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Iran has discussed plans with its neighbors to extract billions from the global economy by setting up permanent tolls in the Strait of Hormuz—a direct result of President Trump's disastrous war that handed Tehran unprecedented leverage over the world's most critical oil artery.According to the Wall Street Journal reporting, Iranian officials are boasting to Middle Eastern neighbors that a lucrative new revenue stream is imminent. The Islamic Republic estimated that charging for "security, safety, and environmental services" in the strait could generate $40 billion annually for "participating states."The scheme would represent a dramatic reversal of pre-war conditions. Iran has positioned itself to control and monetize the "global shipping chokepoint" it effectively seized when the war began, causing worldwide pain.To gain regional buy-in, Tehran pitched the toll arrangement throughout the Middle East and to Beijing, proposing that Persian Gulf neighbors share in the revenue, with the Journal noting the model "mirrors" Turkey's system in the Dardanelles, where ships pay a tax known as the gold franc for passage."Everyone needs to know that management of the strait will never return to the way it was before," declared Iran's chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, during a visit to Oman on Tuesday to discuss the arrangements, the Journal reported.According to the report, "The number of ships crossing the strait on Wednesday reached its highest since the war began, with around 70 crossings, according to ship trackers, whose estimates vary. On average, before the war, 130 oil tankers went through the neck of the Persian Gulf each day."Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to push back during a Middle East trip this week, insisting that tolls or fees represent an unacceptable precedent that would "spread like a contagion and cause chaos.""No country on earth has the right to charge for the use of international waterways, and that will never be an acceptable condition of any deal," Rubio said in Bahrain, claiming Persian Gulf countries have rejected the toll idea.However, the Journal reported Rubio's objections may prove toothless, noting, "The 60-day deal to end the fighting and reopen the waterway puts Iran in charge of demining it and insists on toll-free passage for ships in that time. But the document also gives Iran, which doesn’t recognize maritime law governing the strait, a say in the future management of the shipping chokepoint."

In her dissent from one of the Thursday Supreme Court decisions on immigrant rights, Justice Elena Kagan made sure Donald Trump’s litany of racist remarks would be a forever part of the court’s historical record.The liberal justice used her dissent in a case where the conservative majority gave the president the legal authority to strip Temporary Protected Status from over 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians, among others, to call out the president for his flagrant racism.On MS NOW, legal analyst Lisa Rubin read directly from Kagan’s blunt dissent, telling the panel, “Justice Kagan in her dissent doesn't just summarize the statements from the president and from Kristi Noem, who was then the head of Homeland Security, but makes them plain, and I want to read to you from her dissent because she gathers them up.”Looking at her laptop, she read, “’Haitians are eating the dogs, they're eating the cats, they're eating the pets of the people that live in Springfield.’ And ‘Haitians are also,’ and this is the quote, ‘eating other things too that they're not supposed to be.’ And Haitians in the United States, quote, ‘Probably have AIDS’. And Haiti, is quote, 'A whole country which is,’ quote, ‘filthy, dirty and disgusting,’ end quote.”She continued, “And, Haitian immigration is, quote, ‘Like a death wish for our country.’ And Haitians, along with some others, are quote, ‘Poisoning the blood,' end quote, of our country. And finally, this is a statement from the president that ‘we only take people from s-hole countries like Haiti and Somalia. Why can't we have some people from Norway and Sweden?’”“And then she [Kagan] goes back to something that was talked about at oral argument when she asked one of the lawyers for the Haitians, ‘So it's not Haiti particularly, it's all these countries have people of color, as opposed to Denmark and Scandinavia, you know Scandinavia generally, and whatever,’ and the lawyer says, ‘I certainly think that the record supports the idea that the president in particular, has focused in on Haitians, but it's broader than that. Haitians are our plaintiffs.’ But the relevant comparison, the relevant group here is all TPS countries all of which are non-white — and that makes its way into Justice Kagan's dissent," Rubin pointed out.“The majority briefly replies that those remarks are not 'overtly racial,' but it is hard to know what that means,” Kagan wrote, before adding, “Haitians are Black. (Norwegians and Swedes not so much.) The references—of filth, disease, and primitiveness—are shot through with racial stereotypes and tropes. It is hard to imagine the statements being made today of any white community.” - YouTube youtu.be

