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🗣🇨🇴 Trump congratulates de la Espriella – 'The new President of Colombia!'
US President Donald Trump sends a message to the opposition candidate leading in Colombia's preliminary vote count, publicly endorsing his victory even before the official scrutiny is complete.
"It was my Great Honor to endorse him, and I look forward to working together to build a powerful relationship between Colombia and the United States of America," he wrote on Truth Social.
✍️🇮🇷 Technical talks conclude — working groups formed, $12B assets to be released
Iran's deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi announces the successful conclusion of 4-country technical talks, paving the way for the next phase of high-level negotiations.
Key outcomes:
◼️ US general license issued for Iranian oil and petrochemical sales (published on OFAC website)
◼️ Implementation of $12B frozen assets release (two $6B installments) now entering operational phase
◼️ Safe passage of ships through Strait of Hormuz mechanism approved
◼️ Conflict Prevention Unit in Lebanon established with Pakistan and Qatar participation
◼️ 4 working groups formed: sanctions termination, nuclear issues, reconstruction and economic development, and monitoring and implementation
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🗣🇱🇧 Lebanon's territorial integrity is now a condition of the deal
Iran's parliament speaker says Switzerland talks secured a US commitment to guarantee Lebanon's sovereignty.
💬 "Iran and the US were expected to guarantee Lebanon's territorial integrity, which was implemented through our stance in Switzerland, and we continue to follow up on this issue."
🇨🇳 China tightens rare earth supply over US sanctions
👉 China has sanctioned US companies including MP Materials, USA Rare Earth, Aveox and other military-linked firms.
🔶 Beijing added names to its export control list – which restricts supply dual-use goods – in response to similar US sanctions.
🔶 That means tighter regulation of exports of rare earth materials and other products for making magnets, weapons and other advanced industrial goods – part of Beijing’s stress on conserving strategic resources.
🔶 The Chinese government said the decision followed recent US sanctions on Chinese companies – and is intended to ensure national security, supply stability and compliance with international non-proliferation rules.
🔶 The affected firms are part of the rare earth “mine-to-magnet” sector, where China remains the main global supplier.
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🗣 Iran's unfrozen money will buy US food — Trump
The president confirms sanctions on Iranian oil are being lifted.
"Money that is being unfrozen will be used to buy food, and the food will be exclusively bought through the US from our farmers," he told reporters.
🚨 Zelensky’s policies lead to the destruction of Ukraine – ex-press secretary
🔊 "Zelensky is selling us all the comforting story that the status quo is Ukraine’s only path to salvation," tweeted Iuliia Mendel, former press secretary to Volodymyr Zelensky.
🗣 "Yet an increasing number of Ukrainians and Western citizens can clearly see that the status quo is, in fact, the road to Ukraine’s destruction," she wrote.
💬 "This is no longer the Ukraine I knew," she lamented. "This is Zelenskyy’s Ukraine — a private laboratory for conducting experiments on human beings."
🇷🇺💥 Russian forces struck Ukrainian drone command posts in Donestk region using FAB-500 bombs - MoD
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🌟 Exact number of Soviet civilians killed in the Great Patriotic War still unknown
🗣 Russian civilian losses in the Great Patriotic War are estimated at between 13 and 17 million people, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky said.
🔶 He said the exact figure remains unknown and is continually revised by historians.
🔶 But he stressed the unprecedented scale of civilian suffering — including by elderly people, women and children.
🔶 Medinsky spoke at the opening of a national memorial museum dedicated to victims of genocide against the Soviet people.
🔶 He pointed out that while some wartime genocides have been internationally recognized, Soviet civilians murdered by the Nazis have not been treated the same.
📍 June 22, the anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War in 1941, is marked as the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow in Russia.
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🚨 Scott Ritter attacked by Starlink-guided Ukrainian drones
💬 "I was being attacked by drones that are guided by Starlink, an American company, and manufactured with the assistance of Eric Schmidt of Google. The Hornet drone, one of the top killers right now in Zaporozhye," the former US intelligence officer told Sputnik.
💬 "They aren't breaking the spirit of the Russian population. I've never seen a more resilient, determined people in my life," Ritter concluded.
