News of a potential reopening of the strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquid gas pass, sent stock markets higher and oil prices lower on Monday morning. Iran had closed the waterway to most shipping in the early days of the war mounted against it by the US and Israel.
The secretariat of Iran’s supreme national security council said war and military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, would end permanently from Monday night. The precise terms of the peace deal remain unclear and Julian Borger writes that in reopening the strait, on a basis yet to be fully explained, Donald Trump achieves little more than fixing a problem that he caused himself. “Even that is not in the bag yet. It is still a long way to Friday and a planned signing ceremony in Geneva, in view of all the fudges that have been packed into this compromise deal.”
Trump declares US-Iran peace deal ‘all signed’ as he heads to G7
Donald Trump has declared that the strait of Hormuz will be “completely open” from Friday, as western leaders gathering at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains battled to prevent the fragile US deal with Iran from almost immediately unravelling.
“The deal’s all signed. And the strait is already partially opened,” Trump said as he arrived at the summit in France, but Israeli breaches of the ceasefire in Lebanon and Iran’s claims about its right to charge fees in the crucial waterway revealed the agreement’s many loose ends.
Newsom says Trump directed DoJ to investigate him and his wife
Gavin Newsom said that Donald Trump directed the US Department of Justice to investigate him and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The California governor said in a video statement that federal agents had knocked on the doors of family friends and former employees in recent days as part of an effort to find a crime, demanding records and “abusing the grand jury process”.
RFK Jr under fire for ‘bullying’ letter to scientific journal
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, is demanding answers from a medical journal that recently removed a paper suggesting a link between vaccines and infant death, saying their decision was “of great interest to me”.
Public health advocates immediately criticized the move, and said Kennedy appeared to be trying to intimidate and influence the journal’s editorial process. The journal Toxicology Reports had removed the paper this spring after editors determined it was so seriously flawed it could harm patients and pose a risk to public health.
Woman’s hypothermia death after her release by ICE is ruled a homicide
A medical examiner has ruled the death of a Haitian asylum seeker in Pennsylvania after being released from federal custody a homicide. Meanwhile, an attorney representing her family said he expects her relatives to sue Immigration and Customs Enforcement in connection with her death, though a spokesperson maintained in an email that the agency had “NOTHING to do with this woman’s death”.
Eric Trump denies cheating allegations over White House UFC fights
Eric Trump has denied cheating allegations after screenshots shared online appeared to show UFC commentator Daniel Cormier receiving a message from an account under Trump’s name asking whether any of the White House’s UFC fights on Sunday would be rigged.
What else happened today:
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An ICE agent in New Jersey was reportedly struck by a vehicle and shot at the car as it fled the scene on Monday morning, according to local authorities.
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The US supreme court turned away a gun industry challenge to a New York law that permits lawsuits against gun makers, wholesalers and dealers for endangering people’s safety through sales of firearms and ammunition.
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In the UK, the government has embarked on a weeks-long lobbying operation to convince Trump and his administration that the under-16s social media ban is not specifically aimed at US technology companies.
Catching up? Here’s what happened Sunday 14 June.