May 28, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day: in 585BC a solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by the Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated. It is also the earliest event of which the precise date is known.
QOTD: “"I have constitutional instruments. Time is running out," [Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz] said. "I have to respond, I have to come up with solutions."
IRAN/US/MIL/CAN-KICKING - US, Iran Agree to Extend Truce Pending Trump Backing, Report Says
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-28/iran-us-accuse-each-other-of-truce-breach-with-no-deal-in-sight?srnd=homepage-americas
Iran and the US have reached a deal to extend a truce and work toward an agreement to end the war, Axios reported, sending oil prices lower on hopes the three-month conflict could be nearing a resolution.
The agreement is for a 60-day extension of the ceasefire and for negotiations to start on Iran’s nuclear program, Axios said, citing two US officials and a regional source involved in the negotiations. US President Donald Trump still needs to approve the terms, it said.
Oil prices fell on the news to near $94 a barrel, having earlier gained on a more pessimistic outlook for a deal. The Axios report sent the S&P 500 to a new record high.
The memorandum of understanding would state that shipping through the vital Strait of Hormuz would be “unrestricted,” Axios reported. Iran would have to remove all mines from the strait within 30 days, according to the report.
The news followed overnight clashes between the US and Iran, with both sides accusing the other of breaching the ceasefire that started in early April.
MORE: U.S., Iran Exchange Fire for Second Time in Days
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-military-conducts-new-strikes-on-iran-416f76cf?mod=world_lead_story
U.S. forces conducted new military strikes against Iran on Wednesday after Tehran launched drones at commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. officials, even as Washington and Tehran continue their efforts to forge a diplomatic settlement to the conflict and keep a fragile cease-fire intact.
American forces shot down Iranian drones and hit a drone-control station near Bandar Abbas, a major port city in southern Iran located on the strait, according to two of the officials. The site posed a threat to U.S. forces and commercial traffic in the strait, the officials said.
Earlier Wednesday, Iran fired four one-way attack drones at American and commercial ships, the two officials said. American F/A-18, F-16 and F-35 jet fighters shot down the drones, then the F/A-18s hit the ground-control unit before it could launch a fifth drone, one of the officials said.
The U.S. strikes prompted a retaliation from Iran, which launched a ballistic missile toward Kuwait that was intercepted by local forces, according to U.S. Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East. Centcom didn’t address claims from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is enforcing the chokehold on the strait, that it had struck at a U.S. base in the region.
As with the U.S. strikes earlier in the week, administration officials characterized the attacks as limited and defensive in nature, not an escalation that would collapse the tenuous cease-fire the two sides have mostly been observing. There were no casualties during the incident, according to two of the officials.
The skirmishing underscored the challenges facing the White House’s negotiating efforts to secure a peace that brings down oil prices, curtails Tehran’s nuclear efforts and enables President Trump to claim that his military operations in the Middle East have achieved some of their key aims.
UKRAINE/SWEDEN/MIL/TECH - Ukraine to buy 20 new Gripen jets, Sweden to donate older jets sooner
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/ukraines-zelenskiy-visits-sweden-aviation-news-2026-05-28/
Ukraine will buy 20 new Gripen fighter jets and Sweden will donate 16 of an older model next year, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said at a joint press conference on Thursday.
The two leaders had signed a letter of intent last year paving the way for Sweden to sell up to 150 Saab model E fighter jets to Ukraine, though deliveries of the newer model are several years away.
The planes are a priority for Ukraine's fighter fleet and the country's defence minister said in May that a deal for Gripen E could be signed "within months" after the European Union approved a 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine.
"Gripen is the best and optimal choice for Ukraine. So today, we take the next major step on this joint journey," Kristersson said at a press conference alongside Zelenskiy at Uppsala air base, where two Gripen jets were on display.
"We need these jets and for us this is really a new page for Ukraine," Zelenskiy said, adding it planned to buy all the 150 jets stipulated in the original letter of intent. "God bless, we will have enough financing for this," he said.
[Zelensky is not being obsequious; Gripens are relatively easy to fly, maintain, and much less expensive than bleeding-edge planes from the US or elsewhere in the EU. -mnno]
CANADA/SWEDEN/MIL/TECH - Canada in Talks to Acquire Saab Spy Planes, PM Carney Says
https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/canada-pm-carney-says-talks-underway-to-acquire-saab-spy-planes-9961bdad?mod=world_feat3_americas_pos2
Canadian officials have entered into talks to acquire surveillance aircraft from Saab, Prime Minister Mark Carney said, as the nation rebuilds its military and strengthens security ties with Europe.
