European Politics and International Trade Updates

There's something about being around people who stay engaged, who care about their community and about each other. At St. Paul's Towers, that's part of everyday life. Conversations that matter, neighbors who look out for one another , and a sense of connection that runs deep. And with a full continuum of care, you don't have to leave that behind. You can stay part of it. Explore your options at Saint Paul Towers. org, a nonprofit life plan senior community within the front porch family. Good morning . This is Send seven World News in Seven Minutes. I'm Steven Devin Chenzi. Today is Friday the nineteenth of june, twenty twenty six . Starting in Asia today , Iran and the United States have released the text of an interim peace deal known as a memorandum of understanding . The memorandum includes a ceasefire , including in Lebanon , ends naval blockades, although with some conditions , allows Iran to export oil and other products unfreezers currently frozen Iranian assets , creates a three hundred billion dollar reconstruction and economic development plan for Iran , drops sanctions on Iran , says that Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon , and the memorandum says that a final deal will be reached in sixty days . Iran has said that it is planning to start charging ships for passing through the Strait of Hormuz after the sixty days are over. Some analysts have noted that US President Donald Trump has with drawn at least one of his original reasons for attacking Iran , which was destroying Iran's ballistic missile capability . This is Trump speaking on the twenty eighth of february when the U. S. started its attacks on Iran , Trump says that one of the aims is to destroy Iran's missiles . Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas and could soon reach the American homeland . We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally again obliterated . According to the New York Times, last month, US intelligence believed that Iran still had around seventy percent of the missiles it had before the start of the war , although this week, Trump said that they only had twenty one or twenty two percent . Speaking yesterday at a press conference, Trump said that Iran has got to have some ballistic missiles because that's only fair as other countries have them. But I mean, they have to have some because other people have some, you gotta have some. Somebody said, You shouldn't give them one. I have guys. I like some of these guys , but I don't think I don't think they're smart . Sir, you shouldn't let them have any missile . I said, Well, what am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can't have them? Yes, sir. It doesn't work that way, you know ? It doesn't work that way. And missiles aren't the problem. Missiles are they hurt a little location, but they don't blow up the planet . Off the coast of Somalia , the Pakistani crew of an oil tanker that has been held hostage by Somali pirates for fifty days have urged the Pakistani government to help them. In a video which appears to have been released or recorded by the Somali pirates , the crew say that they are running out of food and water. In Afghanistan, the Taliban has banned the use of smart phones for all public officials. Europe , Ukraine conducted one of its biggest air attacks on Russia yesterday . The BBC has reported that Ukraine used almost a thousand drones with around two hundred hitting targets in Moscow. The Moscow oil refinery appears to have been hit many times . There has been extensive phone camera footage shared on social media which shows various parts of energy infrastructure on fire and thick black smoke covering the sky . At least one apartment block was also hit by a drone. Footage appears to show, and Russian officials said that people were injured. Also, Ukraine might have its grain exports reduced by a third because of Russian attacks on grain exporting infrastructure like seaports and ships, according to industry executives. Ukraine is one of the biggest wheat exporters in the world and the world's biggest exporter of sunflower. In the United Kingdom, a by election to become a member of Parliament is being held in the constitu ency of Makerfield, near Manchester . Normally a by election would not be important enough for me to mention on this podcast , however the labour candidate in this by election is the mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham who has said that if he wins, he will challenge the leadership of Prime Minister Kir Starmer . Burnham is generally seen as being more popular than Starmer , both in Parliament and around the country , so it is quite likely that Andy Burnham could become Prime Minister if he wins this by election. I'll talk about the result in today's email newsletter. Africa trade between Africa and China rose by almost eighteen percent last year, according to customs data seen by Reuters , the International Monetary Fund has said that this is also causing a rise in the use of China's currency the yuan . Last month, China removed trade tariffs from almost all countries in Africa. In South Africa, two men have been sentenced after being found guilty of trafficking rhino horns in a case that the police has described as the biggest in the world , leader David Gronweld has been given a choice of either spending four years in prison or paying a two million grand fine , which is over a hundred thousand euros Americas in Brazil , politician Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jairo Bolsonar o has been sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to push the United States to interfere in his father's trial . Last year, Jayer Bolsonaro was sentenced to twenty seven years in prison for plotting a coup to stop the transition of power after he lost the twenty twenty two presidential election. He is serving his sentence under house arrest , Brazil's Supreme Court has found that Eduardo Bolsonaro attempted to influence his father's trial by pushing the Trump administration to impose sanctions on the Supreme Court 's judges and to put tariffs on Brazilian products . And in the US, Mexico and Canada, the Football World Cup is entering its second week. Every team has played at least one game . In Boston, Bars have said that they are preparing extra beer for the Scotland vs. Morocco game tonight , as during the Scotland st Again Haitiatch m last Sunday, the Scottish fans drank so much beer that some bars had to call for emergency