Summary
That’s it for today. My colleagues are continuing coverage of the developments in the Middle East here.
Here’s what happened today:
Donald Trump is leaving the G7 Summit early and return to Washington DC on Monday. “You probably see what I see and I have to be back as soon as I can,” Trump said in an apparent nod to the intensifying conflict in the Middle East.
President Trump has directed national security staff to convene in the situation room, both CNN and Fox News are reporting.
Trump says ‘everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran’ and that Iran “should have signed the ‘deal’”.
The Republican-run Senate Finance Committee published a modified text of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that proposes Medicaid reforms and a new federal deduction for state and local taxes.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met with President Trump on the sidelines of the G7 meeting on Monday to discuss import auto tariffs Washington imposed on Japan, Reuters is reporting.
European leaders at G7 trying to bring Iran back to negotiating table. But Iran is demanding a joint ceasefire with Israel, while Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is resisting the move, and Donald Trump praised the Israeli campaign, suggesting he did not yet believe it was time to relieve the pressure on Iran.
Britain and the United States should finalize “very soon” the implementation of a trade deal agreed last month, Keir Starmer has said ahead of a meeting with Donald Trump in Canada.
The US justice department has asked a federal appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging race-conscious admissions at the US Naval Academy after the elite military school said it changed its policy under Donald Trump. The Naval Academy disclosed in March that it was no longer considering race or ethnicity in its admissions decisions following directives from Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth
US House speaker Mike Johnson said he has postponed his planned 22 June trip to Israel to address its parliament, as an escalating battle between Israel and Iran has raised fears of a broader conflict.
The American Bar Association has sued the Trump administration, seeking an order that would bar the White House from pursuing what the ABA called a campaign of intimidation against major law firms. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington DC, said the administration violated the US Constitution in a series of executive orders targeting law firms over their past clients and lawyers they hired.
Minnesota shooting suspect had more than 45 names of elected officials, prosecutors say. Reuters reports that notebooks recovered from Boelter’s car, as well as the home where he had been staying, showed that he had meticulously planned the attacks for some time. He had the names and, in some cases, home addresses for more than 45 elected officials – “mostly or all Democrats” – according to an affidavit from an FBI agent.
The suspect in the assassination of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband this weekend drove to the homes of two other state politicians before he succeeded in killing one of the targets of his carefully planned attack, federal authorities said today.
A federal judge has said she would issue a brief extension of an order temporarily blocking Donald Trump’s plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the US to study at Harvard University while she decides whether to issue a longer-term injunction.
Trump once again complained about removing Russia from what was once the G8. Russia used to be a part of the exclusive club of major economies but was kicked out following its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Trump says Iran wants to talk about de-escalating hostilities with Israel, and he advises that they should do so immediately “before it’s too late”.
Iran has been urgently signaling that it seeks an end to hostilities and resumption of talks over its nuclear programs, sending messages to Israel and the US via Arab intermediaries, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Trump Organization has launched a self-branded mobile service and a $499 smartphone, dubbed Trump Mobile, signaling a new effort to court conservative consumers with a wireless service positioned as an alternative to major telecom providers. The new mobile venture will include call centers based in the United States and phones made in America, the organization said.
Trump aide Alex Pfeiffer said Israeli news reports that indicate US fighter jets are participating in airstrikes on Iran are not true.
“This is not true,” Pfeiffer posted on X. “American forces are maintaining their defensive posture, and that has not changed. We will defend American interests.”
“You probably see what I see and I have to be back as soon as I can,” Trump said in an apparent nod to the intensifying conflict in the Middle East, when asked why he’s cutting short his G7 trip and heading back to Washington tonight.
President Trump has directed national security staff to convene in the situation room, both CNN and Fox News are reporting, citing a White House official. Trump will be leaving the G7 Summit in Canada early.
There are few other details available.
Donald Trump will leave the G7 summit early
Donald Trump will leave the G7 summit early and return to Washington DC on Monday, the White House said about an hour after the president said people in Iran’s capital Tehran should evacuate immediately.
Trump’s evacuation warning on Truth Social followed a warning from the Israeli defense forces issued a formal evacuation order to residents of Tehran warning them of the imminent bombing of “military infrastructure”.
Trump was originally supposed to arrive back in the US in the early hours of Wednesday morning, according to people familiar with the matter.
The scientist responsible for overseeing the CDC team that collects data on COVID-19 and RSV hospitalizations resigned on Monday.
Dr. Fiona Havers told colleagues in an email that she no longer had confidence the data would be used “objectively or evaluated with appropriate scientific rigor to make evidence-based vaccine policy decisions,” according to Reuters.
