June 11, 2026 - Daily News Digest

On this day: in 1865, the Naval Battle of the Riachuelo is fought on the rivulet Riachuelo (Argentina), between the Paraguayan Navy on one side and the Brazilian Navy on the other. The Brazilian victory was crucial for the later success of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina) in the Paraguayan War.

QOTD: "You know what defense needs," [outgoing UK Defense Minister] Healey said to Starmer in his letter. "You made the argument for this powerfully at the Munich Security Conference back in February. Without a DIP that meets the moment in this way, I am being forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our Forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make the country less safe."

US/IRAN/MIL/ENERGY - Trump Says U.S. Will Hit Iran Tonight, Threatens Seizure of Energy Markets
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/trump-threatens-new-strikes-on-iran-says-u-s-will-seize-its-oil-and-gas-markets-38996e77?mod=hp_lead_pos1

President Trump threatened to strike Iran “VERY HARD” again Thursday night and take “total control” of the country’s oil and gas markets, a sign that he has abandoned the diplomatic route and is aiming to force Tehran into a nuclear deal it has resisted for months.

The U.S. “in the not too distant future” would take Kharg Island, which sits off Iran’s southern coast and is the country’s main oil export hub, Trump added in the Truth Social post, “and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America.”

Shortly after the post, Trump told Fox News on Thursday morning that the U.S. could make a fortune by taking Kharg Island and controlling Iranian oil sales, but that Americans probably don’t have the appetite for such a military operation and would rather see U.S. soldiers brought home.

“My preference has always been take Kharg Island,” Trump said in the interview. “I don’t know that America has the stomach for it.”

Trump’s threat came after a fresh wave of U.S. strikes against Iran on targets near the Strait of Hormuz, following weeks of impasse in negotiations to end the war. Iran said it struck back by targeting U.S. military facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, raising the risk that a tenuous ceasefire will spiral into a full-fledged military conflict once again.

Seizing Kharg Island, which handles roughly 90% of Iran’s oil exports, would be a significant escalation of the conflict and would likely require ground troops.

EU/MENA/ENERGY - Europe Set to Get Rare Oman, UAE Oil as China Curbs Purchases
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-11/europe-set-to-get-rare-oman-uae-oil-as-china-curbs-purchases

A wave of oil from the Middle East is set to arrive in Europe next month, a tangible example of how a collapse in Chinese imports is helping other countries to cope with the unprecedented supply disruption wrought by the Iran war.

At least six supertankers carrying a combined of 12 million barrels of crude from the United Arab Emirates and Oman are currently set to arrive in Europe next month, with majority of the cargoes to be discharged in northwest Europe, traders handling both nations’ grades said, asking not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly. An oil tanker is also signaling that it’s sailing to Rotterdam from Iraq.

When the war broke out, traders initially raced for supplies away from the Persian Gulf. But the market quickly calmed down again as it became clear that top importer China was scaling back its own buying sharply. That’s averted what could have been a bigger oil price rally and offered other countries access to cargoes that otherwise would have gone to the Asian nation.

For decades, Europe has taken only a small portion of crude from the Middle East, turning to more local sources of supply, and also lifting imports from the US when the Ukraine war meant a halt to imports from Russia.

Exports from Oman are shielded from the Iran war because the country’s ports sit outside of the Persian Gulf, meaning tankers don’t have to sail through the Strait of Hormuz to collect those barrels and take them to customers. Some, but not all, of the crude from the UAE that are set for Europe have come from outside of the gulf too.

The unusual flows have been driven by a rare trading arbitrage that opened as China stepped back. The premium of Brent futures to Dubai crude swaps, also known as Brent-Dubai exchange of futures for swaps, or EFS, expanded to nearly $10 a barrel last week from $6.75 on May 29, according to PVM Oil Associates data. A wider EFS increases the attractiveness of Dubai-linked grades, including those produced in the Middle East, for refiners in Europe.

UK/POL - UK: Defense Secretary John Healey quits in spending dispute
https://www.dw.com/en/uk-defense-secretary-john-healey-quits-in-military-spending-dispute/a-77505191

British Defense Secretary John Healey published his resignation letter at lunchtime on Thursday, quitting his post amid a dispute over military spending plans for the coming years.

The unexpected resignation compounds pressure on under-fire UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who in recent weeks had seemed to weather the worst of a storm about a potential challenge for the Labour Party leadership.