At a defense conference Wednesday in Ottawa, Carney said the Swedish company’s GlobalEye aircraft would help detect and deter threats across the Arctic. Saab said it has offered to build, maintain and upgrade the planes that Canada purchases in partnership with Canadian firms.
Saab added that it has neither signed an agreement nor received an order from Ottawa.
Montreal-based Bombardier supplies the underlying platform for the GlobalEye aircraft. Carney said that, as envisaged, about a third of the aircraft produced would be assembled in Canada, creating about 3,000 aerospace-sector jobs, with a good portion of them in Quebec.
Canada was also considering early-warning aircraft from two U.S. companies, L3Harris and Boeing, before opting for Saab, David Perry, president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute in Ottawa and a military analyst, said.
A spokesman for L3Harris said the Florida company would continue to speak with Canadian officials about its Aeris X early-warning capability. A spokesman for Boeing said the company respects Canada’s decision, and would work with officials to address the armed forces’ needs.
Ottawa’s choice on GlobalEye marks yet another step by Carney to rebuild the country’s military, and increase Canadian defense expenditures toward the benchmarks set by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Prior to Carney’s arrival, Canada had been a laggard in defense spending among NATO members, drawing the scorn of the U.S. and other allies.
US/SEC/THE ALLURE OF GOLD - Ex-CIA officer charged with stealing gold from government
https://www.dw.com/en/us-former-cia-officer-charged-with-stealing-gold-bars-from-government/a-77326438
Federal court filings in Virginia, home to the Langley headquarters of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), show a former official is accused of stealing hundreds of gold bars and other valuables from the government.
The man was arrested and charged with criminal theft of public money last week, according to the court documents, the Associated Press reported.
What is the case about?
Between November 2025 and March this year, the man requested and received a "significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses," an affidavit from an FBI agent investigating the case alleges.
It says it's unclear what he intended to use the funds for, but that a portion of it was found in a storage space near his office.
When federal officials then searched his home on May 18, they seized more than 300 gold bars with an estimated value of more than $40 million (roughly €35 million).
The affidavit says they also seized foreign currency worth roughly $2 million and some 35 luxury watches, many of them Rolexes.
While investigators don't say what the accused planned to do with the materials, the affidavit concludes that there is probable cause to believe that he "knowingly embezzled, stole, purloined, or knowingly converted a thing of value of the United States" for his personal use.
MEXICO/POL - Corruption Concerns in Mexico Hit High Under Sheinbaum
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-28/corruption-concerns-in-mexico-hit-high-under-sheinbaum?srnd=phx-politics
Mexicans’ concern about corruption is at the highest level of Claudia Sheinbaum’s presidency, as US accusations against a governor add to scandals hitting high-ranking figures and institutions.
Some 62% ranked corruption as the biggest problem facing the country in May, up 3 points from a month prior and 16 from February, according to LatAm Pulse, a survey conducted by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg News and published Thursday.
Still, Mexicans don’t appear to be blaming Sheinbaum herself: After falling to the lowest level of her term last month, her approval rating rose 2 points to 53% in May. Disapproval fell roughly 5 points to 38%.
Mexico has been rocked by a series of scandals in recent months, including a fuel smuggling scheme that has led to multiple arrests and implicated high-ranking Navy officers, customs agents and businessmen. In late April, US prosecutors accused Rubén Rocha Moya, the governor of Sinaloa state, of conspiring with drug cartels.
Rocha Moya, who denies wrongdoing, is a member of Sheinbaum’s Morena party, and accusations against him have put her in a difficult position as she seeks to convince President Donald Trump that Mexico is combating the drug trade.
BOLIVIA/SEC/POL - Bolivia clears path to send troops onto streets to calm protests
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/bolivias-paz-eases-state-emergency-declarations-amid-unrest-2026-05-27/
Bolivia's President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday took steps toward potentially declaring a state of emergency as anti-government protests have escalated in the early months of his administration.
A state of emergency would let Paz send military forces into the streets in an effort to contain the protests, a measure that some opposition lawmakers have warned could further ratchet up tensions after almost a month of roadblocks and demonstrations.
The official gazette on Wednesday showed that Paz signed off on a vote from Congress to repeal a law that had set limits on the executive branch's use of emergency orders.
If Paz moves forward to declare a state of emergency, it would need approval from Congress.
The unrest is driven by union leaders and supporters of former leftist President Evo Morales, who want the new conservative government to roll back austerity measures and address rising living costs.
The protests have triggered shortages of food, fuel and medicines in La Paz and El Alto, which together form Bolivia's largest urban area.