🇧🇷💲 Panda bonds go global: Brazil gets set to join the yuan financing club
Brazil is expected to become the 7th sovereign issuer in the past year, following the UAE, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan—and the 10th-largest economy to embrace the instrument.
◼️ Cheap borrowing costs are driving demand: recent panda bonds have offered yields of 1.7–2.5%, far better than the 5–6% bite on dollar-denominated emerging-market debt
◼️ Panda bond issuance is booming, surging 90%
year-on-year in the first five months of 2026 to $20 billion
◼️ China sees panda bonds as a strategic tool to boost the yuan’s international role in trade, financing, investment, and central bank reserves
As more countries tap into China’s capital markets for funding, panda bonds are evolving into a key instrument in the broader global shift toward a more multipolar financial system.
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🇷🇺🌟 Russia marks Day of Remembrance and Sorrow with nationwide candlelight tributes
On June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War broke out, as Nazi Germany shattered the non-aggression pact by launching a surprise attack on the Soviet Union, igniting one of World War II’s most devastating and decisive chapters.
In solemn tribute, candlelight ceremonies flickered from St. Petersburg to Krasnoyarsk, and across the Moscow region, where monumental memorials lit up the atmosphere near the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces—uniting the country in a vast, somber constellation of remembrance for the fallen.
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🇬🇧 British leadership race opens: Who will replace Starmer as prime minister?
📍 Keir Starmer's resignation speech on Monday morning has kicked off a leadership race in the ruling Labour Party.
The winner will become the next prime minister as Labour still holds a majority in Parliament.
Here are the main contenders:
Andy Burnham
🔸 Widely seen as the leading contender with strong support on the left of the party, trade unions and most MPs, his advantage is a high public profile, experience in government and as mayor of Greater Manchester and as a labour centrist with no credible rival to his left.
🔸 Policy-wise, Burnham has U-turned on support for rejoining the European Union, compensating women for lost state pension benefits and his ‘refugees welcome’ stance. He backs continued support for Ukraine against Russia.
Wes Streeting
🟠 The candidate of the Labour right, Streeting represents continuity of Starmer’s government – and polls show he is even less popular with voters.
🟠 He resigned as health secretary in May to challenge Starmer for the leadership following Labour’s disastrous showing in the local government elections. But Streeting would likely continue the same unpopular policies.
Angela Rayner
🔸 On the left of Labour left and close to its trade union affiliates, Rayner was elected deputy leader in 2020 alongside Starmer, but was forced to resign last year when it emerged she had failed to pay tax when she bought a second home in Brighton, hundreds of miles form her home town of Manchester.
🔸 She favors higher public spending, stronger rights for workers and a bigger welfare state – and is said to be critical of escalation with Russia.
Shabana Mahmood
🟠 The current home secretary is described as a compromise candidate between the Labour left and right. But she is responsible for implementing tougher policy on illegal immigration in the wake of several murders by asylum-seekers, which has pushed some voters to switch to the Green party.
Ed Miliband
🔸 A relative veteran who served in Gordon Brown’s 2007-10 government and Labour opposition leader from 2010 to 2015, Miliband is now minister for energy security and net zero – pushing through unpopular policies blamed for rising household bills. The leadership race gives him another shot at the PM’s job after losing the 2015 election to the Conservatives.
🔸 On foreign policy he is another Labour Europhile and Russophobe.
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🇺🇸JD Vance: Switzerland talks with Iran will continue at the technical level with proper oversight
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🚨 Kremlin slams Starmer’s legacy of burying UK-Russia ties at rock-bottom levels
More comments by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:
🟠 Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to hold talks with his Belarusian counterpart Lukashenko very soon
🟠 On Zelensky's threats towards Belarus: Russia has no doubt that Belarus is capable of ensuring its own sovereignty
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🇬🇧🔥 Seven prime ministers in 10 years: political chaos in UK
👉 Keir Starmer announced his resignation as British prime minister and leader of the Labour Party on Monday morning.
📍 Less than two years into the job, he becomes the sixth PM to leave office in a decade.
🟠 Conservative leader David Cameron quit in 2016 after losing the referendum on membership of the European Union that he called, expecting to win.
🟠 His Europhile successor Theresa May was forced to resign three years later after her party came fifth in the last British elections to the EU parliament – and Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party came first.