Britain's Defense and Finance ministries had been locked in talks for months on how quickly to increase defense spending in the next few years.

The clash pits strained public finances and anemic growth forecasts against NATO targets to continue increasing European defense expenditures.

What did Healey say as he submitted his resignation to Starmer?

Healey, a close ally of Starmer's for years and shadow defense secretary in opposition prior to Labour's election win in July 2024, prefaced his resignation by saying, "This is a letter I never expected to write, and I do so now with great reluctance."

He said he was proud of the UK's existing rapid increases in defense spending, but said that the latest settlement on a Defense Investment Plan (DIP) for spending through 2035 "falls well short of what is required for defense and the country at this dangerous time."

UK/SEC/POL - Police blast water cannons at protesters amid unrest over stabbing in Belfast
https://www.npr.org/2026/06/11/g-s1-127401/uk-anti-immigration-protests-belfast

Police blasted water cannons Wednesday at protesters in Northern Ireland who set small fires and hurled bricks, rocks and bottles at them during a second night of violence over a brutal stabbing on a Belfast street.

Demonstrators wearing masks tore bricks from the walls outside homes and smashed sidewalks with sledgehammers to toss at riot police. In one place, the unruly crowd used sections of a dismantled a picket fence to take cover on the street.

The clashes with police came several hours after a 30-year-old man from Sudan appeared in a Belfast court charged with attempted murder in a stabbing attack that left a man seriously injured and triggered anti-immigrant violence.

Hadi Alodid, 30, was ordered held in jail after appearing by video in Belfast Magistrates' Court, where a detective said he blinded Stephen Ogilvie in the left eye during the knife attack. He was also charged with possessing a knife and threatening to kill a radiographer while being treated for a hand injury after the assault.

When police arrived at the crime scene, they found Alodid on the man, armed with a kitchen knife, the detective said. Alodid later told hospital staff: "I've killed someone, I don't know if they are dead," and said, "I will kill you."

He refused legal representation through an Arabic interpreter and did not enter a plea.

Police were prepared for more violence after masked men on Tuesday set fire to several homes they believed to house immigrants, burned trash bins, torched a Belfast bus and pelted police with objects.

RUSSIA/UKRAINE/ENERGY - Russian-held Sevastopol suspends fuel distribution as Zelenskiy praises attacks on energy assets
https://www.reuters.com/world/russian-held-sevastopol-suspends-fuel-distribution-zelenskiy-praises-attacks-2026-06-11/

The governor of Sevastopol ‌in Russian-held Crimea said on Wednesday that plans for distributing rationed petrol had been delayed because trucks had been unable to bring the fuel into the city, following recent Ukraine strikes on supply routes.

Mikhail Razvozhayev's announcement that petrol rationing coupons temporarily could not be honoured coincided with remarks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Kyiv's ​long-running campaign targeting energy assets in Russia and the lands it annexed had proved its worth.

Crimea, annexed by Russia in ​2014, long before Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, introduced rationing for fuel last month because of shortages in ⁠the peninsula.

"Unfortunately, oil tanker trucks were unable to come to the city tonight," Razvozhayev wrote on Telegram, adding that priority for refuelling ​on Thursday would be given to public transport and utilities, emergency and government vehicles.

"I am addressing everyone: there is no point in ​lining up at... the gas stations tomorrow," he said late on Wednesday, adding that existing fuel rationing coupons would be cancelled and new ones issued on Thursday.

ALBANIA/US/POL - Thousands rally in Albania in largest protest yet against Kushner resort
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/11/thousands-rally-in-albania-in-largest-protest-yet-against-kushner-resort

Thousands of Albanians have taken to the streets of the country’s capital, Tirana, in the ⁠largest protest yet against a luxury resort development backed by United States President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Protesters on Wednesday held signs that said “Albania is not for sale” and chanted “New Albania” outside Prime Minister Edi Rama’s office as the crowd stretched half a mile down one of the city’s main boulevards.

The project, expected to cost about 5 ⁠billion euros ($5.8bn), has provoked outrage in the Balkan country because of its location near a protected wetland home to flamingos, seals and sea turtle nesting sites.

Critics have also raised concerns about a lack of transparency surrounding the plans designed by foreign investors.