ARGENTINA/ECON/POL - Milei Approval Rises From Lowest Point as Inflation Worries Ease
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-28/milei-approval-rises-from-lowest-point-as-inflation-worries-ease?srnd=phx-politics
President Javier Milei clawed back some ground with Argentine voters as adversaries lost favor and inflation slowed, although his popularity remains near the lowest levels of his term.
Milei’s approval rating rose to roughly 40%, up four points from April, according to LatAm Pulse, a survey conducted by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg News and published Thursday. Disapproval fell nearly 5 points to 58%, down from its peak of 63% a month ago.
The improvement came after monthly inflation slowed in April for the first time in nearly a year. The share of voters who ranked rising prices among their biggest concerns eased as well, falling to 31% from 36%. Corruption and unemployment remain atop the list of worries, the poll showed.
Milei ranks as the fifth-most popular politician in Argentina, according to separate gauge that measures positive and negative images. He trails a trio of leftist opponents — socialist lawmaker Myriam Bregman, Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof, and former President Cristina Kirchner — as well as Senator Patricia Bullrich, a former member of his cabinet. Milei held the top spot for months earlier in his presidency.
ISRAEL/LEBANON - How Israel has emptied southern Lebanon far beyond the front lines
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-israel-has-emptied-southern-lebanon-far-beyond-front-lines-2026-05-28/
The ceasefire agreed in Lebanon last month has brought little respite for civilians, who are being driven from a steadily expanding swathe of the country by a relentless Israeli campaign of evacuations and air strikes.
The U.S.-brokered truce announced on April 16, after about six weeks of fighting, has failed to halt the violence between Israel and Hezbollah. Both are carrying out near-daily attacks while accusing the other of violating the pact.
That’s left hundreds of thousands of civilians in southern Lebanon displaced from their homes. Shortly after the ceasefire declaration, Israel published a map marking out a buffer zone covering nearly 600 square km (230 sq miles) that it had occupied with ground forces, and listing 57 towns and villages where it had warned residents to evacuate.
Since then, though, the Israel military has carried out hundreds of air strikes on a far wider area outside that occupied zone and issued evacuation orders covering more than 100 additional Lebanese towns and villages, according to a Reuters review of Israeli statements.
MENA/US/ISRAEL - The Mideast Is Baffled by Trump’s Call to Expand Abraham Accords
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/world/middleeast/trump-abraham-accords.html
The social media post by President Trump made it sound straightforward. The United States would orchestrate a deal to end the war with Iran and, in exchange, a slew of countries across the Middle East and South Asia would join an agreement, called the Abraham Accords, establishing relations with Israel.
In fact, he said, that “should be mandatory.” But half of the countries he named — such as Egypt, Jordan and Turkey — already have relations with Israel. And the other half — including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan — have no interest in establishing them anytime soon.
As a result, the meandering ultimatum that Mr. Trump shared on Monday was met with a mix of silence and bemusement across the Middle East. Regional analysts said they were not even sure that they understood the rationale behind his proposal. Why would ending the war, which the United States and Israel initiated by bombing Iran on Feb. 28, provide an incentive to recognize Israel for countries like Qatar, which had lobbied desperately to prevent the war in the first place?
“It’s just bizarre,” said Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University in Israel. “What’s the connection between a deal with Iran and that? I’m honestly puzzled.”
GIFT LINK: The High-Seas Black Market That Keeps Iran’s Illicit Oil Flowing
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iranian-oil-shadow-fleet-black-market-3dc7fb6c?st=Eza889&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
In this nautical no-man’s-land 45 miles off the coast of Malaysia, tankers laden with sanctioned Iranian oil sit low in the water, waiting to offload their cargo to vessels bound for Chinese refineries.
They lower tarps and other objects over the names on their hulls and use black paint to conceal identity numbers. They’re here to carry out an elaborate deception: offshore trysts known as ship-to-ship transfers, in which one vessel offloads sanctioned oil onto another to help obscure the oil’s origins before it is sent on to Iran’s biggest customer.
These clandestine oil transfers reveal a key strength of the Iranian regime and a major reason why it has been able to hold firm for so long against American pressure: Iran can still sell its oil. In negotiations, the U.S. has so far resisted lifting oil sanctions against Iran. But the regime’s workaround is still bringing in crucial hard currency.
The Wall Street Journal recently observed this up close. On a May 8 visit by boat, Wall Street Journal reporters watched as the Catalina 7, an aging vessel sanctioned by the U.S. for carrying Iranian crude, transferred oil through a thick hose with a ship whose name was covered by black paint.