Top World News

Secretary of State Marco Rubio scrambled for a printer inside the Palace of Versailles after President Donald Trump went to the sign his Iran deal — without bringing a copy with him.A new report sheds light on the chaotic behind-the-scenes details of how the historic agreement came together.According to Agence France-Presse, Trump decided to sign at a candlelit dinner in Versailles "quite spontaneously" — the text hadn't even been printed, leaving Rubio to hunt down a printer somewhere inside the grand palace.When Trump finally put pen to paper, he used a fat black marker, the crockery still on the table after a dinner of lobster and caviar.The deal itself had been announced three days earlier — on Trump's 80th birthday, June 14 — while he was still in Washington, celebrating by watching MMA cage fights at the White House.The signing venue had shifted multiple times. French President Emmanuel Macron had said the deal had already been signed "electronically." It had then been expected that Vice President JD Vance would formalize it with top Iranian negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf in Switzerland. Trump then muddied the waters by saying it would be signed "tomorrow, maybe the next day" — before simply signing it himself at the Versailles dinner, reportedly impressed by the palace's "golden splendor."Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed his own copy in a parallel move, with Iranian news agencies showing him brandishing the document for the cameras.The follow-on talks at the luxury Bürgenstock resort in Switzerland — a mountaintop complex where hotel guests had reportedly been quietly asked to leave — were postponed at the last minute, reportedly due to Israeli military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon late Thursday.Journalists waiting on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base to fly to the meeting with Vice President JD Vance received a terse message: the vice president wasn't leaving that evening.Iran said Friday there was now "no urgency," but that it was "planning to hold a meeting in the coming days."

Strong winds and heavy rain batter Slovenia, while France experiences atypical heatwaveSevere thunderstorms swept across the Balkans last week, bringing widespread destruction to parts of the region. The storms developed as unstable hot air lingered over the Adriatic Sea while a cold front plunged south-eastward.The front began its journey on 10 June in Slovenia, where the Slovenian Environment Agency recorded 65mph gusts at Ljubljana airport. Heavy rain also fell widely across the region with 23mm reported in Kranj. Continue reading...

Vice President JD Vance will have to stay home instead of traveling to Switzerland to finalize the memorandum of understanding the Trump administration struck with the Iranian regime last weekend, according to a White House spokesperson.On Sunday, Trump announced his administration had struck a deal with the regime that would immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide a pathway to ending the conflict. The final agreement was initially scheduled to be signed on Friday in Switzerland. CNN journalist Kristen Holmes reported on Thursday that a White House spokesperson told her, "The Vice President is not departing tonight." The spokesperson added that "as the Vice President said at his press conference, the plans for the upcoming technical talks have not been finalized," referring to the deal to end the Iran war."The U.S. delegation has been prepared to depart at the first available opportunity," the White House spokesperson told Holmes. "But the logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable."

President Donald Trump has already revealed the next big lie that he plans to sell to Americans, a foreign policy analyst said.Robert Kagan, a contributing writer for The Atlantic and a foreign policy analyst, said during an appearance on CNN that Trump will try to frame his deal to end the Iran war as "regime change" and "unconditional surrender."He added that Trump will deny that the money going to Iran is "reparations" for the war."He's all about the big lie," Kagan said. "And this is going to be his big lie. I just don't think that even he, who is one of the great con artists of all time, can sell the American people on this being anything other than an American surrender."Kagan also pointed out, "The one thing we're confident is happening is that Iran is going to get billions of dollars, tens of billions, and probably hundreds of billions of dollars in return for nothing," and described it as "an easy tell" that gives away Trump's lie."Now, that's called reparations, and if you look at history, reparations are paid by the loser to the winner," Kagan explained. "In World War I, Germany paid reparations to Britain and France. If Germany had won the war, Britain and France would have paid the reparations, so that's how you know what happened in this war."In other words, "Trump essentially paid the Iranians to give him a fig leaf that would allow him to come home and tell the Americans that everything is fine," Kagan summed up.