MAGA followers rebuffed Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) on Thursday after he spoke out against the Trump administration following a Supreme Court ruling that ended temporary protected status for Haitians and Syrians.Lawler wrote in a post on X that he thinks the situation in Haiti is a "humanitarian and political disaster and continues to warrant an extension.""While I have never disputed the ability of the President to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS), I strongly disagree with ending Haitian TPS at this time," Lawler wrote, adding that the immediate ending of this status would "create a crisis in our hospitals, nursing homes."Conservative social media users and MAGA supporters made their dissatisfaction with Lawler known."Two things can be true at the same time. We can sympathize with those who have to leave our great country but also understand that applying the skills and education they received here back in Haiti is the only hope of ever saving that nation," Julie Kelly, a MAGA-aligned political commentator and writer with more than 909,000 followers, wrote on X."I've said it before and I'll say it again. The worst GOP Congressman. He hurts our team more than a Democrat in his seat would. Vote him out-- yes, even in the general," Jeremy Carl, senior fellow at conservative think tank the Claremont Institute, wrote on X."They’ve been on this 'temporary' status for nearly 20 years," Real Political Data, a conservative political commentary account with more than 58,000 followers, wrote on X."Exile this guy to Haiti," conservative writer Paul Kersey wrote on X.I've said it before and I'll say it again.The worst GOP Congressman. He hurts our team more than a Democrat in his seat would.Vote him out-- yes, even in the general. https://t.co/AUkPwOxgqs— Jeremy Carl (@realJeremyCarl) June 25, 2026

Opposition figures fear changes will further tighten 83-year-old president Emmerson Mnangagwa’s hold on powerZimbabwe is on the brink of amending its constitution to give the president more time in office, a change that the government says will bring stability but that opponents have labelled a “constitutional coup”.The upper house of Zimbabwe’s parliament voted on Wednesday 75-4 in favour of the constitutional amendments, which will allow President Emmerson Mnangagwa to stay in office until 2030 by extending presidential terms from five to seven years. Continue reading...

Vice President JD Vance’s becoming the face of the Iran peace negotiations has all the appearances of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Donald Trump leaving the veep out to dangle in the wind by defending a deal that will go nowhere.That is according to MS NOW’s Jake Traylor, who told host Stephanie Ruhle on Tuesday morning that one administration insider called Vance’s hyping up the negotiators' efforts a “complete capitulation” to Iran and characterized Trump’s initial praise of it as “salesmanship,” before adding, “That’s putting lipstick on a very ugly pig.”Traylor reported on Tuesday that Rubio has artfully “sidestepped” becoming involved in the negotiations, effectively dumping them on Vance.“I was told by a White House official that initially Rubio sort of strategically sidestepped this role as the lead of negotiations, this official told me that Rubio knew, Rubio had the foresight and awareness to say, ‘This deal is not going to be successful. I don't want my name attached to it,'” Traylor told the host. “Another White House official told me that they thought Vance was the wrong person for the job but Rubio didn't really want it. It kind of fell in Vance's lap and, as the Vice President, he had to sort of play a long.”“Probably the most illuminating moment for how difficult this uphill battle is for Vance right now comes from over the weekend,” he reported. “During the negotiations, we saw Vice President Vance touting progress, saying they were going to turn over a new leaf, a new relationship between the US. And Iran, and literally minutes later, we have a Truth [social media post] from President Trump that is threatening to restart military strikes again.”“It just it just shows the juxtaposition here that ultimately Vance can be the face of this thing, but it doesn't mean he has the control here,” he added.“Yeah, so Marco Rubio sidesteps this thing, noting that it's putting lipstick on a very ugly pig and maybe more importantly, Donald Trump lets him do it,” the amused Ruhle observed. - YouTube youtu.be

Rights campaigners and MEPs say meeting would normalise regime that erases women from public lifeRights campaigners and MEPs have warned that a meeting between EU officials and a Taliban delegation in Brussels risks normalising a regime that has banned girls from school beyond the sixth grade and sought to erase women from public life, while its ranks include two leaders accused of crimes against humanity.A spokesperson for the Afghan foreign ministry confirmed that a delegation representing the ⁠Taliban had travelled to Brussels after the Belgian foreign ministry issued five single-day visas. Continue reading...