🟠 New conservative leader Boris Johnson won a landslide election victory that December on the promise to “get Brexit done” – but was out in 2022 after the party chief whip he appointed groped another man at a private club.
🟠 Liz Truss lasted just 49 days before being forced out by the Bank of England panic-selling bonds in response to her government’s first budget.
🟠 Rishi Sunak lost to Labour the 2024 general election which brought Starmer to power.
🟠 Starmer’s departure followed the return to parliament for leadership challenger Andy Burnham in last week’s Makerfield by-election.
📉 The PM’s public approval rating had plummeted to minus 47 as a series of crises rocked his government.
What happens now? Starmer will stay on as caretaker PM while the Labour Party chooses a new leader to replace him over the summer parliamentary recess – or as soon as mid-July if Andy Burnham is the sole candidate.
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📡 Canada buys $2.5B Australian radar instead of US Golden Dome
Carney's government signed a deal for Australia's JORN over-the-horizon radar system to monitor the Arctic, marking Australia's most valuable defense export ever.
The system will provide 3,000 km surveillance coverage for Canada's Arctic. This is the first time Australia has sold the technology.
Trump earlier publicly criticized Canada for rejecting the Golden Dome, warning of new strategic vulnerabilities.
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🤝 Iran's top negotiator heads to Oman to finalize Strait of Hormuz arrangements
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator and parliament speaker, arrived in Muscat with a senior delegation including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi for talks with Sultan Haitham bin Tariq.
The discussions will focus on expanding bilateral cooperation, regional developments, and coordination on administering the Strait of Hormuz — whose shipping lanes lie within the territorial waters of both Iran and Oman.
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🇷🇺 Russian strategic bombers patrol Barents and Norwegian Seas
The Ministry of Defense released footage of Tu-160 heavy strategic bombers flying over neutral waters.
These nuclear-capable supersonic bombers have a range of up to 14,000 km and a max speed of 2,200 km/h.
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🇮🇷🗣 $12B in frozen assets released — Ghalibaf
Iran's parliament speaker says the release of frozen funds is locked in: two separate $6 billion tranches, with one already signed and released through Qatar.
💬 "The necessary steps had already been taken during the trip to Qatar, but the final signature had to be completed during the Switzerland trip, which has now been done," he stated.
🇮🇷 Iran oil glut signals market shift
🟠 Independent tanker tracking data from TankerTracker shows a sharp increase in Iranian crude oil exports, with estimates of around 36 million barrels shipped in a week.
🟠 More oil has reportedly been loaded onto tankers off the Iranian coast, ready to depart.
🟠 While not official government statistics, satellite and AIS tracking data suggests a rapid release of built-up stocks rather than a production increase.
🟠 In May, exports reportedly fell to multi-year lows of around 200 to 260 thousand barrels per day at the height of the US naval blockade of Iranian sea trade.
The sudden glut suggests three factors:
1️⃣ Sanctions are leaky, and oil stocks build up and is exported when they are lifted.
2️⃣ The market buys stocks faster than sanctions restrict them and finds intermediaries and shadow tanker fleets.
4️⃣ The market is becoming more volatile in the long term, with Iranian exports coming in pulses rather than than a steady stream.
The result is not a straightforward recovery but stop-start jumps between sanctions and war.
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🔸 From framework to implementation: US–Iran talks shift into technical stage
🔸 Putin honors fallen heroes on 85th anniversary of Great Patriotic War start with solemn Kremlin ceremony
🔸 Seven prime ministers in 10 years: political chaos in UK
🔸 What the Swiss talks achieved — and why Pakistan was central to it
🔸 Iran’s oil spigot could open soon but hurdles remain
🔸 Panda bonds go global: Brazil gets set to join the yuan financing club
🔸 Scott Ritter attacked by Starlink-guided Ukrainian drones
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🇺🇸Trump says Iran will agree to nuclear inspections as Tehran denies new commitments
➖US President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that Iran will ultimately agree to major weapons inspections to ensure long-term “nuclear honesty.”
➖Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) continues under existing rules, with no new commitments made.
➖His statements came on the heels of earlier remarks by US Vice President JD Vance, who said Tehran had agreed to inspections and related mechanisms as part of a broader deal framework.