She resigned before a planned meeting of a new vaccine panel put in place by Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. after he fired all 17 members of the CDC’s independent vaccine advisory panel. Kennedy also dropped a recommendation to get the Covid shot for healthy children and pregnant women.
A Health and Human Services spokesperson told Reuters that the agency is committed to “gold standard science.”
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Trump says 'everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran'
Trump says everyone should evacuate Tehran and that Iran “should have signed the ‘deal’”.
“I told them to sign,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “What a shame, and waste of human life. IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he thinks he and Trump will be able to wrap up a new economic and security deal between the US and Canada within 30 days. His office did not say whether that means he had accepted Trump’s earlier emphasis on tariffs.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he ordered the deployment of additional defensive capabilities to the Middle East over the weekend “to enhance our defensive posture in the region,” according to a statement he posted on X on Monday. He did not disclose what military capabilities he sent to the region.
“Protecting U.S. forces is our top priority and these deployments are intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region,” Hegseth posted.
Senate Finance Committee unveiled proposed changes to Trump's tax-cut and spending bill
The Republican-run Senate Finance Committee published a modified text of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that proposes Medicaid reforms and a new federal deduction for state and local taxes.
The proposed changes will now be debated by Senate Republicans.
Among the proposed changes are:
An end to the $7,500 tax credit on new electric vehicles 180 days after the law is enacted. And an end to the $4,000 used-vehicle EV tax credit 90 days after the law is passed.
A full phase-out of solar and wind energy tax credits by 2028, but an extension of the incentive for Trump administration-favored hydropower, nuclear and geothermal energy to 2036.
Minnesota senator Ann Rest says she is “so grateful” for the work of law enforcement after learning that the shooting suspect, Vance Boelter, was allegedly parked outside her home before going to former Rep. Melissa Hortman’s home.
“I have been made aware that the shooting suspect was parked near my home early Saturday morning,” Rest said in a statement. “I am so grateful for the heroic work of the New Hope Police Department and its officers. Their quick action saved my life.
I am also thankful for the work of state and local law enforcement to apprehend the suspect before he could take any more lives.
While I am thankful the suspect has been apprehended, I grieve for the loss of Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and I am praying for the recovery of John and Yvette Hoffman.”
At the G7 summit, Trump said a new economic deal with Canada was possible but that he wanted tariffs to be a part of it, according to Reuters.
“I have a tariff concept. [Canadian Prime Minister] Mark [Carney] has a different concept ... we’re going to see if we can get to the bottom of it,” Trump said when meeting Carney on the sidelines of a G7 summit in Alberta. “I’m a tariff person.”
Canada is the top supplier of steel and aluminum to the United States and currently faces tariffs imposed by Trump on both metals as well as on auto exports.
“We are in the middle of a discussion - we are not at the end of the discussion. Our position is that we should have no tariffs on Canadian exports to the United States,” Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to Washington, told reporters after Carney met Trump.
“We will continue to talk until we find a deal that is the best deal we can achieve for Canada,” Hillman said.
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Japan PM and Trump meet on sidelines of G7 amid tariff concerns
Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met with President Trump on the sidelines of the G7 meeting on Monday to discuss import auto tariffs Washington imposed on Japan, Reuters is reporting.
Tokyo is urging Washington to drop the tariffs because they threaten to slow Japan’s economy, the Japanese government said.
Ishiba wants Trump to end the 25% auto tariff he imposed on Japanese cars and a 24% reciprocal tariff paused until July 9.
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Trump has fired a Democratic commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the agency that is in charge of Nuclear safety, according to the AP.
Christopher Hanson wrote in a statement that he was fired without cause “contrary to existing law and longstanding precedent regarding removal of independent agency appointees.”
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told the AP that “all organizations are more effective when leaders are rowing in the same direction” and that the Republican president reserves the right to “remove employees within his own executive branch.”
Hanson’s term was due to end in 2029. He was originally nominated to be the head of the NRC by Trump in 2020 and was appointed chair by President Biden in 2021. After Trump was inaugurated the second time, Hanson was replaced as chair by the president’s newest pick, David Wright, a Republican member of the NRC. Hanson had remained on the NRC as a commissioner.
European leaders at G7 trying to bring Iran back to negotiating table
Patrick Wintour and Peter Walker in Banff
European leaders at the G7 summit in Canada are trying to engineer an Iranian return to the negotiating table using Gulf leaders as intermediaries.
But Iran is demanding a joint ceasefire with Israel, while Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is resisting the move, and Donald Trump praised the Israeli campaign, suggesting he did not yet believe it was time to relieve the pressure on Iran.
