, Esmaeil Baghaei, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, underscored the United States’ direct responsibility under the current circumstances. Baghaei highlighted the first point of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Iran and the United States which stipulates that an end to Israeli aggression in Lebanon is an inseparable part of the agreement. He warned of the serious and immediate consequences that the continued warmongering of the occupying and genocidal Zionist regime will have on regional peace and security." "The Islamic Republic of Iran will take all necessary measures to safeguard its interests, security, and rights, as well as those of its allies," he said. The Israeli attacks on Friday targeted sleeping families and marked one of the deadliest single nights since the conflict began on February 28. The death toll from Israel’s campaign against Lebanon has now hit the 3,912 mark. More than 11,870 have been wounded, and over 1 million Lebanese displaced, according to official figures.

Israel, Hezbollah agree to ceasefire starting on Friday - US official (Reuters) - Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to a ceasefire set to begin at 4 p.m. local time on Friday, a senior U.S. official told Reuters. “Hezbollah and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire,” the official said on background, adding that negotiators for the U.S. and Qataris worked out the deal with help from Iran. “We understand that after the exchange of fire earlier today, Israel and Hezbollah are now in a ceasefire.”

Lebanon-Israel Ceasefire Reported After at Least 47 Killed, 93 Wounded in Israeli Strikes --Reports Friday afternoon from senior US officials claim that a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been agreed upon. The deal was brokered with the help of Qatar, and was scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. local time, though in the first half hour since multiple additional Israeli strikes have been reported, suggesting this deal may be no more successful than countless others. Israeli officials insisted they retain “full operational freedom” despite the deal.This ceasefire deal, such as it is, was rapidly negotiated after the planned peace deal signing between the US and Iran in Geneva was derailed by intense Israeli attacks across southern and eastern Lebanon overnight, killing at least 47 people and wounding 93 others. The signing was postponed, and a new date has not been set. Early overnight attacks were reported to have centered primarily around towns and villages in the Nabatieh District, though other nearby districts and the city of Tyre were hit as well and Israeli strikes also later struck further to the east, around northern Baalbek. The town of Jezzine was also confirmed struck with at least one killed there as well. At least seven women and two children are reported among the slain. Panic was reported across southern Lebanon during the attacks, with locals fleeing from towns and villages across Nabatieh and Sidon, anticipating further attacks.Last weekend’s preliminary US-Iran deal was meant to end the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, though Israel never really stopped attacking and persistently has reiterated that they had no intention of withdrawing. The process dramatically escalated overnight and Israel is reporting that since last night they’ve carried out 150 strikes on “Hezbollah targets,” though as always the Hezbollah nature of those targets doesn’t involve any evidence provided to the public. Israel similarly purported to have hit at least 80 Hezbollah “command centers.”Hezbollah, for its part, attacked advancing Israeli Merkava battle tanks near Kfar Tebnit, further north in Nabatieh, killing at least four Israeli soldiers and wounding others. A brigade commander was reportedly among the slain, and Hezbollah said three tanks were destroyed.Following that incident, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded that “all Lebanon must burn.” Though presented as the result of the tank destruction and deaths, this is not out of keeping with his stance on Lebanon beforehand, and may just amount to a reiteration of his desire for further escalation.

Ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah reported, but Israeli strikes persist on ground - A reported ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has come into effect at 4:00 pm local time on Friday, according to a senior US official, even as new Israeli airstrikes were reported in southern Lebanon at the moment the truce was said to begin. A senior US official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, confirmed that both sides had agreed to halt hostilities after intense diplomatic negotiations. “Hezbollah and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire,” the official said, adding that the arrangement was brokered by US and Qatari mediators with significant backing from Iran. “We understand that after the exchange of fire earlier today, Israel and Hezbollah are now in a ceasefire,” the official added. However, reports from the ground suggested continued violence at the very moment the truce was meant to take effect. Al Mayadeen’s correspondent in southern Lebanon said an Israeli airstrike hit Nabatieh as the ceasefire reportedly began. Channel 13, citing a senior Israeli official, said, “We are currently in a state of ceasefire, and if Hezbollah doesn't attack us, then in our viewpoint, this is not the time for war.” The same official added that “Israeli forces remain in southern Lebanon,” while claiming, “We have the freedom of operation against any direct threats that target our forces and territory.” The announcement of a ceasefire followed a night of intensified Israeli bombardment across Lebanon. Israeli warplanes carried out sustained strikes from shortly after midnight into Friday morning, targeting multiple areas in the south, the Bekaa, and Baalbek. In southern Lebanon, repeated waves of airstrikes hit towns including Nabatieh, Harouf, Jibchit, Kfar Joz, Toul, and surrounding areas. Additional strikes were reported in Doueir, Deir al-Zahrani, and other nearby localities. In the Bekaa Valley, strikes targeted areas along the Litani River basin and surrounding highlands, while Baalbek also came under attack. Drones and artillery fire further expanded the scope of the assault, including areas near Beirut’s southern suburbs, raising tensions across multiple fronts. Lebanon’s Health Ministry Emergency Operations Center said rescue teams were often unable to reach victims for hours due to ongoing strikes. By Friday morning, preliminary figures indicated more than 30 people killed and 33 wounded, though officials warned the toll could rise as search operations continued. The deadliest strike hit Harouf, where seven people were killed, including three toddlers and two young women. In al-Sharqieh, additional civilians were killed, among them a child and two women. Doueir also saw deadly strikes on residential buildings. Other fatalities were reported in multiple towns across southern Lebanon and the Bekaa region, including elderly victims and emergency personnel. The Lebanese Civil Defense confirmed that one of its paramedics was killed alongside his family in the al-Sharqieh strike, underscoring the heavy toll on first responders. Despite the ceasefire announcement, the timing of continued strikes has raised questions over its immediate durability on the ground. The continued Israeli acts of aggression comes as per the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Iran and the US, the war on “all fronts” including Lebanon should end.

Israel massacres sleeping families after heavy losses in south Lebanon - After suffering heavy ground losses including five soldiers killed and three tanks destroyed by Hezbollah, Israel has massacred sleeping civilians in southern Lebanon, prompting Iran to cancel scheduled US talks in Switzerland. The Iranian negotiating team will not travel to Switzerland for talks set to begin on Friday, according to Lebanon's al-Mayadeen broadcaster. Switzerland's foreign ministry confirmed the talks at the Bürgenstock resort had been cancelled, while the White House said Vice President JD Vance, who was to lead the US delegation, had postponed travel. The cancellation came as Israeli warplanes bombed residential areas in southern Lebanon before dawn Friday, killing at least 20 civilians and wounding 30 others in what Lebanese officials termed a massacre. Lebanon's National News Agency reported that strikes targeted inhabited homes in the towns of al-Sharqiyah, Harouf and Kfar Sir in the Nabatieh district. A separate strike on the al-Ashamiya area destroyed a house, killing four more, while an Israeli drone struck a motorcycle near the Doueir municipality building, killing one person and wounding another. Earlier strikes on Thursday had already killed at least three people, including two in Kfar Tibnit and one in Zebdine, according to Lebanese state media. The attacks, which began at approximately 2:10 a.m. local time, targeted sleeping families and marked one of the deadliest single nights since the conflict began on February 28. The cumulative death toll from Israel's campaign against Lebanon has now reached 3,912 killed and 11,873 wounded, with more than 1 million Lebanese displaced, according to official figures. Hezbollah fighters engaged Israeli forces in fierce ground clashes, destroying at least three Merkava tanks with guided missiles in the Kfar Tebnit and Ali al-Taher hills area. The resistance group said it repelled a four-day Israeli offensive toward the strategic heights overlooking Nabatieh. "The Kfar Tebnit-Ali al-Taher region will remain impregnable to enemy advances," Hezbollah said in a statement, vowing its fighters would create "Karbala epics" in defense of Lebanon — a reference to the seventh-century Battle of Karbala, which for Shia Muslims symbolizes sacrificial resistance against oppression. Hezbollah field sources reported intense clashes early Friday involving heavy exchanges of fire, artillery shelling and rocket fire. Hezbollah fighters engaged in direct combat around the Ali al-Taher hill, simultaneously targeting several Israeli positions and troop concentrations with rockets and heavy missiles. The group confirmed it struck an Israeli military vehicle near Kfar Tebnit, causing it to catch fire. Israeli forces attempting to advance under cover of smoke and flares to evacuate casualties came under heavy rocket and mortar fire. Israeli sources reported at least five soldiers killed and 17 others injured in the clashes. The military officially acknowledged the deaths of four soldiers, including a battalion commander, with Israeli media reporting that the 52nd Battalion of the 401st Armored Brigade was ambushed overnight with guided missiles. "With profound sorrow, we awoke to the bitter news of the falling of four of our sons in battle in Lebanon, including Lieutenant Colonel Dor Ben Simhon, commander of Battalion 52 in the 401st Brigade," Israeli president Isaac Herzog wrote on social media. Local media reported that at least four helicopters were seen landing to evacuate wounded soldiers, with Israeli media describing the incident as "very hard" in south Lebanon. Israeli artillery shelling also targeted the Kfar Jouz and Jabal al-Rafie areas.