“This is the prime example of what has been happening in Albania for the last 35 years,” protester Leand Lakrori told the Reuters news agency. “So today, enough is enough.”

GIFT LINK: The War in Ukraine Has Now Gone On Longer Than World War I
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/world/europe/ukraine-russia-world-war-i.html?unlocked_article_code=1.pVA.vQj3.Vw7GbpOAyCaw&smid=url-share

The war in Ukraine has often been compared to World War I for its brutal infantry assaults and heavy casualties. Yet the idea that it could, by any measure, surpass a conflict so long and bloody that French soldiers hoped it would be “the last of the last” once seemed unthinkable.

That is just what happened on Thursday. The war in Ukraine — which reached 1,569 days, or more than four years and three months — has now outlasted World War I.

When President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sent his troops into Ukraine in February 2022, he believed the country would fall within days. After Ukraine pushed the Russians back and the conflict settled into a war of attrition, even many of those fighting could not imagine it would last this long.

“I thought maybe two or three years, and then politicians will find some kind of consensus,” said a Ukrainian soldier who, for security reasons, gave only his call sign, France, a nod to his time in the French Foreign Legion.

But the war has raged on, and, with peace talks stalled, it shows no sign of ending soon. Polls suggest that about half of Ukrainians believe it will not end before next year, which would push it closer to another threshold: the duration of World War II, which lasted six years. And there are many Ukrainians who would argue that the current war really began in 2014 when Russian troops seized Crimea.

CANADA/TECH/POL - Canada seeks to ban social media accounts for children under 16, joining growing global effort
https://apnews.com/article/canada-social-media-ban-16-kids-292444c9dd8773aeb4119aaa9eae5990

Canada introduced legislation on Wednesday that could bar children younger than 16 from having social media accounts unless the companies show they can make their platforms safe.

Canada is joining a growing global effort to tighten safety protections. Canadian government officials said social media platforms can obtain an exemption if they have put in place sufficient safeguards.

“We are failing our children. Enough is enough,” Marc Miller, Canada’s culture minister, said. “We need basic protection in place.”

The legislation covers seven types of harmful content including content that induces children to harm themselves, content that incites violence and foments hatred and non-consensual intimate images.

A new regulator, the Digital Safety Commission of Canada, will be created. Criteria for what exemptions would look like will be announced at a later date. Miller said setting up the regulator could take up to 18 months.

IRAN/OIL - Hormuz Oil Sneakouts Rise 50% as Iran and US Vie for Control
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-11/hormuz-oil-sneakouts-rise-50-as-iran-and-us-vie-for-control?srnd=homepage-americas

Oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz have surged by about 50% this month, according to Vortexa Ltd., underscoring what’s at stake as the US and Iran vie for control of the critical waterway.

Vortexa estimates that at least 1.8 million barrels a day of non-Iranian Persian Gulf oil left the waterway in the first 10 days of June, up from 1.2 million a day in May. Those figures tend to be revised upward as more tankers are observed, aided by satellite-image analysis. In contrast, no Iranian oil is flowing as a result of a blockade imposed by Washington, it said, underlining a growing level of US control in the region.

On Thursday, Tehran appeared to respond. Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the body Tehran created to manage traffic through Hormuz, said the waterway would be closed until further notice.

The market reaction was muted, with Brent futures trading little changed. That’s a marked contrast to the 13% jump in prices that greeted Iran’s first shutdown of Hormuz at the outset of the war.

That may partly reflect the secret project President Trump unveiled on Thursday, in which the US military has helped about 100 million barrels of oil to clear Hormuz since last month. That would equate to at least 2.4 million barrels a day since the start of May, while traders and shipowners say volumes have increased in recent days, suggesting current figures could be even higher.

EU/ROK/MIL/TRADE - Tanks, guns and rocket launchers: The ties that bind the EU and South Korea
https://www.politico.eu/article/tanks-guns-rocket-launchers-eu-south-korea/

The EU is looking for international friends at a time of rising global turmoil, and South Korea fits the bill — with a top-level meeting set for Wednesday to cement tech, defense and industrial ties.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will meet with Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and Council President António Costa for over two hours — the first such summit in three years.

"The summit also provides an important opportunity for the EU to deepen its economic security cooperation with South Korea, which is a crucial de-risking partner," said Alexander Lipke, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

One key goal will be to launch a new competitiveness partnership to better cooperate on trade, investment and economic security. Such ongoing dialogues exist only with Japan and India.