The US is considered by Iran to be critical to putting pressure on Israel, but the US president wants indications that Iran will back down on wanting to maintain the right to enrich uranium. He is willing to continue to use the Israeli assault as a bargaining chip if necessary.
French, German and British foreign ministers were due collectively to speak to the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, in an attempt to see if Iran would meet the US demand to end all uranium enrichment in the country, previously a red line for Tehran.
Asked if he had received any messages from Iran suggesting that it wanted to de-escalate the conflict, Trump hinted that he had: “They want to talk.”
The US president said that Iran was not winning its conflict with Israel and should re-enter negotiations “before it’s too late”.
“They have to make a deal, and it’s painful for both parties, but I’d say Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk, and they should talk immediately, before it’s too late,” Trump told reporters at the summit.
He added: “If Iran wants to negotiate, now is the time.”
Araghchi appealed to Trump to break with Netanyahu, telling the US president he was being played by an Israeli leader who was determined to scuttle a deal that Iran and the US were on the verge of sealing. He said:
By all indications, the purpose of Netanyahu’s criminal attack on Iran – killing hundreds of innocent civilians, including women and children – is to scuttle a deal between Iran and the US, which we were on the right path to achieve. He is playing yet another American president, and ever more American taxpayers, for absolute fools.
If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential. Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue. It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu. That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.
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Starmer says US-UK trade deal to be completed 'very soon'
Further to my earlier post, Britain and the United States should finalize “very soon” the implementation of a trade deal agreed last month, Keir Starmer has said ahead of a meeting with Donald Trump in Canada.
On the sidelines of the G7 summit, Starmer told reporters:
I’m certainly seeing President Trump today, and I’m going to discuss with him our trade deal.
I’m very pleased that we made that trade deal, and we’re in the final stages now of implementation, and I expect that to be completed very soon.
The UK was the first country to agree a framework deal for lower tariffs from Trump, with the US reducing tariffs on imports of UK cars, aluminium and steel, and Britain agreeing to lower tariffs on US beef and ethanol.
But implementation of the deal has been delayed while details were being hammered out. The proclamation readied by the White House will set an effective date in coming weeks, a source told Reuters.
On steel and aluminum, the US agreed to lower the 25% tariffs on imports from Britain to zero, subject to setting a quota for British steel imports that must meet supply chain requirements.
Britain had avoided tariffs of up to 50% on steel and aluminum that the US imposed on other countries earlier this month, but could face elevated tariffs from 9 July unless a deal to implement the tariff reduction is reached.
US seeks dismissal of Naval Academy case after ending race-conscious admissions
The US justice department has asked a federal appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging race-conscious admissions at the US Naval Academy after the elite military school said it changed its policy under Donald Trump.
The Naval Academy, located in Annapolis, Maryland, disclosed in March that it was no longer considering race or ethnicity in its admissions decisions following directives from Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth.
The justice department and an anti-affirmative action group that had sued the academy, jointly told the court today that the policy change rendered the legal dispute moot.
“This Department is committed to ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity throughout the federal government,” attorney general Pam Bondi said in a statement.
The filing, in the US court of appeals for the fourth circuit, also asks the court to vacate a federal judge’s ruling last year finding that the prior race-conscious policy was legal.
The Biden administration defended affirmative action at the Naval Academy after the US supreme court exempted US military academies from its 2023 ruling barring consideration of race in college admissions.
The Naval Academy had long relied on its prior policy to raise its enrollment of Black, Hispanic and other minorities.
US conservatives and the Trump administration have argued that such policies disadvantage white and certain other applicants and do not improve military readiness.
Trump to sign proclamation formalizing US-UK trade deal in coming days – Reuters
Reuters is reporting that Donald Trump is expected to sign a proclamation finalizing a US-UK trade deal in the coming days, citing sources who say the proclamation will cover autos, beef, ethanol and steel. We’ll bring you more detail on this as we get it.
The trading framework was agreed in early May and earlier this month we reported that Keir Starmer hoped it would come into effect “in the coming weeks”.
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House speaker Mike Johnson postpones trip to Israel
US House speaker Mike Johnson said he has postponed his planned 22 June trip to Israel to address its parliament, as an escalating battle between Israel and Iran has raised fears of a broader conflict.
“Due to the complex situation currently unfolding in Iran and Israel, [Knesset] Speaker [Amir] Ohana and I have made the decision to postpone the special session of the Knesset. We look forward to rescheduling the address in the near future and send our prayers to the people of Israel and the Middle East,” Johnson said in a statement.
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French president Emmanuel Macron spoke at length with Donald Trump on tariffs and the crises in the Middle East and Ukraine, a French presidential official told Reuters.