Israelis Invaded Lebanon And Then Cried Victim When Their Soldiers Got Killed, And Other Notes - Caitlin Johnstone - In a move that surprised precisely zero people, Israel once again bombed the shit out of Lebanon while Netanyahu continued to insist that the IDF will continue its extensive occupation of Lebanese territory. Israel’s actions resulted in Tehran calling off scheduled peace talks with Washington, but now we’re seeing reports that Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to another ceasefire.  Israel pretty much never abides by its ceasefire agreements in Lebanon, but we’ll see what happens I guess. One major factor in this new development may have been Iran’s threat to bomb Israel without warning if Trump doesn’t pressure Netanyahu to end the war in Lebanon, which we learned about from a recent report by Drop Site News.  President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have been creating viral content with tough talk about Israel’s need to make peace and stop killing people in Lebanon, but all that matters in this instance is action. Either they’re willing to exert the leverage they have over Israel to make sure this peace deal happens or they’re not. If Israel keeps sabotaging the agreement without suffering severe consequences from Washington, we may safely conclude that the Trump administration was all talk. And in case anyone’s unclear, Trump will never deserve any “credit” for making peace with Iran, even if he does end up pushing Israel to comply with the deal. You don’t get praise for starting an unprovoked war of aggression and then losing. That’s not a thing. Zionists are screaming bloody murder about Hezbollah killing a tank crew of four Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon, with war propagandist Mark Levin taking to Twitter to say that “Israel will hit back very hard” and that “No MOU or final agreement will change who these terrorists are,” while Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir proclaims “For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn!”   From all this melodramatic garment-rending and victim-LARPing you’d assume the four Israelis were killed in their beds in Tel Aviv, not traveling by tank through a foreign country they’d invaded.  As Ryan Grim put it, “I have never heard of a country invading a neighbor and then calling it unfair that their soldiers died in that invasion.  I don’t think any other country ever even thought to make that complaint.”   Meanwhile instead of attacking Trump for failing to do enough to make peace, Democrats are calling him a weak little bitch for not continuing the war, and for agreeing to ensure $300 billion in reconstruction financing instead.“Iran took Trump to the cleaners with this so-called understanding,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor on Thursday, adding, “Are my colleagues on the other side of the aisle prepared to send Iran $300 billion when economic needs are so severe here at home? That’s what Trump wants them to do.”“With $300 billion, we could end homelessness, fund cancer research for 40 years, and give every child free pre-K for over 7 years. Instead, Trump is sending it to Iran,” tweeted Senator Amy Klobuchar. “Here’s what this deal basically is: Iran makes zero concessions, and the United States lets Iran trade oil for free and commits to give them $300 billion in reparations,” said Senator Chris Murphy.“Trump is touting a ‘deal’ that promises to lift all sanctions, allow Iran to export oil and potentially charge tolls, and hand over more than 300 billion dollars to that country,” said Senator Adam Schiff, adding that the deal “looks more like a surrender.” These prominent Democrats make it sound like Trump is just taking $300 billion from the American taxpayer, when according to Reuters the financing for the deal “will be comprised entirely of private-sector funds.” Democrats are essentially running the same bogus “Obama gave Iran pallets of cash” attack that Republicans used to use when slamming the 2015 JCPOA.More importantly, how revealing is it that these warmongering freaks are suddenly pretending care about how much $300 billion could do to help ordinary Americans? Whenever anyone tries to nudge the party an inch to the left on universal healthcare or whatever you see Democratic Party officials wagging their fingers at them telling them there’s no money for such pie-in-the-sky fantasies, but as soon as they get an opportunity to push for more war they’re out there saying they could use all that peace money to end homelessness. All of which will of course be right out the window when it comes time to vote for the next $1.5 trillion military budget.Democrats are such obnoxious liars. Their sleaziness is exceeded only by Trump supporters claiming their president deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for losing a war he started.Anyway, things are a mess. We’ll see how this all plays out.

Iran warns of predetermined ‘reciprocal measure’ in case of US deal breach -Iran’s top security body has warned of a predetermined countermeasure in the event of a US violation of the newly signed memorandum of understanding between the two countries. The Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) issued a message on Friday, two days after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and his American counterpart Donald Trump remotely signed the MoU that brings about a permanent end to the illegal US-Israeli war of aggression against the Islamic Republic. Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei hailed Iranian officials’ efforts to reach the agreement, while noting that Trump used various leverage points out of desperation. The SNSC’s Secretariat assured the Leader and the Iranian nation that it will show no leniency in carrying out Ayatollah Khamenei’s orders in safeguarding the rights of the Iranian people and the Resistance Front, honoring the blood of martyrs, and advancing future talks on the basis of the Islamic Republic’s interests and welfare. The secretariat also noted that it “will not rest until the full rights of the Iranian people are secured and the pure and sacred blood of our martyrs is avenged.” “In this regard, with complete distrust of the treacherous and covenant-breaking enemy, and with precise monitoring of the process of negotiations and the implementation of the agreements, should any violation or breach occur on the American side, a reciprocal measure will be taken according to the predetermined plan.” The 14-point deal, which includes a commitment from both sides to hold further talks on a final agreement in the next 60 days, was finalized following intensive mediation efforts by Pakistan and support from other regional countries. It calls for a permanent end to hostilities across all fronts, including Lebanon, the phased lifting of US sanctions, the removal of the naval blockade on Iran within 30 days, and the restoration of commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. It also includes a US-backed reconstruction and economic development plan for Iran worth at least $300 billion, oil export waivers, the release of Iran’s frozen assets, and a renewed Iranian commitment not to seek nuclear weapons, while further negotiations continue over Tehran’s enriched uranium stockpile. The MoU has triggered sharp criticism in Washington, where some lawmakers argue that months of military escalation imposed heavy costs on the United States while yielding significant gains for Iran.

Israel Has Killed More Than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza Since So-Called Ceasefire Deal Was Signed in October 2025 - Israeli attacks in Gaza since the so-called ceasefire deal was signed in October 2025 have now killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, as the IDF has continued its constant violations of the agreement. The Health Ministry said that over the previous 24 hours, Israeli attacks killed two Palestinians in Gaza, and six Palestinians who succumbed to wounds from previous strikes were added to the death toll, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed since the deal was signed to 1,005. Another 3,157 Palestinians have been wounded in the time, meaning there have been more than 4,000 Palestinian casualties in the eight-month period. Mourners react during the funeral of six-year-old Palestinian girl Mennatallah Abu Libda, who was killed in an Israeli strike on a tent encampment for displaced families, according to medics, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, May 25, 2026. Israeli attacks continued in Gaza on Wednesday, with witnesses telling the Anadolu Agency that an Israeli strike hit beachgoers in the al-Mawasi tent camp in southern Gaza. At least two Palestinians were killed, and six were wounded. The report said that the area that was bombed was “crowded with beachgoers and displaced families, many of whom had sought refuge by the sea as their only escape from soaring temperatures and deteriorating living conditions in displacement camps.” Besides the constant strikes, Israel has also violated the deal by taking more territory in Gaza. After the ceasefire agreement was signed, IDF troops occupied about 53% of Gaza, but that has increased to about 60%, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he ordered the military to expand it to 70%. In recent days, Palestinians have reported IDF troops advancing the “yellow line,” the vague boundary that separates the IDF-occupied side of Gaza from the rest of the Strip, and several families were reportedly displaced in Gaza City on Tuesday as Israeli troops pushed tanks into the area. The US and Israeli officials have accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire deal by not laying down its weapons, but the agreement that was actually signed didn’t commit Hamas to disarmament. The two sides agreed to a US proposal that called for the “demilitarization” of Gaza as a framework for negotiations, but the issue of disarmament was meant to be worked out in follow-up negotiations. Hamas has also maintained that it won’t disarm unless there is movement toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. Negotiations on implementing the US plan for Gaza have been ongoing, but there’s been no sign of progress.

British Royal Marines Board and Seize Russia-Linked Tanker in the English Channel - -  On Sunday, British Royal Marines boarded and seized an oil tanker in the English Channel that the UK says is part of Russia’s “shadow fleet,” a term Western countries use to describe vessels that ship Russian oil despite US and European sanctions.According to ship-tracking data, the tanker Smyrtos was sailing under the Cameroonian flag, had departed the Russian Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga, and was bound for Port Said, Egypt, before being intercepted by British forces.The British Ministry of Defense said the operation to seize the tanker lasted six hours and that the ship would “provisionally move to an anchorage off the South Coast of England and will be monitored for any environmental or safety concerns.”Several other tankers allegedly part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” have been seized by France and other European countries over the past year, but Sunday’s incident marks the first time a ship was intercepted in the English Channel.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had been threatening for some time to take action against Russian-linked tankers and said on Sunday that the seizure of the Smyrtos “delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide.”The incident comes as the US has dramatically stepped up its attacks and seizures of oil tankers, starting last year off the coast of Venezuela, and extending seizures deep into the Atlantic Ocean and in the Indian Ocean. In its enforcement of the blockade on Iranian ports, the US has bombed at least nine commercial ships and killed at least three Indian mariners in one of the attacks.

Russian Warship Fires Warning Shots in the English Channel - The Russian military said on Tuesday that a Russian warship fired warning shots toward a British yacht in the English Channel, an incident that occurred two days after British Royal Marines boarded and seized an oil tanker that had departed Russia.According to Newsweek, the incident on Tuesday occurred about 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight, with the two vessels about 500 yards apart. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the yacht was on a course that would bring it dangerously close to the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich.The ministry said that the yacht ignored warnings, signal flares, and a siren before the Russian warship fired warning shots with small arms across the bow, prompting the yacht to alter course. According to British officials, a couple in their 60s was aboard the private vessel at the time. British warships typically shadow Russian naval vessels as they transit the English Channel, and according to British media, the Admiral Grigorovich was being shadowed by the Royal Navy patrol ship HMS Mersey at the time of the incident. While the shooting appears to be a minor incident, it highlights the tensions in the region following the British seizure of the tanker Smyrtos, which had departed the Russian Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga and was bound for Port Said, Egypt, before being intercepted by British forces. While NATO countries have seized several Russia-linked tankers over the past year, the incident marked the first in the English Channel. Tensions are also soaring in Eastern Europe near the Russian and Ukrainian borders as drones have repeatedly entered NATO airspace, and the more than four-year war continues to escalate. Russia has ramped up its bombardments of Ukraine, which it says is a response to rising civilian casualties in Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory, which are supported by US and NATO intelligence.

