Oil has fallen to its lowest level since June’s conflict began, while stock markets have jumped across Asia and Europe
Travel and leisure stocks across Europe are rallying too.
This has pushed up the STOXX Europe travel and leisure index by 4.1% in early trading, which Reuters reports it the biggest one-day jump since 10 April.
Continue reading...Nato spending plan overlooks risks to security posed by environmental breakdown and social decay, say economists
Europe risks choosing militarism over social and environmental security, economists have warned, as the head of Nato said all 32 members had agreed to increase weapons spending.
Analyses drafted in anticipation of a Nato summit beginning on Tuesday warned of the opportunity cost that higher military spending would pose to the continent’s climate mitigation and social programmes, which are consistently underfunded.
Continue reading...Agriculture secretary to scrap ‘roadless rule’ that protects lands including largest old growth forest in country
The Trump administration will rescind protections that prevent logging on nearly a third of national forest lands, including the largest old growth forest in the country, the agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, announced on Monday.
The announcement will be followed by a formal notice rescinding the “roadless rule”, a nickname for the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, in coming weeks, the Associated Press reports. The rule prohibits road building and logging on all national forest land without roads, accounting for about 59m acres (24m hectares) of US national forest land.
Continue reading...Israel orders army to ‘respond forcefully’ after claiming Tehran has violated ceasefire. Plus, the mystery of the hijacker who disappeared after parachuting out of a plane
Good morning.
Donald Trump has declared a ceasefire intended to bring an end to a 12-day war between Israel and Iran – but despite public acceptance of the truce, both sides continued to exchange fire this morning.
What did Trump say about the ceasefire? Just after 5am GMT, Trump posted to social media that a ceasefire was now in effect, adding: “PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!” Earlier he told NBC the ceasefire was “unlimited” and would last “forever”.
This is a developing story. Follow our updates here.
What did the court say? The court offered no explanation for its decision and ordered the judge’s ruling paused while the appeals process plays out. The three liberal justices issued a scathing dissent.
How did the White House react? A White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, said: “The supreme court’s stay of a leftwing district judge’s injunction reaffirms the president’s authority to remove criminal illegal aliens from our country and Make America Safe Again.”
Continue reading...Shrouded in secrecy, the US law enforcement agency has become a kind of domestic stormtrooper for Maga’s agenda
Across the US, group chats and community threads have started spiking with warnings. Not just the typical alerts about traffic or out of service subway stations, but where and when an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) raid was last seen. What places to avoid. What the plainclothes agents might look like.
“Hey all,” a Brooklyn, New York, resident wrote in a closed chat with neighbors last week. “A little birdie just told me ICE is out.”
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: The US president responds to Iran’s limited retaliation by celebrating the end of the war, with Israel confirming agreement to proposal
Good morning. After the United States attacked Iranian nuclear sites early on Sunday, the question was how Tehran would respond. Last night, we saw the beginnings of the answer – and, at least according to Donald Trump, the end of it.
The retaliation came in the form of ballistic missile attacks on a US base in Qatar. While the Iranian authorities called the operation a “mighty and successful response”, no Americans were harmed – apparently by design. Trump described it as a “very weak response”, suggested that the Iranians had “gotten it all out of their ‘system’”, and added: “CONGRATULATIONS WORLD, IT’S TIME FOR PEACE!”
Protest | UK home secretary Yvette Cooper has vowed to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws, after activists from the group broke into RAF Brize Norton and spray-painted two military planes. PA’s lawyers said that Cooper’s proposal was an attack on freedom of expression and assembly.
Politics | Labour MPs have launched a significant rebellion against the government’s benefit cuts with an amendment that could kill its welfare bill, spearheaded by senior select committee chairs and which sources say could be signed by up to 100 MPs.
NHS | UK health secretary Wes Streeting has launched a national investigation into “systemic” failures in NHS maternity services in England, saying “maternity units are failing, hospitals are failing, trusts are failing, regulators are failing” and there is “too much passing the buck”.
Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Russia, Iran and North Korea as a “coalition of murderers” during a visit to London, where he held talks with Kier Starmer on how to put further pressure on Moscow to end the war. Ukraine’s president has accused Tehran of being complicit in Russia’s invasion.
Music | U2 guitarist The Edge has officially become an Irish citizen, 62 years after moving from Britain to Ireland, in a step he said was “long overdue”.
Continue reading...Justices lift judicial order, handing victory to US president in his aggressive pursuit of mass deportations
The US supreme court on Monday paved the way for the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to countries they are not from, including to conflict-ridden places such as South Sudan.
In a brief, unsigned order, the court’s conservative supermajority paused the ruling by a Boston-based federal judge who said immigrants deserved a “meaningful opportunity” to bring claims that they would face the risk of torture, persecution or even death if removed to certain countries that have agreed to take people deported from the US.
Continue reading...Health secretary and chief of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid hail voluntary agreement as a ‘good start’
The US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and Dr Mehmet Oz announced a voluntary agreement with insurance companies to change prior authorization practices – where private health insurers require patients to ask for permission before they can receive medical treatment.
The majority of Americans receive health insurance through a private company, whether through an employer, or a privatization of public health insurance programs, such as Medicare Advantage.
Continue reading...Fast-moving weekend thunderstorm caused high winds and swells as authorities say one person still missing
The El Dorado county sheriff’s office confirmed Monday that it had found a seventh person dead after a boat capsized on Lake Tahoe during a fast-moving weekend thunderstorm that caused high winds and swells of up to 8ft. One person is still missing.
A 27ft-long gold Chris-Craft vessel with 10 people aboard overturned Saturday afternoon after apparently being hit by a large swell near DL Bliss state park on the lake’s south-west edge, according to the US Coast Guard.
Continue reading...Amid Trump’s disrespect of old allies, EU and Canada vow more support for Ukraine and joint work on climate crisis
Canada has signed a wide-ranging defence pact with the EU, as Donald Trump and global instability prompt traditional US allies to deepen their alliances.
Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, on Monday joined European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and head of the European Council, António Costa, in Brussels, where they signed a security and defence partnership, pledged more support for Ukraine, as well as joint work on issues from the climate crisis to artificial intelligence.
Continue reading...Monday and Tuesday likely to be the hottest days of the year so far in eastern US while temperatures rise in Europe
This summer’s first heatwave has developed across the eastern half of the United States with most places having recorded their hottest temperature of the year so far on Sunday, which will then probably be beaten on Monday and Tuesday.
High pressure across the eastern US has funnelled up hot air from southern parts of the the country, resulting in what is known as a heat dome, initially across central regions on Friday, before spreading eastwards over the weekend. The temperatures rose significantly on Saturday, with Huron regional airport in South Dakota recording a high of 39.4C (102.9F), 13C above the average high in June for the region.
Continue reading...Maga diehards caught between supporting efforts against nuclear proliferation and opposing American involvement in foreign conflicts
JD Vance has said the US is “not at war” with Iran – but is with its nuclear weapons program, holding out a position that the White House hopes to maintain over the coming days as the Iranian regime considers a retributive response to Saturday’s US strike on three of its nuclear installations.
In an interview Sunday with NBC News’ Meet the Press, the US vice-president was asked if the US was now at war with Iran.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
The strait of Hormuz: what is it, and why does it matter to global trade?
Price of oil could spike after Iran’s parliament votes to close key shipping route
The eurozone economy has continued to flirt with stagnation this month, with little growth in its key sectors.
The latest survey of purchasing managers across the euro area, just released by S&P Global, shows that the eurozone services sector is stalling this month, while factory growth slowed.
“The eurozone economy is struggling to gain momentum. For six months now, growth has been minimal, with activity in the service sector stagnating and manufacturing output rising only moderately.
