June 17, 2026 - Daily News Digest
On this day in 1979, the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) II treaty was signed by US President Jimmy Carter and Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev.
QotD: "We're not investing, we're not putting up 10 cents. I would say they won't be doing it for a while until they find out the behaviour. It's a behaviour thing, but we are not investing,” President Trump said on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in France addressing the Iran private fund.
US/IRAN/DEAL – Iran deal includes $300 bn fund, more than half of which is already committed, sources say.
A $300 billion private fund designed to trigger investment into Iran is outlined in the U.S.-Iran framework agreement and more than half that sum has already been committed, a source with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters.
The fund is designed to give both sides an economic incentive to conclude a final deal to end the war, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not yet been announced as Washington and Tehran prepare to sign on Friday.
The fund's existence has been previously reported but Reuters is revealing for the first time that more than half of the amount has already been committed and that it will be comprised entirely of private-sector funds.
U.S. and Iranian officials said on Sunday they had agreed on a framework to end their war, which began when U.S. and Israeli forces attacked Iran on February 28, halt the U.S. blockade of Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key supply route for global oil and gas.
The new fund is a private investment vehicle, not a reconstruction or reparations programme and will not include any government money or grants, the source said, adding that companies based in the U.S., the Gulf Arab states, Asia, South America and Africa have agreed to commit financing.
Investments pledged span energy, logistics, manufacturing and transport, the source said.
U.S. President Donald Trump pushed back on Wednesday against any characterisation of the fund as a U.S. investment. "We're not investing, we're not putting up 10 cents," he said, adding that he was not asking Gulf countries to invest either.
"I would say they won't be doing it for a while until they find out the behaviour. It's a behaviour thing, but we are not investing,” he said on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in France.
MORE/ISRAEL – Netanyahu, Israel’s arch-survivor, set to face voter fury over Iran deal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hopes of clinging to power in an election this autumn have long been shaky, but the interim U.S. deal with Iran has added yet another complication.
U.S. President Donald Trump has opted to end the wars in Iran and Lebanon long before Israel's goals were accomplished, and Netanyahu's boast in March that "we are changing the face of the Middle East" looks increasingly empty.
Already facing corruption allegations, domestic political controversies and criticism over security failings in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, he will now face voters' judgement of his handling of the wars and Israel's relationship with the United States, its most important ally.
Netanyahu, 76, confirmed this week he intends to stand again in an election that must be called by October.
Opinion polls put his right-wing coalition on course to lose but, in a parliamentary system he has dominated for long stretches since the 1990s, few Israelis would entirely discount him weaving together a new government.
MORE/HORMUZ – What to know about the demining and escort mission that US allies want for the Strait of Hormuz.
The naval mission for the Strait of Hormuz that U.S. allies are proposing as a follow-up to a deal to end the Iran war would aim to reassure crews and shipping insurers that vessels can safely navigate the narrow waterway again, by removing any explosive mines and potentially providing military escorts.
France and Britain have been working on the plans for months. French President Emmanuel Macron floated the idea back in March when the war was raging, saying warships could escort tankers and container ships through the maritime chokepoint when the conflict dies down.
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, is already in the region. Macron dispatched it first to the eastern Mediterranean in early March and then onward through the Suez Canal to the Arabian Sea.
Other nations deployed in the region that could quickly help include the Netherlands, Italy and the U.K., Macron said.
The French leader told Trump that French fighter aircraft could take part in observation missions over the vital waterway as soon as Tuesday, followed “within 48 hours” by frigates “and within two to three days, the aircraft carrier.”
“Of course, all this supposes that it is desired and requested,” Macron said. “Perhaps it will not be wanted and perhaps it will not be necessary. But in any case, it reflects our willingness to help.”
Mine-clearing vessels would aim to rid the waterway of those underwater dangers for shipping that can be rocket-propelled, cabled or sit on the seabed and be triggered by sound, movement or light.
BRAZIL/POL/COURTS – Brazilian court convicts Eduardo Bolsonaro of seeking US help in father’s legal battle.
Brazil's Supreme Court on Tuesday convicted former lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, a son of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro living in the U.S., of courting interference from the Trump administration in his father's trial last year for a coup plot.
A panel of four justices unanimously backed the conviction, issuing a prison sentence of four years and two months to the former lawmaker, who now risks arrest on return to Brazil.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, who has argued in Washington that he and his family are the target of unfair persecution by Brazil's Supreme Court, said he had not been properly notified about the court's legal process.
The office of Brazil's Prosecutor General had charged him with courting U.S. authorities to help his father's case by imposing sanctions on the court's justices and tariffs on Brazilian goods last year. Both the tariffs and the sanctions were later scaled back.
The younger Bolsonaro moved to the U.S. in 2025, months before the trial that ultimately convicted his father of plotting a coup to overthrow the results of the 2022 election he lost.
US/CHIPS – US awards $500 million to Nvidia-backed SandboxAQ for finding new chipmaking materials.
The U.S. government awarded $500 million on Wednesday to startup SandboxAQ to develop new chemicals and materials for domestic semiconductor manufacturing, including alternatives to PFAS and rare earth imports.
The award is part of President Donald Trump's move to allocate research funds under the CHIPS Act, an effort that previously funded a $150 million investment in new chip manufacturing tools and a $2 billion investment in quantum computing.
It is developing a new kind of AI, designed to solve problems in the physical world. Instead of being trained on written human language or computer code, SandboxAQ's AI systems use the results of real-world experiments and physics-based data to produce models that help scientists solve problems that existing chatbots struggle with.
So far, SandboxAQ has applied those models to fields such as biotechnology and quantum navigation sensors to replace global positioning systems, but now it is moving into chemicals and materials for chip manufacturing.