Russia Says Ukrainian Drone Hit Bus Carrying Children in Russia's Bryansk Region  -- Russian officials said on Wednesday that a Ukrainian drone hit a bus carrying a children’s soccer team from Belarus in Russia’s Bryansk Oblast, as civilian casualties continue to rise in both Ukraine and Russia.For its part, the Ukrainian military denied responsibility, claiming that it wasn’t carrying out drone attacks in Bryansk at the time. Yegor Kovalchuk, the acting governor of Bryansk, called the attack a “completely deliberate strike on civilian transport ​on a busy highway.”At least one woman was killed in the attack, and six people, including four children, were wounded. A Belarusian law enforcement official told RT that the woman was the wife of the team’s coach.Russia has recently dramatically ramped up its missile and drone bombardments of Ukraine, which it says is a response to drone attacks on civilians in Russia and Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, including a May 22 Ukrainian drone attack that hit a college in Starobelsk in the Luhansk Oblast and killed 21 students. On Tuesday night, Ukrainian officials said that Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine killed at least four people and set homes and a shopping center on fire. Earlier this week, a heavy Russian bombardment in Kyiv and other cities killed at least 11 civilians. Ukraine is known to use intelligence from the US and NATO for its long-range drone attacks inside Russia, and the US has helped build up Ukraine’s drone industry, meaning that such attacks always risk a potential escalation between Russia and NATO.

Oil refinery in Moscow hit by large-scale Ukrainian drone attack, mayor says Moscow came under one of the largest Ukrainian drone attacks since the start of the war, with an oil refinery struck and around 200 drones intercepted on their approach to the Russian capital, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said Thursday. In a Telegram post, Sobyanin said Russian air defense forces were continuing to repel what he described as a large-scale attack. “Air defense forces are continuing to repel a large-scale attack. Several drones managed to reach the MNPZ,” Sobyanin said, referring to a major oil refinery in Moscow. The largest reported attack before Thursday occurred on May 17, when Russian authorities said air defenses intercepted 81 drones approaching the capital. Authorities also reported downing 61 drones on May 7 and 38 on May 16. In a separate statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said air defense systems destroyed 555 Ukrainian drones across the country overnight. Meanwhile, Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport evacuated passengers to designated safe areas during the attack, marking the first such measure at the airport since the conflict began, according to Russian authorities. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the attack on Moscow oil refinery. “Last night, our long-range sanctions reached the Moscow region again: for the second time in a week, the Moscow oil refinery was hit,” he said in a statement on Telegram. Zelenskyy added that other “targets” in Russia’s Rostov region, as well as areas in Ukrainian territories under Russian control, were also struck. Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed the operation, saying that in addition to the Moscow oil refinery, a railway bridge over the North Crimean Canal was hit. It also said the Gukovo oil depot in Russia’s Rostov region was struck. “In addition, our forces hit a road bridge over the Kalka River near the village of Hranitne in the Donetsk region, as well as a railway bridge over the North Crimean Canal in the Razdolnensky area of Crimea,” the statement said.

Black Rain Falls on Moscow After Ukrainian Drone Attack Hits Oil Refinery - Black oil-filled raindrops fell on parts of Moscow on Thursday after a major Ukrainian drone attack targeted the city and hit an oil refinery as the Russia-Ukraine war continues to escalate.Thick black smoke could be seen in the skies of Moscow following the attack, and at least 17 people were wounded by the drones, according to Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow Oblast.According to the Russian news agency TASS, more than 190 Ukrainian drones were downed in the Moscow region, part of a swarm of 555 drones that were intercepted across Russia, one of the largest Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory of the war. At least one person was killed in Russia’s southern Rostov region.According to the BBC, the attack marked the third time this month that Ukrainian drones targeted the Kapotnya refinery in southeast Moscow, which was hit by a wave of drones on Thursday. Ukraine has continued to ramp up its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure as its NATO backers have escalated seizures of ships carrying Russian oil. Ukrainian officials said the attack on Moscow was a response to Russia’s ramped-up missile and drone attacks on Ukraine, which Russian officials say is retaliation for the rising civilian casualties caused by Ukrainian drones, as the two sides are locked in a pattern of escalation.More escalations appear to be coming as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that in response to Thursday’s drone, Russia will launch strikes in Ukraine on a “mass scale.”Ukraine is known to use intelligence from the US and NATO for its long-range drone attacks inside Russia, and the US has helped build up Ukraine’s drone industry, meaning that such attacks always risk a potential escalation between Russia and NATO.

