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A curated guide to major news and developments over the weekend. Here’s today’s news:
IRAN WAR – NEGOTIATIONS
On Tuesday, Iran rebutted claims made by U.S. Vice President JD Vance that it would allow the return of inspectors from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry said there is no visit scheduled for U.N. inspectors to access the country’s nuclear sites. Iran began blocking IAEA inspections after the United States and Israel bombed the country’s nuclear sites in June 2025. On Monday, Vance presented the return of U.N. inspectors as a major breakthrough in negotiations. Leily Nikounazar and Leo Sands report for the New York Times.
On Monday, the United States temporarily lifted oil sanctions on Iran, allowing the country to sell its oil in dollars, including to American buyers, for the first time in decades, as negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program continue. The move is “a boon for the regime, which is in desperate need of foreign exchange. It means Iranian banks can receive payments directly from abroad, allowing the regime to more easily repatriate its oil revenue,” report Benoit Faucon, Laurence Norman, and Marianne LeVine for the Wall Street Journal.
IRAN WAR – LEBANON
A new round of talks between Israel and Lebanon begins in Washington today. So far, negotiations between the two countries have failed to produce a durable ceasefire, complicating U.S. efforts to end its war with Iran. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has repeatedly warned that Iran cannot negotiate on Lebanon’s behalf. Lebanon wants Israel to withdraw its troops from the country, but Israel says they will stay there indefinitely. Maya Gebeily reports for Reuters.
Israel is worried that the deal the United States struck with Iran ties its hands in Lebanon and effectively legitimizes Iran’s influence in the country. A source told Axios’ Barak Ravid that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is hysterical” about the Lebanon part of the U.S.-Iran deal. Instead, Netanyahu wants to be able to conduct strikes on Lebanese soil without pushback from Washington.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted children in Gaza, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, according to a new report from the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. The group’s investigation found that 30 percent of those killed in Gaza were children. Israel decried the report’s findings and said it ignored “the brutal tactics of Hamas.” Olivia Le Poidevin reports for Reuters.
Children in the West Bank and Gaza are “increasingly unprotected” as Israel forces humanitarian groups, such as Doctors Without Borders (also known as MSF), to scale back their operations in these areas, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child warned in a statement on Monday. Israel has banned MSF and other aid groups from operating in Gaza, saying they failed to provide information about their Palestinian employees. Alex Milan Durie reports for Al Jazeera.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced he is stepping down on Monday, which will make his successor the United Kingdom’s seventh prime minister in 10 years. Starmer was facing intense pressure from his own party to resign. The Labour Party had become worried that he was no longer the right person to lead heading into the next general election. Starmer was undone by poor municipal election results in May, but he was also damaged by a scandal involving Jeffrey Epstein and Peter Mandelson, whom Starmer appointed as ambassador to the United States despite his ties to the convicted sex offender. Andy Burnham, a former mayor, is expected to run for Labour leadership and win, but it’s not yet clear whether he’ll run unopposed. Pippa Crerar reports for the Guardian. Michael D. Shear reports for the New York Times.
The State Department said Monday that it’s concerned that the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group engaged in a civil war in Sudan, are massing forces around El Obeid. “There are alarming indications that mass atrocities could be imminent, further worsening Sudan’s already catastrophic humanitarian crisis,” the State Department said in a statement. Al Jazeera and AFP report.
A delegation of the Taliban is in Brussels today for talks with the European Union about deporting Afghan migrants seeking asylum in Europe back to Afghanistan. “Rights groups said Tuesday’s meeting undercuts the EU’s human rights obligations and could endanger people in Europe and Afghanistan,” Sam McNeil and Abdul Qahar Afghan report for the Associated Press.
Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, told the Financial Times that there could be deportation centers, funded by the EU, in non-member States by next year. She said work was under way to get funding from the European Commission for these offshore “return hubs.” A growing number of EU members support the idea, but there are still those who strongly oppose it, including France, saying it will be impossible to guarantee EU standards and human rights in deportation centers in non-EU countries. Henry Foy and Laura Dubois for the Financial Times.
Kenya’s health minister was found in contempt of court on Monday for failing to halt the construction of an Ebola facility being built for Americans needing to quarantine. The court had ordered the Kenyan government to stop building the facility until it hears a case challenging its construction, but residents living nearby reported seeing U.S. military aircraft landing after the court’s May 29 order. Evelyne Musambi reports for the Associated Press.