Iran is moving unilaterally to tighten its grip on the Strait of Hormuz — and to start collecting revenue from it – even as it negotiates with the U.S. and its Gulf neighbors over future management of the waterway.Iran's top insurance regulator, Mousa Rezaei, announced Sunday that a new insurance company has been created specifically for the strait, according to Iranian state media, and days earlier, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority — an entity Iran established in May — began requiring vessels to register and carry a new mandatory Iranian insurance policy, reported the New York Times.For now, that coverage is free, but shipping experts say the 60-day free period is telling. That matches the length of the cease-fire and free-passage guarantees in last week's U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding ending the war and reopening the strait.Once that window closes, maritime historian Salvatore Mercogliano said, Iran could begin charging vessels for "insurance" against risks — attacks, detained mariners — that didn't exist before Iran itself created them by striking commercial ships earlier this year.Richard Meade, editor of Lloyd's List, called the arrangement effectively a toll by another name, designed to get ahead of the broader negotiations over the strait's security framework that Vice President JD Vance said are still to come.International law generally bars charging tolls for mere passage through a strait, though fees for actual services — like tugging waste disposal — can be legitimate. Iran has not specified what services its new insurance would provide, and the International Maritime Organization said the scheme has not been submitted to it and carries no basis in international law allowing mandatory fees or tolls.The maneuver also creates a trap for shippers. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Persian Gulf Strait Authority in May, accusing Iran of trying to monetize attacks on vessels through extortion, and has warned that paying the authority could itself trigger sanctions — leaving companies caught between Iranian demands and U.S. enforcement.The result, Meade said, is that shippers remain stuck in limbo, unable to return to how transit worked before the war and unable to know what rules will govern it next. The Persian Gulf Strait Authority did not respond to a request for comment by the outlet.

A U.S. fighter jet pilot described a seemingly extraterrestrial sight before he ejected from his aircraft during hostilities in Iran.The downed F-15 pilot told intelligence officials during a debriefing after the April incident that he saw multiple Iranian drones hovering in air in a formation resembling a jellyfish, four sources familiar with the matter told CNN, and one source said the pilot described the formation as a “minefield of drones.""It immediately set off a firestorm of debate within the US intelligence community that has yet to be resolved," CNN reported. "If the airman really saw what he described — a formation moving in unison — it would be an alarming advance in Iranian drone capabilities."The downing remains under investigation, but initial reports indicated the formation had allowed Iran to shoot down a U.S. fighter jet for the first time during the war, two of the sources said.“Multiple drones interconnected and moving as one with smaller drones below the bigger drones like legs,” one of the sources told CNN. “Real alien s---.”The pilot was rescued hours later, but the weapons systems office on board the two-person craft evaded capture for more than a day in the mountains of Iran before also being rescued.A second aircraft, an A-10, was also downed during the rescue effort but that pilot ejected safely outside Iranian airspace.U.S. intelligence officials disagreed on their interpretation of the pilot's recollection, and some cast doubt on his account, pointing out he was concussed in the crash – his second time being shot out of the sky during the Iran conflict."Had he witnessed a mature capability that U.S. intelligence wasn’t aware of? A beta test? A mirage in the desert?" CNN reported.The technical term for what the pilot purportedly described is “one-to-many meshed networking,” according to the sources, and U.S. intelligence agencies had not been aware Iran was capable of using.Multiple reports have indicated that Iran received assistance in developing its drone technology from China and Russia, which are both believed to possess that capabbility.