UK joins limited nations banning social media for those under 16 --The British government is banning access to social media for children under 16, joining just a few countries across the globe trying to protect kids online through a strict age-based restriction on certain applications and platforms.The move, announced Monday by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, makes the United Kingdom the fifth nation to pursue an all-out ban on social media for young kids and teenagers. Australia became the first in the world to implement an under-16 ban late last year, followed by Indonesia, while countries including Brazil and Canada have introduced legislation for similar provisions.Starmer said he is “not prepared to compromise on the safety and happiness of our children,” citing his own experiences as a young adult and now as a parent of two.“This is not something I do lightly,” Starmer said. “And I will not present it as cost-free, as if social media has brought no benefits to young people because clearly that is wrong. But government is always about choices. ”“Social media is making our children unhappy and unsafe, and as a parent, as much as a prime minister, I just can’t let that go on anymore,” he added in a separate social media video.The ban will apply for digital platforms including X, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube, but also gaming services and livestreaming platforms. Starmer noted enforcement of the ban will apply to platforms, not to young Britons who may try to circumvent the ban.Starmer acknowledged this could go further than Australia, which was the first nation ever to ban social media for kids younger than 16. Ten platforms are subjected to the ban and face fines up to $32.99 million if they do not take steps to remove accounts for users under 16.The United Kingdom’s decision follows a public comment period in which “thousands” of parents reported social media addiction, according to Starmer.More than 90 percent of respondents in a public comment period said they supported an under-16 ban, according to the government, The Associated Press reported.  Social media “can leave them trapped in a cycle of endless scrolling that displaces play, sleep, and time with the family,” Starmer said.“It could harm their mental health,” Starmer said, adding the U.K. examined evidence before making the decision and plans to “learn from other countries.”Starmer predicted the decision will be resisted by major technology companies, but he maintained Great Britain will “take them on and we will win.” The move comes less than a week after the Trump administration sent a letter to the U.K. urging it not to enact such a prohibition. Instead of a formal ban, the U.S. Embassy in London encouraged parents to manage their children’s privacy settings and push “study modes” and time control while shying away from official restrictions to technology. The U.S. is home to some of the world’s largest social media companies, including all of the platforms expected to be subject to the ban.

Rapist, Epstein's Confidante, and a Reptilian Shaman: Inside Scandinavia’s Most Scandalous Monarchy - Courtroom 250 of the Oslo District Court is just a ten-minute walk from Norway’s elegant and understated Royal Palace. But for 29-year-old Marius Borg Høiby, the son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit, those grey walls, bleak decor, and rigid chairs must have felt like a completely different universe. Marius himself, whose stepfather is the direct heir to the Norwegian throne, did not attend Monday’s hearing in person, tuning in instead via video link. The court found him guilty of two counts of rape, six counts of sexual harassment, and six counts of "inappropriate behavior" out of a staggering 34 charges brought against him. The verdict: a four-year prison sentence. The royal offspring’s crimes were as brazen as they were abhorrent. One rape took place during an afterparty in the basement of his parents' country estate in 2018; the second occurred at a party in Oslo in 2024. Marius was caught after police uncovered videos on his phone and laptop showing him abusing his victims while they were unconscious. This guilty verdict caps a grueling six-week trial that has deeply shocked Norwegians, who are already exhausted by a relentless string of royal controversies. Against this backdrop, the British monarchy looks like a beacon of harmony and decorum. Dark days have arrived for Marius’s mother, 52-year-old Mette-Marit—the Norwegian counterpart to Catherine, Princess of Wales, who married into the royal family in 2001 when Marius was four years old. It was recently revealed that she maintained a close relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein between 2011 and 2014—years after he pled guilty to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in 2008. Her name appears at least 1,000 times in Epstein’s logs. In emails, the future queen refers to the financier as "such a sweetie," schedules private get-togethers, and signs off affectionately as "Mm" or "Mette m." While the Crown Princess scrambled to salvage what was left of her