Directive aimed at government workers, but reports of wider implementation spark warnings of future Afghanistan-wide prohibitionThe Taliban have ordered a sweeping ban on the use of smartphones by government officials – in what some analysts say could foreshadow broader, population-level restrictions.In a directive issued by the Taliban’s military courts and reviewed by the Guardian, the ban was to take effect this week and prohibits “high rank, low rank, general mujahideen, or service staff” from using mobile phones. Continue reading...

A MAGA senator was walloped online after he parroted a head-spinning Trump defense of his dubious Iran deal.Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) was asked by CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday about Trump's deal to end the war with Iran."Are you okay with Iran having missiles?" Collins asked.Marshall responded, "I prefer that they not, but they have to defend themselves," echoing Trump, who hours earlier defended letting Iran keep its ballistic missiles because "other people have some."Commentators online let Marshall have it for his overt effort to remain in lockstep with Trump."This guy will say whatever Trump says on any given day," Ron Filipkowski, the editor-in-chief of the MeidasTouch news network, said. "He has no core beliefs. His political philosophy is whatever position Trump takes today, which may be different from the position Trump had yesterday.""Trump/flunkie Republican senator says Iran has to be able to defend itself," summarized journalist John Harwood."Couldn't we have just come to this conclusion before 13 Americans and thousands of Iranians died for nothing?" asked American Saga writer Zaid Jilani."So America's adversaries need to be able to defend themselves against America for America's sake?" wondered Max Meizlish, a senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "Got it. Nothing to see here. Nothing weird going on at all."Spanish-language journalist León Krauze described the comments as "surreal." Meanwhile, Pradheep J. Shanker, a doctor and contributor for the National Review, simply wrote, "JFC" to express his frustration.

President Donald Trump's administration admitted to Congress that Iran was still directly involved in financing terrorist activity, at exactly the same time the president was planning to give them money, Punchbowl News reported on Wednesday.According to the report, the State Department "told Congress that Iran’s oil exports are a primary revenue source for the regime’s funding of terrorist activities — just hours after the United States and Iran electronically signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to lift oil sanctions."This 515-page report, which detailed U.S. efforts against international drug trafficking, indicated that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “controls significant portions of the domestic economy.” The report continued that “Iran’s oil and petroleum exports are a primary source of revenue for its armed forces, terrorist partners and proxies. The majority of Iran’s oil transactions are conducted by illicit networks.”All of this follows reporting that a key obstacle to Trump's Iran deal is the difficulty of delisting IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), which is in theory required for the full-scale sanctions relief the administration is promising.Legislation passed by Congress in 2022 about the Ukraine war contained a provision requiring that any U.S. intelligence that Iranian drones were attacking Americans would prohibit the IRGC from being delisted as an FTO for four years. Per Punchbowl's Andrew Desiderio, "Last April, the State Dept formally told Congress that the IRGC had indeed attacked Americans with drones."The memorandum with Iran "also sets up a $300 billion 'reconstruction fund' that many Republicans believe will inevitably be used for terror financing," noted the report, as well as allowing "the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran to direct where much of that funding goes."

FBI Director Kash Patel's country singer girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, has a new "government gig" planned in Belgium this summer, according to reports on Wednesday.Wilkins will perform the national anthem in Brussels for a "Freedom 250" party featuring a military flyover, thousands of VIP guests, troops and fireworks, reported The Swamp, one of The Daily Beast's Substacks. "The event will be held at Cinquantenaire Park, a sprawling 30-hectare urban park known for its Triumphal Arch, sweeping gardens, and grand museums," according to The Swamp. Not everyone was thrilled about the party. "The Swamp has learned that some locals are already annoyed that a large part of their city is set to be sealed off ahead of the MAGA-fest."Bill White, the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium and Wilkins's friend, has planned the event.Patel and Wilkins started dating in 2023. It's unclear if Patel, who has been criticized for using his FBI jet to attend the Olympics in Italy and taking secret snorkeling trips in Hawaii, will be there."Which raises two obvious questions: Is Wilkins getting paid— and will Keystone Kash be making the trip?" The Swamp wrote.