June 3, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day in 1989, the Chinese government called in the military to put down a pro-democracy demonstration carried out by more than 100,000 people in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
QotD: "You're [effing] crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,” President Trump said to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu according to Axios reporting.
IRAN/US/MIL – Gulf tensions escalate as Iran hits Kuwait, US strikes near Hormuz.
Gulf hostilities flared again on Wednesday as Iranian attacks on Kuwait damaged its airport and injured dozens while the U.S. military carried out strikes near the Strait of Hormuz, with diplomacy to halt the war showing little sign of progress.
The attacks are the latest to test a shaky ceasefire, sending oil prices up more than 2%, as the strait remains largely closed more than three months after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran.
Flights at Kuwait International Airport were suspended after an Iranian drone and missile attack damaged airport facilities and diplomatic missions, killing one person and injuring more than 60 others, according to Kuwaiti authorities and state media.
The civil aviation authority said Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways were resuming flights after taking safety measures.
Earlier, Iranian media reported that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards had attacked the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and a U.S. airbase, as well as a vessel identified as Panaya. U.S. Central Command denied its bases had been hit and said Iranian ballistic missiles failed to strike their targets in the region.
CENTCOM said it had carried out a new round of "defensive strikes" in southern Iran, targeted missile launch sites and Iranian boats seeking to lay mines, and carried out strikes on Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz after attempted Iranian attacks.
MORE/ISRAEL – Trump confirms he called Netanyahu crazy in phone call.
U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged having called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crazy in an expletive-filled phone exchange over fighting in Lebanon, while the U.S. was trying to negotiate an end to hostilities with Iran.
In an interview broadcast Wednesday, Trump was asked whether he had called the longtime Israeli leader "effing crazy" and accused him of ingratitude, paraphrasing a report by Axios.
"I did," Trump told the "Pod Force One" podcast. "I wouldn't say angry. I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon, you know."
Trump went on to say he and Netanyahu get along very well.
According to the Axios report, which cited an unidentified U.S. official, Trump said to Netanyahu in a call on Monday: "You're fucking crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this."
Trump said in the interview: "At some point I said, Bibi, we got to stop this. We got to stop it."
US/JUSTICE – Trump administration drops $1.8 bn ‘weaponization’ fund after Republican backlash.
he Trump administration is abandoning the president's nearly $1.8 billion "weaponization" fund, U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers on Tuesday, after a rare backlash from Republican senators.
"We are not moving forward with the fund," Blanche said. "Period."
But Blanche also told lawmakers that an agreement with Trump to bar future audits of his or his family's past tax records will remain in place.
The fund emerged from a legal settlement between President Donald Trump and the Justice Department to resolve an unprecedented $10 billion Trump lawsuit against the IRS over the alleged mishandling of his tax records.
The fund was dropped after furious Republican lawmakers said it might threaten the passage of a $72 billion bill to fund Trump's immigration crackdown.
CONGO/US/MIL – US imposes sanctions on commanders over fighting in eastern Congo.
he United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on commanders of armed groups it accused of driving the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where fighting has continued despite mediation efforts by Washington.
Clashes have continued in eastern Congo, where M23 rebels, which the U.N. says are backed by Rwanda, and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Hutu militia rooted in the 1994 genocide, are fighting on opposite sides. Rwanda denies backing M23.
The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it imposed sanctions on M23 commander and chief of intelligence John Imani Nzenze, as well as Gustave Kubwayo, an FDLR commander and leader of an intelligence and special operations unit.
“President Trump has been clear that there is an urgent need to resolve the horrific conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the United States is committed to peace and prosperity in the region,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement.
BOLIVIA/PROTESTS – Bolivia’s defense minister resigns as anti-government protests intensify.
Bolivia's defense minister stepped down on Tuesday after a month of anti-government protests, two government sources said, marking the highest-level departure yet under centrist President Rodrigo Paz who is himself facing calls to resign.
The election of Paz, who took office in November, ended almost two decades of leftist rule. Protesters, including labor unions and groups loyal to former leftist President Evo Morales, are demanding Paz's government roll back austerity measures and address rising living costs.
One of the sources said Ernesto Justiniano, a vice minister involved in anti-drug trafficking efforts, has been tapped to replace current Defense Minister Marcelo Salinas.
Education Minister Beatriz Garcia also resigned on Tuesday evening, local media reported.
Earlier in May, President Paz announced he would reorganize his cabinet in the wake of the protests. Labor Minister Edgar Morales stepped down in the shakeup, alleging a lack of understanding with Paz, according to local media.
UKR/RUS/MIL – Ukraine drones hit Saint Petersburg as economic forum starts.
https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-drones-hit-saint-petersburg-as-economic-forum-starts/a-77400574
Regional governor Alexander Beglov said "several" facilities were hit on the outskirts of Russia's second-largest city.
Ukrainian officials said the attack aimed to disrupt the high-profile gathering, long known as "Russia's Davos," which President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend, as well as members of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany party.
The Reuters news agency quoted witnesses reporting thick smoke rising over the edge of the city after the strikes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the drones had hit the Saint Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Kronstadt military base in the city. He referred to "long-range sanctions," Kyiv's term for its own direct attacks on Russian oil and gas infrastructure.
"Ukraine's plan for long-range sanctions is being implemented exactly as needed to bring peace closer," Zelenskyy said, posting a video of an oil depot ablaze on social media.
UK/PROTESTS/POLICE – Protests erupt over student murder.
https://www.dw.com/en/uk-protest-erupts-over-student-murder/a-77399817
Demonstrators clashed with police in the southern English city of Southampton on Tuesday while protesting at what they said was an example of anti-white policing in the case of a student killed in December.
Protesters threw stones and other missiles at police in clashes close to the site where 18-year-old Henry Nowak died of his wounds while handcuffed by police after his killer, a Sikh man, accused the victim of racist abuse.
The protest, attended by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, came after the killer, 23-year-old Vickrum Digwa, was sentenced to life with a minimum of 21 years in prison on Monday.
Hundreds of protesters first gathered outside Southampton Central Police Station, with violence breaking out after many of them walked to the area of Portswood where the murder occurred.
Riot police there were forced to retreat from the line they were holding as they were pelted with chairs, rocks and flares, with demonstrators chanting "Henry, Henry."
The murder has aroused a heated debate in the UK on policing, race and knife crime in the UK.
Unrest has been additionally fueled by the release of a video showing police initially disbelieving Nowak's statements that he had been stabbed.
US/TARIFFS – US plans extra tariffs for 60 countries over forced labor.
https://www.dw.com/en/us-plans-extra-tariffs-for-60-countries-over-forced-labor/a-77400171
US President Donald Trump's administration is proposing additional tariffs of 10% or more to be imposed on its trading partners following a probe into countries importing goods allegedly made with forced labor.
In a report released Wednesday, the US Trade Representative (USTR) said it had found that 60 economies had failed to "impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor," calling it a "burden" to US commerce.
"This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field. We will no longer tolerate this disparity," USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer said in the document.
The tariff proposal is currently open to public comment and review and is therefore not in immediate effect.
The new tariffs under US trade law could help Trump bypass the Supreme Court ruling in February which stated that his tariffs were largely illegal.
COLOMBIA/ELECTIONS – Colombia’s presidential frontrunner vows loser US ties after Trump endorsement.
Colombia's hard-right presidential frontrunner on Tuesday promised much closer ties with the United States after receiving the backing of President Donald Trump.
Abelardo de la Espriella, a millionaire lawyer campaigning as a tough-on-crime outsider, said relations with Washington would be "like never before" if he defeats leftist senator Ivan Cepeda in a June 21 run-off.
De la Espriella was the surprise winner of the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, held against the backdrop of a surge in drug-related guerrilla violence.
He garnered more than 43 per cent – compared with 41 per cent for Cepeda – with the law-and-order platform that has propelled right-wingers to power across Latin America.
The third-placed candidate Paloma Valencia, a conservative, has thrown her support behind the right-wing showman, putting him in pole position to become the next president of one of Washington's closest South American allies.
Writing on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, Trump described the results of the election as "very important to the future of Colombia and its relationship to the United States."
Citing De la Espriella's "tremendous accomplishments in life, and his political support for me, personally," Trump gave the self-styled Colombian "Tiger" his "Complete and Total Endorsement."
US/DATA CENTERS – America’s data center build-out is falling way behind schedule.
Tech companies are earmarking unprecedented sums of money to finance the build-out of massive data centers, with a planned $80 billion equity-raise by Google parent Alphabet being the latest example.
But even as the piles of capital secured have grown ever larger, the ability to deploy it in the artificial-intelligence race has become less certain. Supply-chain backlogs, permitting fights and availability of power supplies are among the issues that have caused the construction of data centers to fall behind targeted timelines, with the gap growing wider in recent months: A JPMorgan analysis last month found that more than 60% of data-center capacity planned for completion in 2027 isn’t yet under construction, and another 7% is delayed.
It is a seeming paradox: If hyperscalers can’t break ground on many of the projects they have already announced, what difference can hundreds of billions of dollars more make—however eager Wall Street may be to supply it?
A closer look at Google’s AI infrastructure build-out suggests, at least, the beginnings of an answer. In pursuing new facilities for its cloud operation, which brought in $20 billion in first-quarter revenue, the company has taken a novel approach to getting around some of the major bottlenecks facing data-center builders—in particular, the ability to secure the massive amounts of electric power they require.
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