The official did not give further details on the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the G7 summit.
American Bar Association sues to block Trump administration's 'deliberate intimidation' of law firms
The American Bar Association has sued the Trump administration, seeking an order that would bar the White House from pursuing what the ABA called a campaign of intimidation against major law firms.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington DC, said the administration violated the US Constitution in a series of executive orders targeting law firms over their past clients and lawyers they hired.
“There has never been a more urgent time for the ABA to defend its members, our profession and the rule of law itself,” the group’s president, William Bay, said in a statement.
The ABA, with about 150,000 paying members, is the country’s largest voluntary association for lawyers.
A White House spokesperson had no immediate comment.
Four law firms have separately sued the administration over Donald Trump’s orders, which stripped their lawyers of security clearances and restricted their access to government officials and federal contracting work.
Four different judges in Washington have sided with the firms and temporarily or permanently barred Trump’s orders against them.
One of the firms that sued and won a preliminary victory, Susman Godfrey, is representing the ABA in Monday’s lawsuit.
Despite Trump’s court losses, nine law firms have struck deals with the president, pledging nearly $1bn in free legal services on mutually agreed legal issues with the White House in order to stave off similar executive orders.
The ABA said in its lawsuit that Trump’s actions had made it difficult to find law firms willing to represent it in litigation adverse to the federal government, including a case it sought to join challenging the administration’s immigration policies.
The ABA said Trump had formed a “deliberate policy designed to intimidate and coerce law firms and lawyers to refrain from challenging the President or his Administration in court”.
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Minnesota shooting suspect had more than 45 names of elected officials, prosecutors say
Reuters reports that prosecutors said notebooks recovered from Boelter’s car, as well as the home where he had been staying, showed that he had meticulously planned the attacks for some time.
He had the names and, in some cases, home addresses for more than 45 elected officials – “mostly or all Democrats” – according to an affidavit from an FBI agent. Boelter’s notes indicated he had used a variety of people-finding websites to track down addresses.
In one notebook, Boelter noted that the Hortmans had two children and included details about their house, writing: “Big house off golf course 2 ways in to watch from one spot,” the affidavit said.
Hours after the shootings, with police searching for him, Boelter met an individual at a bus stop in Minneapolis and offered to buy his electric bicycle, according to prosecutors. After the two went to the person’s house, Boelter instead offered to buy his Buick.
Investigators on Sunday found the Buick in rural Sibley county, near his listed home address about an hour’s drive southwest of Minneapolis. Inside the car, officers found a handwritten letter to the FBI, in which Boelter gave his name and admitted to committing the shootings, according to the affidavit.
More than 20 Swat teams combed the area, aided by surveillance aircraft, officials said. Boelter, who was armed, crawled from a wooded area and surrendered to police in a field with no shots fired.
The killing was the latest in a series of high-profile episodes of political violence across the country, including a 2022 attack on former Democratic US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband at their home, the attempted assassination of Donald Trump last year and an arson attack at Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro’s house in April.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz said after Boelter’s arrest:
This cannot be the norm. It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences.
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The Minnesota attacks began around 2am on Saturday, when a gunman wearing a police-style tactical vest knocked on the Hoffmans’ door in Champlin, announced himself as a police officer and then shot the couple multiple times inside, according to prosecutors. He was driving an SUV outfitted with police-style lights and a fake license plate that read “POLICE.”
Boelter then traveled to the home of another state lawmaker in Maple Grove, where he rang the doorbell at 2.24am, Thompson said. The official was not home at the time.
Boelter also visited the home of a legislator in New Hope, prosecutors said. A New Hope officer – dispatched to the house to conduct a wellness check after police learned of the Hoffman shooting – took Boelter, who was parked outside, to be another police officer and pulled up next to him.
“He just sat there and stared straight ahead,” Thompson said of Boelter. The responding officer went to the door to wait for additional officers, and Boelter had left by the time they arrived, prosecutors said.
Shortly after, police went to the Hortmans’ house in Brooklyn Park as a precaution. The arriving officers saw the suspect shoot Mark Hortman through an open door around 3.35am and exchanged fire with him before he fled on foot out the back door, according to prosecutors. Melissa Hortman was already dead inside.
When police searched Boelter’s SUV after the shootings, they discovered three AK-47 assault rifles, a 9mm handgun, a gold police-style badge and the target list, according to authorities.
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Suspect in Minnesota lawmaker killing visited other legislators' homes, prosecutors say
The suspect in the assassination of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband this weekend drove to the homes of two other state politicians before he succeeded in killing one of the targets of his carefully planned attack, federal authorities said today.