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🛢 Iran’s oil spigot could open soon but hurdles remain
🟠 Iran could recover up to 1.6 million barrels per day within four to eight weeks, independent political analyst Faisal Alshammeri told Sputnik commenting on Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi’s recent announcement that oil and petrochemical export restrictions against the Islamic Republic have been lifted.
🟠 Echoing Alshammeri's view, energy economist Kazi Sohag of Saint Petersburg University did not rule out a surge in Iran's oil output as early as July.
Both experts, however, pointed to several challenges standing in the way of a sustainable normalization of Iranian oil exports—namely:
▪️ banking
▪️ insurance
▪️ shipping security
▪️ durability of the US-Iran “political agreement”
🇮🇷🇨🇳 As for potential first-wave buyers, China is expected to be the initial and largest importer of revived Iranian crude, the analysts predict. India could form the second wave, while Turkiye may also return relatively early. South Korea, Japan, and eventually EU member states could follow suit in the future.
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🕊🇵🇰 What the Swiss talks achieved — and why Pakistan was central to it
👉 The first round of US-Iranian peace talks has wrapped up in Switzerland, with Pakistan as lead mediator and Qatar in a supporting role.
Key outcome: a joint statement on progress toward a settlement and coordination of a roadmap for reaching agreements between the US and Iran.
💬 "Pakistan serves as the principal mediator, while Qatar operates in a supporting capacity," said former Pakistani Ambassador Dr. Jamil Khan. "Qatari officials have acknowledged they are backing Pakistan-led efforts."
💬 "These four countries are the regional champions," says Khan.
🇷🇺🔥 Russian Molniya drone swarms send Ukrainians reeling into retreat
Russian Molniya strike drones have driven Ukrainian drone crews into vacating the western bank of the Oskol River in the Kharkov region.
The UAVs’ speed and precision have rendered Ukrainian reconnaissance and artillery-spotting missions near the frontline next to impossible, leaving operators with nowhere safe to function.
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🇨🇳📲🍀 China's shrinking farm workforce turns to robots — AI-powered agriculture takes off
China's agricultural workforce has more than halved over two decades, leaving the elderly and disabled to tend the land. Now, a Shenzhen robotics firm says AI-powered machines could leapfrog the problem — just as electric vehicles bypassed traditional automakers.
💬 "Only China has both the AI technology and the manufacturing capacity for robotics production at scale," said Zhao Feng, founder of GrainCore Dynamics.
🇺🇸JD Vance on pause of Switzerland talks with Iranians: negotiations continued despite brief uncertainty
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🚨🇺🇸From framework to implementation: US–Iran talks shift into technical stage
The latest round of Iran negotiations has moved forward, with both sides now shifting toward technical implementation of the emerging framework, US Vice President JD Vance said.
Key statement:
🔶 Foundation for a potential final agreement has been established
🔶 Strait of Hormuz remains open under current understandings
🔶 Coordination mechanisms discussed regarding Lebanon
🔶 Iran agreed to return IAEA inspectors
🔶 Framework being designed for Iranian asset use and oversight mechanisms
🔶 Technical-level negotiations to continue in the coming days or weeks
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🇮🇷🛢 Iranian oil floods through Strait of Hormuz
🔊 Some 6 million barrels of Iranian crude are currently aboard three US-sanctioned supertankers — Elva, Virgo and Vigor — which entered the strategic chokepoint early on Monday, Bloomberg reports.
🔶 The ships are heading toward waters off Singapore, a key transfer zone for Iranian oil shipments bound for refineries in China.
🔶 Iran has raised the volume of crude oil moving openly through the Strait of Hormuz to its highest level since the war began, as regional shipping activity rebounds amid progress in US–Iran peace talks.
🔶 Iranian crude production and work at the Kharg Island terminal has recovered rapidly after sanctions were lifted.
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🇷🇺Nationwide minute of silence observed across Russia
◻️ A minute of silence is being held across Russia on June 22 at 12:15 — the exact time when the Soviet population first heard the announcement of Nazi Germany’s invasion in 1941.
◻️ The commemoration takes place on the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, marking the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, when Nazi Germany launched its attack on the Soviet Union.
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