The two sides will also sign a digital trade agreement negotiated last year.

But much of the talk will focus on defense — where South Korean weapons makers have become increasingly important to a fast-rearming Europe. The two sides signed a security and defense partnership in November 2024.

South Korean companies have become important suppliers to European militaries racing to buy off-the-shelf weapons to deter Russia, but they could also become rivals to established EU arms makers.

The biggest buyer of Korean arms has been Poland, which has signed multi-billion-dollar deals for 362 K9A1 Thunder self-propelled howitzers, 360 K2 Black Panther tanks, 288 K239 Chunmoo rocket launchers, and 48 FA-50 light combat aircraft.

Poland accounted for almost half of South Korea's arms exports between 2022 and 2024, with delivery speed a key factor, something U.S. rivals were unable to match.

ISRAEL/IRAN/MIL - IDF confirms airbase was damaged during Iranian missile attack this week
https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-confirms-damage-to-airbase-during-iranian-missile-attack-this-week/

The Israeli military on Wednesday confirmed that damage was caused to the Israeli Air Force’s Ramat David Airbase during Iran’s ballistic missile fire on Israel earlier in the week.

On Tuesday, low-resolution images dated June 8 from the European Commission’s Sentinel-2 satellite, processed by the Copernicus Browser site, showed a discolored patch where a warehouse is located at the northern Israel airbase, possibly indicating that it was hit during the attacks.

The IAF, as of Wednesday, was still investigating what struck the warehouse, although preliminary findings pointed to falling fragments following the interception of an Iranian ballistic missile, rather than a direct impact.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, no equipment was damaged, no injuries were caused, and there was no harm to the operational functioning of the airbase following the impact, which a security source described as “minor.”

Iran launched 24 ballistic missiles at Israel on Sunday night and Monday morning, with many of them aimed at northern Israel. In addition, the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen fired two ballistic missiles at Israel on Monday morning.

US/POL - Forget the DOJ. For a Trump pardon, call “Bobby” and other influencers
https://www.reuters.com/investigations/forget-doj-trump-pardon-call-bobby-other-influencers-2026-06-11/

Days before granting him a pardon in March of last year, President Donald Trump phoned Trevor Milton, an electric-vehicle entrepreneur and Republican donor who was convicted of defrauding investors of more than $660 million.

The president, according to previously unreported details of the conversation reviewed by Reuters, told Milton that high-profile advisors convinced Trump that Milton had been unfairly prosecuted by the Justice Department of President Joe Biden. Among those who put in a good word, Trump said, was U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Milton’s treatment was unjust, Trump said, and similar to his own targeting by federal investigators around the same time. “You had a lot of support,” Trump told Milton. “Bobby Kennedy. You have to call Bobby and thank him.”

In an emailed statement, Milton didn’t answer questions from Reuters about the exchange with the president or any support he received from Kennedy or others. The Department of Health and Human Services, where Kennedy is serving as secretary, didn’t respond to requests for comment on this report.[…]

·      96% of Trump’s second-term clemency grants have gone to recipients who didn’t fulfill longstanding DOJ guidelines for such requests. Past presidents on occasion have sidestepped those rules before. But fewer than 1% of those who received clemency during the Biden administration and just 14% of recipients in Trump’s first presidency failed to meet the guidelines.

·      Reuters identified 290 advocates, or influencers, who publicly or privately helped secure clemency for 197 recipients. Because some of the advocates worked on behalf of multiple candidates, their efforts at times overlapped, representing 624 different acts of influence. Among the influencers, 73 helped secure more than one pardon or sentence commutation. Brett Tolman, a former U.S. attorney now in private practice in Utah, has been involved in at least 12 pardons or commutations. Roger Stone, a veteran political consultant and longtime Trump confidant, had a hand in at least five.

·      Of the influencers identified by Reuters, at least 110 are known Trump allies. Eleven of those received clemency themselves from Trump during his first term. High-profile advocates and pardon recipients include Stone and Angela Stanton King, a conservative author and campaign advisor to Kennedy before he ditched his 2024 run for the presidency and backed Trump.

·      Six people familiar with recent clemency acts said intermediaries with proven access to Trump’s entourage can charge as much as $2 million for their services. Reuters, however, couldn’t establish how much each advisor it identified had charged for help with a given pardon.