Vance Boelter, 57, faces state and federal charges of murder after he was arrested on Sunday night following a massive two-day manhunt that was the largest in state history.
He is charged with fatally shooting Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, in their home on Saturday. Boelter is also accused of shooting and wounding another Democratic lawmaker, state senator John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette, in their home a few miles away.
Prosecutors said Boelter also visited the homes of two other lawmakers on Saturday while disguised as a police officer, apparently targeting more victims. Investigators have said they discovered a list in his car that included the names of dozens of legislators.
Boelter was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder in Hennepin County. The county’s chief prosecutor, Mary Moriarty, said at a news conference today that her office would seek first-degree murder charges, which carry a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Federal prosecutors separately charged Boelter with an array of crimes, including murder, which could lead to a death sentence.
“Political assassinations are rare,” Joseph Thompson, Minnesota’s acting US attorney, said at a news conference today. “They strike at the very core of our democracy.”
Boelter is expected to make an initial appearance in federal court on Monday afternoon.
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Harvard wins extension of court order blocking Trump's international student ban
A federal judge has said she would issue a brief extension of an order temporarily blocking Donald Trump’s plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the US to study at Harvard University while she decides whether to issue a longer-term injunction.
US district judge Allison Burroughs, at the end of a hearing in Boston in Harvard’s legal challenge to the restrictions, extended to 23 June a temporary restraining order that had been set to expire on Thursday. She said she wanted to give herself more time to prepare a ruling, adding:
We’ll kick out an opinion as soon as we can.
Ian Gershengorn, a lawyer for Harvard, told her that an injunction was necessary to ensure the Trump administration could not implement his latest bid to curtail the school’s ability to host international students.
The judge scheduled the hearing after issuing a temporary restraining order on 6 June preventing the administration from implementing a proclamation that Trump had signed a day earlier. A preliminary injunction would provide longer-term relief to Harvard.
Gershengorn argued Trump signed the proclamation to retaliate against Harvard in “plan violation” of its free speech rights under the Constitution’s first amendment for refusing to accede to his administration’s demands to control the school’s governance, curriculum and the ideology of its faculty and students.
The proclamation is a plain violation of the first amendment.
Donald Trump does not intend to sign a G7 statement related to Israel and Iran, CBS News reports, citing unnamed US officials.
A draft document discusses monitoring Iran, calls for both sides to protect civilians and for commitments to peace, according to the news outlet.
The US military has moved a large number of refueling aircraft to Europe to provide options to Donald Trump as Middle East tensions soar, two US officials have told Reuters.
The officials also said the US aircraft carrier Nimitz was heading to the Middle East, although one official said the movement was pre-planned.
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Trump says it was a mistake to throw Russia out of G8
Trump once again complained about removing Russia from what was once the G8. Russia used to be a part of the exclusive club of major economies but was kicked out following its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
“The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in,” Trump said, referring to former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
And I would say that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in and you wouldn’t have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago.
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Trump claims Iran has signaled it wants to de-escalate conflict with Israel
Trump says Iran wants to talk about de-escalating hostilities with Israel, and he advises that they should do so immediately “before it’s too late”.
“I’d say Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk, and they should talk immediately before it’s too late,” Trump told reporters at the start of the G7 summit meeting with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney.
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Trump reiterated unfounded claims that immigrants are intentionally being placed in cities in the US to bolster votes for Democratic candidates. He also repeated false claims that the majority of immigrants are criminals.
“Biden allowed 21 million people to come into our country, of that the vast number of those people are murderous killers, people from gangs, people from jails. They empty jails out into the US,” Trump said. “Most of those people are in the cities, all blue cities, all Democrat-run cities, and they think they’re going to use them to vote, it’s not going to happen.”
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Trump meets Carney as G7 begins
Trump has kicked off the G7 summit by meeting with Canada’s prime minister.
Carney began the summit by welcoming President Trump and wishing him a belated birthday.
In an unusual twist, Trump is seated in a chair in front of the Canadian flag, while Carney is seated in front of a US flag.
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Keir Starmer says he’ll hold a one-on-one meeting with President Trump on Monday about finalizing the UK-US trade deal the leaders agreed to in May.
Starmer said he’ll meet Trump on the margins of a G7 summit in Canada, “and I’m going to discuss with him our trade deal”. The British leader said the agreement is “in the final stages now of implementation, and I expect that to be completed very soon”.
The deal agreed last month would bring down import taxes on British cars, steel and aluminum in return for greater access to the British market for US products including beef and ethanol. But it has yet to take effect, leaving British businesses uncertain about whether the UK could face any surprise hikes from Trump.