A giant explosion at a natural gas complex in Qatar killed more than a dozen people and injured several more on Monday. Qatar’s energy minister said the explosion was an accident and not an act of sabotage. Jon Gambrell reports for the AP.
TECHNOLOGY
The Five Eyes intelligence alliance between Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Canada issued a rare joint statement on Monday, warning that powerful new AI models are months away from being able to launch devastating cyber attacks on governments and businesses. “A whole-of-organisation and whole-of-society response is required,” the statement said. Sarah Basford Canales reports for the Guardian.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is headed to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain this week. Rubio, who has been an outspoken Iran hawk for years, kept a low profile while the administration reached a controversial deal with Iran to end the war. Adam Taylor for the Washington Post.
Under the Trump administration, the United States is no longer voicing its opposition to antigay laws being passed in Africa. In May, Ghana’s parliament passed a law that punishes people who identify as LGBTQ with up to three years behind bars. The Trump administration stayed silent. Alexandra Wexler for the Wall Street Journal.
China is imposing new export controls on 10 U.S. companies, including two prominent government-funded firms in the U.S. rare earth supply chain, “in retaliation for the addition of dozens of leading Chinese tech companies to a U.S. military blacklist earlier this month,” Cate Cadell reports for the Washington Post.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
The companies hired by the state of Florida to run “Alligator Alcatraz” were notified on Monday to begin “full demobilization” of the notorious immigration facility. The remaining detainees were cleared out last week, being transferred to other facilities or sent to third countries. Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have praised the site in the past but families and human rights groups said those being held there were routinely mistreated. It’s believed the site is being shut down because of the escalating cost of running the place. Jim DeFede for CBS News.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Between 2023 and 2025, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency allowed “hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills to hit the streets of New Mexico,” according to a new investigation from the Associated Press. During that time, DEA agents monitored shipments of fentanyl but didn’t seize them, thinking they could gather intelligence that would help federal prosecutors bring bigger criminal cases against traffickers. The DEA says its investigative decisions were lawful. Jim Mustian and Joshua Goodman report.
Flu cases have risen to 222 at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ended mandatory flu vaccines for U.S. troops. Ellen Mitchel reports for The Hill.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
Firings at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where Trump loyalist Bill Pulte is temporarily in charge, began on Monday, sources told CNN. Offices within ODNI were “asked to provide a list ranking their personnel by Monday,” report Kristen Holmes, Zachary Cohen, and Katie Bo Lillis for CNN.
Earlier in the day, congressional Democrats warned Pulte not to make substantial cuts to the workforce or declassify information that could expose sources. “We write to express our expectation that you will not take actions … that are more appropriately left to a Senate-confirmed Director,” wrote Rep. Jim Himes and Sen. Mark Warner in a letter to Pulte, who is expected to fire or put on leave hundreds of employees. Many in Congress, including several Republicans, are concerned about Pulte’s lack of relevant experience and worry Trump put him in the post because of his loyalty to the president. Julian E. Barnes reports for the New York Times.
Trump has summoned defense industry CEOs to the White House on Wednesday as worry grows over U.S. missile stockpiles, which the United States depleted in its war with Iran. The administration wants to see munitions production ramped up. Lara Seligman, Marcus Weisgerber, and Drew FitzGerald for the Wall Street Journal.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
Over the next two weeks, the Supreme Court will clear its docket before its summer break, making decisions on four major cases concerning Trump’s push to expand his power. “The justices are weighing whether Trump can redefine birthright citizenship, fire a governor of the Federal Reserve, consolidate power over independent agencies and strip protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants,” writes James Romoser for the Wall Street Journal.
In a decision that was unsealed on Monday, a federal judge blocked Justice Department grand jury subpoenas aimed at Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, and his allies. “Initiating a criminal investigation in order to harass political opponents or to coerce them into taking official action — particularly official action that the federal government cannot directly require those political opponents to take — is a blatantly unlawful and unethical use of the grand-jury process,” U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz wrote in his ruling. Kyle Cheney reports for POLITICO.
A different federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s effort to create a voter-screening database using millions of Americans’ private information, including their Social Security numbers and citizenship status. In a ruling released Monday, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said the federal government “has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote.” Sooknanan said the administration provided inaccurate data to states, leading to voters being “wrongfully identified as non-citizens” and then having their voter registrations canceled. Kyle Cheney reports for POLITICO.
Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions.
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