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Jun 18, 2026 - World

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that it would be unfair for Iran not to have ballistic missiles if other countries have them.

Jun 18, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump's administration admitted to Congress that Iran was still directly involved in financing terrorist activity, at exactly the same time the president was planning to give them money, Punchbowl News reported on Wednesday.According to the report, the State Department "told Congress that Iran’s oil exports are a primary revenue source for the regime’s funding of terrorist activities — just hours after the United States and Iran electronically signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to lift oil sanctions."This 515-page report, which detailed U.S. efforts against international drug trafficking, indicated that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “controls significant portions of the domestic economy.” The report continued that “Iran’s oil and petroleum exports are a primary source of revenue for its armed forces, terrorist partners and proxies. The majority of Iran’s oil transactions are conducted by illicit networks.”All of this follows reporting that a key obstacle to Trump's Iran deal is the difficulty of delisting IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), which is in theory required for the full-scale sanctions relief the administration is promising.Legislation passed by Congress in 2022 about the Ukraine war contained a provision requiring that any U.S. intelligence that Iranian drones were attacking Americans would prohibit the IRGC from being delisted as an FTO for four years. Per Punchbowl's Andrew Desiderio, "Last April, the State Dept formally told Congress that the IRGC had indeed attacked Americans with drones."The memorandum with Iran "also sets up a $300 billion 'reconstruction fund' that many Republicans believe will inevitably be used for terror financing," noted the report, as well as allowing "the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran to direct where much of that funding goes."

Jun 18, 2026 - World

Lula and Trump have had an up-and-down relationship, which has soured again recently over new tariff threats. The pair did not hold an official meeting at the G7.

Jun 18, 2026 - World

Details of the 14-point agreement revealed as senior US officials claim ‘major win’ despite significant concessions to TehranReaction: Donald Trump’s Iran deal met with anger, relief and incredulityAnalysis: Trump’s Iran deal is result of unrealistic ambitions for an untenable warDonald Trump has signed a 14-point agreement with Iran, claiming it delivered a “major win” for the United States – even as it made significant political and financial concessions to Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz and prevent a “worldwide depression”.In extraordinary remarks on Wednesday, Donald Trump went from threatening Iran with a new wave of attacks to suggesting the country had basic rights to enrich uranium for civilian use, that he would not pressure Tehran to abandon its ballistic missiles programme and the US was “going to have to give back” billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets. Continue reading...

Jun 18, 2026 - World

The 1,200-year-old Major Oak in Sherwood Forest, linked to the legend of Robin Hood, is believed to have died