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G7 has consensus on need for Middle East de-escalation, says Starmer
Keir Starmer said he believed there was a consensus at the G7 summit in Canada on the need for de-escalation in the Israel-Iran conflict.
“I do think there’s a consensus for de-escalation. Obviously, what we need to do today is to bring that together and to be clear about how it is to be brought about,” the British prime minister told reporters.
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Iran seeks talks with US and Israel to end hostilities – WSJ
Iran has been urgently signaling that it seeks an end to hostilities and resumption of talks over its nuclear programs, sending messages to Israel and the US via Arab intermediaries, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing officials. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
You can follow all the latest from the Middle East over on our live blog:
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Zelenskyy hopes to discuss weapons purchases with Trump on G7 sidelines
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he plans to discuss new weapons purchases for Ukraine with Donald Trump at the G7 summit.
The Ukrainian president, who is visiting Austria, is to attend the G7 summit in Canada on Tuesday, where he hopes to meet Trump on the sidelines of the meeting.
“One of the questions that I will discuss with President Trump during the meeting is the defence package that Ukraine is ready to buy,” Zelenskyy told a news conference in Vienna.
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Russia says US has cancelled next round of talks on easing tensions
Russia has said that the United States has cancelled the next round of talks between the two countries, an apparent setback in a process launched by presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump to improve bilateral ties.
In a statement, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova did not say if Washington had given any reason for the break in the talks, which began after Trump returned to the White House in January.
“As of today, the next meeting within the framework of bilateral consultations on eliminating ‘irritants’ in order to normalize the activities of diplomatic missions of both countries has been cancelled at the initiative of the American negotiators,” Zakharova said. “We hope that the pause they have taken will not last too long.”
Reuters reports that Russia had said only last week that the US-Russia talks – which have been proceeding on a separate track from discussions about ending the war in Ukraine – would soon move to Moscow from Istanbul.
However, the Kremlin – while denying that dialogue had stalled – also said last week that there were “a lot of blockages in bilateral relations” and talks on improving them were not expected to yield quick results.
Both sides say there is huge potential for business and investment deals if relations improve. But Trump, despite holding five phone calls with Putin – most recently on Saturday – has voiced frustration about Russia’s war actions in Ukraine and the lack of any visible progress towards a peace deal.
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Trump to meet with Carney ahead of first G7 sessions
Donald Trump will begin the first full day of his trip to Canada with a meeting with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, according to NBC News.
The meeting comes amid continuing heightened trade tensions and Trump’s referring to Canada in the past as the 51st US state. The two leaders previously held a remarkably cordial meeting at the White House in May.
Trump will then head into G7 sessions, which are taking place in Alberta, where world leaders will discuss top international issues.
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Suspect in shooting of Minnesota lawmakers to appear in court this afternoon on murder charges
A man accused of killing a Democratic state lawmaker while posing as a police officer is expected to appear in a Minnesota court this afternoon on state murder charges.
Vance Boelter, 57, is being held in Hennepin county after he was arrested on Sunday following a huge manhunt over the weekend. Boelter is accused of shooting dead Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota house, and her husband, Mark, in their home on Saturday.
Authorities said Boelter was also suspected of shooting and wounding another Democratic lawmaker, state senator John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette at their home a few miles away.
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Trump Organization enters phone market with $499 'made in the USA' Trump Mobile smartphone
The Trump Organization has launched a self-branded mobile service and a $499 smartphone, dubbed Trump Mobile, signaling a new effort to court conservative consumers with a wireless service positioned as an alternative to major telecom providers.
The new mobile venture will include call centers based in the United States and phones made in America, the organization said.
“We are going to be introducing an entire package of products where people can come and they can get telemedicine on their phones for one flat monthly fee, roadside assistance on their cars, unlimited texting to 100 countries around the world,” said the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, announcing the product at Trump Tower in New York.
Per NBC News, “the venture is the latest example of Trump’s business empire capitalizing on its association with the sitting president”. Indeed, during his second term, we’ve already seen the likes of branded Bibles, gold “Never Surrender” hi-top sneakers and $100,000 watches.
Reuters reports that a website that went live after the announcement included details of the new Trump-branded smartphone that will be available from September, and a $47.45 a month subscription plan to the new network.
DTTM Operations - the entity managing Donald Trump’s trademarks - has filed applications to use his name and the term “T1” for telecom-related services. The filings, submitted on Thursday to the US Patent and Trademark Office, cover mobile phones, accessories like cases and chargers, wireless telephone services, and possibly even retail stores.
On the website, the “T1” smartphone appears to feature a gold-colored metal case etched with an American flag. What’s more, both the name of the wireless service - “The 47 Plan” and its monthly price are references to Trump, who was the 45th US president during his first term and is now serving as the 47th.
More than 60 million smartphones are purchased annually by American consumers, but nearly all of these devices are manufactured abroad — primarily in China, South Korea, and increasingly in India and Vietnam.
Despite the strength of US-based tech brands, there is no significant domestic smartphone production infrastructure, largely due to high labor costs, supply chain complexity, and reliance on overseas component sourcing.
The launch of Trump Mobile comes after Trump in May threatened to impose a 25% tariff on iPhones if they are not made in the United States, as he stepped up the pressure on Apple to build its signature product in the country.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social:
I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the US.
Trump then said that he would also impose a 25% tariff on Samsung and any other phone manufacturer that makes phones outside of the US, or, he said, “it would not be fair”.
He told reporters at the White House:
When they build their plant here, there’s no tariffs. So they’re going to be building plants here.
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US stock index futures rose on Monday as easing oil prices boosted sentiment despite ongoing attacks between Israel and Iran, while investors focused on the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting.
Wall Street indexes shed more than 1% on Friday as oil prices surged 7% after Israel and Iran traded air strikes, feeding investor worries that the combat could widely disrupt oil exports from the Middle East.
Leaders from the Group of Seven nations began annual talks on Monday. The dangers of further escalation in the Israel-Iran conflict loomed over the meeting, with US President Donald Trump expressing hope on Sunday that a deal could be done, but no signs of the fighting abating on the fourth day of war.
As Republican senators consider President Donald Trump’s big bill that could slash federal spending and extend tax cuts, a new survey shows most U.S. adults don’t think the government is overspending on the programs the GOP has focused on cutting, like Medicaid and food stamps.
Americans broadly support increasing or maintaining existing levels of funding for popular safety net programs, including Social Security and Medicare, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. They’re more divided on spending around the military and border security, and most think the government is spending too much on foreign aid.
The poll points to a disconnect between Republicans’ policy agenda and public sentiment around the domestic programs that are up for debate in the coming weeks.
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New rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats
Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump.
The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers.
Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all veterans remain entitled to treatment. But individual workers are now free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly prohibited by federal law.
Read the full piece here:
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Brussels negotiators hope that offering to accept US tariffs of 10% across all of the European Union’s exports into the United States will avert any higher duties on cars, drugs and electronics, newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Monday.
Citing high-ranking EU negotiators, the paper said the offer to US counterparts would come only under certain conditions and would not be billed as permanent.
Handelsblatt also said the EU was, in return, ready to cut its tariffs on US -made vehicles, and to possibly change technical or legal hurdles to make it easier for U.S. manufacturers to sell their cars in Europe.
The EU’s position comes partly from the realisation that US President Donald Trump will rely on some tariff revenues to fund planned tax cuts.
Trump v Harvard case back in court
A federal judge is set to consider on Monday whether to extend an order blocking President Donald Trump’s plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the United States to study at Harvard University.
US District Judge Allison Burroughs during a hearing in Boston will weigh whether to issue an injunction barring Trump’s administration from implementing his latest bid to curtail Harvard’s ability to host international students while the university’s lawsuit challenging the restrictions plays out.
Almost 6,800 international students attended Harvard in its most recent school year, making up about 27% of the student population of the prestigious school located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. China and India are among the top countries of origin for these students. The judge scheduled the hearing after issuing a temporary restraining order on June 6 preventing the administration from implementing a proclamation that Trump had signed a day earlier.
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A bright spark in the Canadian team preparing the G7 Kananaskis summit, in the ridiculously beautiful Canadian Rockies, decided to insert the issue of wildfires onto a crowded agenda. It seemed an eminently sensible and Canadian thing for the eminently sensible Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, to do.
After all there are currently an estimated 225 blazes in Canada, including 120 classified as out of control, and they are raging to the west in British Columbia across to northern parts of Alberta. Indeed it is likely to be Canada’s second worst year on record for wildfires. Moreover, Carney had an ingenious solution ready to hand – a Kananaskis wildfire charter including “greater equipment interoperability” between the G7 members.
But unfortunately wildfires were already on the G7 agenda, albeit in an altogether broader, even more existential sense.
Read Patrick Wintour’s analysis from Banff:
The man suspected of opening fire on two Minnesota legislators and their spouses on 14 June, killing one legislator and her husband, was apprehended late on Sunday night and charged with two counts of murder and two of attempted murder, the state’s governor, Tim Walz, said at a news conference.
Vance Boelter, 57, is suspected of fatally shooting the Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their residence early on Saturday. Boelter is also suspected of shooting the state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their home, seriously injuring them.
Read our full report here:
Foreign investment into the US could be threatened by Donald Trump’s new “revenge” taxes, analysts have warned.
A provision within the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will allow the US to apply higher taxes on foreign individuals, businesses and investors connected to jurisdictions that impose “unfair foreign taxes” on US individuals and companies.
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange could choose to avoid the measure by redomiciling in New York.
Read the full report here:
Senator tries to limit Trump's war powers
A Democratic senator introduced legislation on Monday to prevent US President Donald Trump from using military force against Iran without Congress’s authorization, as an escalating battle between Israel and Iran raised fears of broader conflict.
Tim Kaine of Virginia has tried for years to wrest back Congress’s authority to declare war from the White House.
During Trump’s first term, in 2020, Kaine introduced a similar resolution to rein in Trump’s ability to wage war against Iran. That measure passed both the Senate and House of Representatives, winning some Republican support, but did not garner enough votes to survive the Republican president’s veto.
Kaine said his latest war powers resolution underscores that the US Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the sole power to declare war and requires that any hostility with Iran be explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for the use of military force.
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She finds the whole idea absurd. To Prof Marci Shore, the notion that the Guardian, or anyone else, should want to interview her about the future of the US is ridiculous. She’s an academic specialising in the history and culture of eastern Europe and describes herself as a “Slavicist”, yet here she is, suddenly besieged by international journalists keen to ask about the country in which she insists she has no expertise: her own. “It’s kind of baffling,” she says.
Marci Shore made news around the world when her family moved to Canada. With Jonathan Freedland, she discusses Trump, teaching history and how terror atomises society:
Police release custody photo of Minnesota suspect
A custody photo has been released of the man suspected of killing a Minnesota lawmaker and wounding another, who crawled to officers in surrender Sunday after they located him in the woods near his home, ending a massive, nearly two-day search that put the entire state on edge.
Vance Boelter was arrested and charged with two counts of murder and two of attempted murder. He is accused of posing as a police officer and fatally shooting former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their home early Saturday in the northern Minneapolis suburbs.
Authorities say he also shot Sen. John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette. They were injured at their residence about 9 miles (about 15 kilometers) away.
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Investors are gearing up for key central bank meetings this week, with a particular eye on the US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan, as well as talks with Washington aimed at avoiding Donald Trump’s sky-high tariffs.
At the G7 summit in the Canadian Rockies, the Middle East crisis will be discussed along with trade in light of Trump’s tariff blitz.
Investors are also awaiting bank policy meetings, with the Fed and BoJ the standouts.
Both are expected to stick to their decisions for now but traders will be keeping a close watch on their statements for an idea about the plans for interest rates, with US officials under pressure from Trump to cut.
G7 to start amid Trump trade tensions and Iran-Israel crisis
Good morning and welcome to our US politics blog
When Donald Trump last came to Canada for a G7 summit, the enduring image was of him seated with his arms folded defiantly as then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel stared daggers at him.
If there is a shared mission at this year’s G7 summit, which begins Monday in Canada’s Rocky Mountains, it is a desire to minimize any fireworks at a moment of combustible tensions.
Trump already has hit several dozen nations with severe tariffs that risk a global economic slowdown. There is little progress on settling the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and now a new and escalating conflict between Israel and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Add to all of that the problems of climate change, immigration, drug trafficking, new technologies such as artificial intelligence and China’s continued manufacturing superiority and chokehold on key supply chains.
So it looks like the Trump, and the leaders of Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Canada are in for a busy time.
Stay with us for all the developments:
In other news:
The man suspected of shooting two Minnesota lawmakers, killing one of them and her husband, has been taken into custody, two law enforcement officials said. Vance Boelter was arrested Sunday evening.
Trump has directed federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities after large protests have erupted in Los Angeles and other major cities against his administration’s immigration policies.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned that Greenland is “not to be sold” nor “to be taken” in a key visit to the strategic Arctic territory coveted by Trump
The White House has stayed decidedly mum about its goals for the G7, which originated as a 1973 finance ministers’ meeting to address the oil crisis and steadily evolved into a yearly summit that is meant to foster personal relationships among world leaders and address global problems.
There is no plan for a joint statement this year from the G7, a sign that the Trump administration sees no need to build a shared consensus with fellow democracies if it views such a statement as contrary to its goals of new tariffs, more fossil fuel production and a Europe that is less dependent on the U.S. military.
“The Trump administration almost certainly believes that no deal is better than a bad deal,” said Caitlin Welsh, a director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank who was part of Trump’s team for the G7 in Trump’s first term.