reputation, her health took a severe turn for the worse. Diagnosed in 2018 with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis—a progressive disease causing severe shortness of breath—she had become reliant on an oxygen tube earlier this year. Last Wednesday, following a tense two-week stint on the waiting list, she underwent emergency lung transplant surgery. Medical experts noted that without the transplant, her life expectancy was less than a year. As if that weren't enough, there is also 54-year-old Princess Märtha Louise, the eldest daughter of the reigning 89-year-old King Harald V. After falling head over heels for Durek Verrett—a self-proclaimed spiritual healer and conspiracy theorist—Märtha Louise stepped back from her royal duties, a move promptly dubbed "Norway's Megxit" by the press. Yet, the couple continues to successfully monetize their royal connections while simultaneously complaining about media intrusion. The buildup to their 2024 wedding was captured for the Netflix documentary Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story, while exclusive photo rights were sold to Hello! magazine. This fall, the pair is launching their own reality TV show, Alternative Norway. The 51-year-old Verrett brands himself a "lizard-and-Andromeda-galaxy hybrid" and claims that in a past life, he was an Egyptian pharaoh and Märtha Louise was his queen. In his 2019 book, which a Norwegian publisher later pulled from shelves amid public outrage, he asserted that chemotherapy is ineffective and that children develop cancer because of their "unhappiness and a subconscious willingness to die." Shaman Durek also made headlines for selling medallions that he claimed "protected against Covid-19" and for declaring that women need specific energy exercises to "cleanse the vagina of the imprints of past sexual partners." Recently, Verrett smoothly warned that their upcoming reality show might make viewers feel "extremely uncomfortable." That might be the mildest possible description of what Norwegians currently feel toward the family. The approval rating for the Norwegian royals, once famous for their pristine, fairy-tale image, has plummeted from a record 84% to just 60%. Public calls for the outright abolition of the monarchy are growing louder by the day. Although Marius Borg Høiby holds no title and has never carried out official duties, he was raised by Crown Prince Haakon (Norway’s Prince William), who later had two children with Mette-Marit: Princess Ingrid Alexandra (22) and Prince Sverre Magnus (20). Marius’s biological father, businessman Morten Borg—with whom Mette-Marit had a brief romance before meeting the prince—also served prison time for drug trafficking. In court, Marius tearfully recounted that he had felt like an outcast and faced bullying since the age of three. "I am only known as my mother's son. Nothing else. I had an extreme need for validation. And that manifested in a massive amount of sex, drugs, and alcohol." As a teenager, he became a fixture in Oslo’s exclusive underground club scene, where cocaine flowed freely, rubbing shoulders with models and influencers while feeling entirely untouchable. His mother, Mette-Marit, was a rebel herself in her youth; the daughter of a journalist and a bank clerk, she lived a wild student life, and her father famously married a stripper after divorcing her mother. However, Marius’s behavior went far beyond typical youthful rebellion. In August 2024, he was arrested after neighbors in an upscale Oslo apartment building heard screams of "I want you dead!" coming from his flat. Arriving police found a shattered chandelier on the floor and a knife plunged into the wall. His live-in girlfriend had been brutally beaten and choked. Immediately following the incident, two more of Marius's high-profile ex-girlfriends stepped forward publicly, accusing him of domestic abuse, physical assaults, and death threats. Throughout the entire trial, Crown Princess Mette-Marit tried to maintain a low profile, breaking her silence only once to lash out at the press: "What hurts me the most are the accusations that we are bad parents, as if we haven't taken this seriously. It's hard for me to hear." Just hours after the verdict was delivered, Marius's legal team announced they would appeal. The Royal Palace issued a curt statement: "The court has made its ruling; we have no comment." The ruling monarch, King Harald V, and Queen Sonja have maintained a resolute silence through the ongoing nightmare. Compounding the crisis is the fact that the elderly King is incredibly frail; he has been living with a pacemaker since 2024 and was hospitalized again this past February with a severe infection. Tellingly, for his 89th birthday in February, the King released an official portrait featuring himself flanked by two generations of his direct successors—his son, Haakon, and his granddaughter, Ingrid Alexandra. Royal experts unanimously agreed: the portrait is the clearest hint yet that the Norwegian monarch intends to radically streamline the crown, keeping only senior—and, crucially, scandal-free—members of the family in the active lineup.