In Germany, there are signs of a cautious improvement in the situation, but France continues to drag its feet. The momentum evident in the official growth figure of 0.6 percent for the first quarter is unlikely to have carried over into the second quarter, especially since special factors such as Ireland’s unusual jump in growth inflated this figure.
Continue reading...Emerson Colindres reflects on ‘traumatizing’ ordeal after Ice sent him to Honduras despite having no criminal record
The Ohio high school graduate and soccer standout who was recently deported from the US to Honduras despite having no arrest record has described being “handcuffed like we’re some big criminals” for the entirety of his deportation flight.
“To me, it was kind of more traumatizing because I haven’t been to my birth country in years,” Emerson Colindres, 19, who was brought from Honduras to the US by his family at age eight, said to the Cincinnati news station WCPO in an interview over the weekend.
Continue reading...The emergence of Hawk Trump dismayed some of his Maga base but students of US adventurism were unsurprised
So the military parade that brought tanks to the streets of Washington on Donald Trump’s birthday was more than just an authoritarian ego trip. It was a show of strength and statement of intent.
Exactly a week later, sporting a “Make America great again” (Maga) cap in the situation room, the American president ordered the biggest US military intervention in decades as more than 125 aircraft and 75 weapons – including 14 bunker-busting bombs – struck three Iranian nuclear sites. Trump called it a “spectacular military success” – but it remains unclear how much damage had actually been inflicted.
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary also sidesteps questions on legality of strikes and Donald Trump’s ‘regime change’ post
The UK foreign secretary has repeatedly refused to say if the UK supported the US military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities on Saturday or whether they were legal.
Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday for the first time since the US launched airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, David Lammy also sidestepped the question of whether he supported recent social media posts by Donald Trump that seemed to favour regime change in Tehran, saying that in all his discussions in the White House the sole focus had been on military targets.
Continue reading...Trump has warned of broader US involvement in Israel’s war if Iran attempts to strike back against US military sites in the region
Iran had sought to deter Donald Trump from joining Israel’s bombing campaign with dire threats of retaliation, but its options now are limited and fraught with risk.
Iranian officials have said specifically that US ships and military bases would be targeted, but much of the capacity it had relied on as a deterrent has been stripped away over the past few days by Israeli strikes. Those strikes however, have focused on long-range ballistic missile launchers. Iran still has a formidable arsenal of shorter-range missiles and drones.
Continue reading...Activist condemns Columbia’s ‘shameful trustees’ but praises students’ courage after release from Ice detention
Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian rights activist, freed from Ice detention on Friday, returned to Columbia University on Sunday to renew his commitment to the cause of Palestinian freedom and opposition to both the university and the Trump administration.
Khalil arrived back in New York on Saturday after being released from more than 100 days in detention in Louisiana by a federal judge who ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional and ordered his immediate release on bail.
Continue reading...Kat Cammack blames left’s fearmongering after medical staff hesitated to give her drugs needed to end pregnancy
A Florida Republican congresswoman is blaming fearmongering on the left for the reluctance of hospital staff to give her the drugs she needed to end an ectopic pregnancy that threatened her life.
Kat Cammack went to the emergency room in May 2024 where it was estimated she was five weeks into an ectopic pregnancy, there was no heartbeat and her life was at risk. Doctors determined she needed a shot of methotrexate to help expel her pregnancy but since Florida’s six week abortion ban had just taken effect medical staff were worried about losing their licenses or going to jail if they did.
Continue reading...Weakening of ‘axis of resistance’ forces leaves Iran with limited options if it chooses to retaliate
Iran’s proxy militias across the Middle East have yet to retaliate for the overnight strikes against the Islamic Republic and are sending mixed signals about their willingness to strike US targets – or even Israel – in the coming days.
The apparent reluctance or inability of such groups to come to Iran’s aid will limit Tehran’s options if decision-makers there opt to escalate the conflict with the US.
Continue reading...