With the $500 million award from the U.S. Department of Commerce, SandboxAQ will aim to come up with new materials where U.S. chip manufacturing either depends on vulnerable foreign supply chains, or where the industry faces shortages and bottlenecks.
The contract tasks SandboxAQ with finding commercially viable materials in four key areas: replacements and fixes for PFAS, or 'forever chemicals', used in chipmaking; catalysts to speed up chemical reactions in chipmaking; and new permanent magnets and batteries for chipmaking equipment that do not use rare earth elements from China or other foreign sources.
RUS/UKR/MIL – Russia accuses Ukraine of attacking bus carrying schoolchildren, Kyiv denies it.
Russia accused Ukraine of conducting a deadly drone strike on a bus carrying Belarusian schoolchildren on Wednesday, an allegation that Ukraine's military said was "false".
Yegor Kovalchuk, the acting governor of Russia's Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, said the bus had been taking a children's soccer team for a holiday in southern Russia from Belarus. Russia's Foreign Ministry, which called the attack "another monstrous crime," said a woman accompanying the children had been killed and that eight others, including six children, had been injured.
The Ukrainian military's General Staff denied the Russian allegation, saying on Telegram that "during the specified period, the Defence Forces of Ukraine did not employ unmanned aerial vehicles against targets in Bryansk Oblast."
Reuters was unable to verify the report. Both sides deny targeting civilians.
KOREA/DMZ – South Korea to shrink security buffer zone to North Korea.
https://www.dw.com/en/south-korea-to-shrink-security-buffer-zone-to-north-korea/a-77586166
While the South and North Korean militaries warily eye each other across the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two countries, Seoul's Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that farmers and residents will be allowed to access a bit more land near the heavily fortified border starting in 2027.
The ministry said it would shrink the Civilian Control Line (CCL), a military-controlled buffer zone south of the border, from 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) to an average of 6 kilometers.
"The CCL was established to restrict civilian access and guarantee military operations, but there have been growing calls for a need to complement its actual control measures," South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said.
"We have come up with an adjustment plan for the CCL to adapt to future security environments amid shrinking military manpower, while ensuring operational conditions," Ahn added.
South Koreans require the military's permission to live or farm in the area. Analysts have said locals face significant economic disadvantages.
"We will enable regional development to the extent that it does not interfere with military operations," Ahn said.
US/CRIME/DOJ – 5 charged in plot to attack Trump’s UFC event, DOJ says.
https://www.dw.com/en/5-charged-in-plot-to-attack-trumps-ufc-event-doj-says/a-77583097
The US Justice Department has charged at least five people in connection with an alleged plot targeting the Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the White House over the weekend, court records unveiled on Tuesday said.
The FBI learned about the plot on June 10, four days before the mixed martial arts event took place on the White House's South Lawn to mark Donald Trump's 80th birthday.
“And thanks to the rapid action of the FBI, our partners, and the Department of Justice in a multi-state operation, multiple individuals are now in custody and allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold," FBI Director Kash Patel wrote to X.
Law enforcement learned about the alleged plot after the mother of one of the accused first contacted local police, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.
The FBI then identified a group of conspirators who procured weapons and made detailed plans to carry out the attack.
The FBI said the investigation was ongoing and that it had so far made arrests in Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, and California.
CHINA/ANTICORRUPTION – Xi’s enforcers are hunting down officials who consult mystics and borrow too much.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has escalated his fight against corruption into a ruthless campaign to enforce political loyalty.
Communist Party enforcers punished nearly a million people in 2025, the highest number on record and more than five times that reported when Xi took power. The Wall Street Journal reviewed disciplinary statements on more than 940 officials punished under Xi, published by the party’s top internal watchdog from 2013 to this May.
The data shows how Xi’s purges have evolved in their focus, from economic crimes and moral lapses—such as bribery, embezzlement and adultery—to include wide-ranging political offenses, such as defying Xi’s directives or forming factions that could undermine Beijing’s authority.
Charge sheets grew into lengthy, moralizing denunciations that castigated officials for failing to stay committed to the party. Purged officials have been blamed for everything from raising excessive debt to failing to implement carbon-reduction directives to engaging in “superstitious” activities, such as consulting fortunetellers.
Xi’s goal: keeping officials on their toes at all times.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s top internal watchdog, didn’t respond to queries.
HAITI/GANGS/UN – UN chief visits Haiti, where a new international force will be deployed to help fight gangs.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres visited Haiti on Tuesday, where surging gang violence has left more than 1 in 10 people homeless.
New statistics released by the U.N. reveal that 2,300 people have been killed across Haiti so far this year, with another 100 kidnapped, while 1.5 million have been displaced. Among those abducted is James Boyard, cabinet director of the Defense Ministry, who was kidnapped last week in one of the few relatively safe areas of the capital.
Guterres’ one-day visit to Port-au-Prince comes after more than 30 people were killed, injured or missing last weekend in Cité Soleil, a seaside slum, according to Cooperative for Peace and Development, a local human rights organization.
His convoy sped past a neighborhood once fully controlled by gangs that left in their wake decimated car dealerships, abandoned homes and dozens of concrete buildings pockmarked with bullet holes. A colorful bus known as a tap-tap rumbled past, its windshield peppered with bullet holes.
Graffiti scrawled on a crumbling concrete wall read: “Down with Viv Ansanm, long live the police.” Viv Ansanm is a powerful gang federation that the U.S. government designated a foreign terrorist organization. It is estimated to control 70% of Port-au-Prince.
Guterres traveled past dozens of Haitians who fled the clashes and now live in makeshift homes under large pieces of canvas strung up with frayed rope.
They are among the more than 300,000 people displaced by gang violence across Port-au-Prince — a record. Among them are more than 18,000 people who fled the Cité Soleil slum in May, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration.