June 23, 2026

U.S., ISRAEL, IRAN WAR | Day 116.

• U.S. Treasury Department officials announced a temporary rollback of sanctions on Iranian oil yesterday – allowing for sanction-free, dollar-denominated trade of Iran's crude oil for the first time in more than 40 years. President Donald Trump defended the move, saying Iran is not supposed to use money from the oil sales to rebuild its military, but, rather, to purchase U.S. agricultural products – a requirement to which Iranian officials say they are not bound. [more]
• Amidst ongoing lower-level technical talks on detailed plans for implementing a U.S.-Iran peace deal, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is in Islamabad, Pakistan, today for meetings with Pakistani mediators. [more]
• Reports say the U.S. Department of Defense has informed Congress that it will request $80 billion in supplemental funding to cover the cost of the U.S. war against Iran. [more]

U.S. GUN VIOLENCE | Two people were killed, and a child was injured, yesterday in a shooting at the Chico branch of the Butte County Library in Northern California yesterday. Police say a yet-unidentified suspect is in custody following the incident, which remains under investigation. [more]

U.S. HOUSING | The Senate voted, 85-5, yesterday to pass a broad housing package aimed at increasing supply and lowering prices by reducing federal regulations and allowing more local control of housing investment and oversight. Among the measures included in the bipartisan package, which will now be considered by the House, are a streamlining of environmental reviews and a ban on corporate investors from buying single-family homes. [more]

U.S. VOTER DATA | A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Trump administration knowingly violated Congressional prohibitions against the use of centralized personal identifying information of U.S. citizens in creating its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database for voter citizenship verification and that use of the database must be halted. In her ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan said the database aggregated sensitive personal data in a way that could result in voters being wrongly purged from voter rolls. [more]

MINNESOTA | In a ruling unsealed yesterday, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz blocked an attempt by the Justice Department to subpoena Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other state officials as part of investigations into alleged obstruction of law enforcement during the surge in federal immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota earlier this year. Schiltz said in his ruling that he found the "dominant purpose” of the subpoenas was to “coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration law and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so.” [more]

ISRAEL AND GAZA | The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, established by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2021 to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, said in a statement today that it found Israeli authorities and security forces to have "deliberately carried out acts inflicting death and severe bodily and mental harm on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children" in their operations in Gaza, even following the implementation of a cease-fire last October, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. [press release] [full commission report] [more]

AI INDUSTRY | In an address today at London Climate Action Week, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for artificial intelligence companies to measure and disclose information about the pollution created by their operations and data centers, as well as their land and water use, and to commit to powering their facilities with electricity generated through renewable sources, such as wind and solar, by 2030. [more]

NIGERIA | Authorities in north-central Nigeria's Plateau State say at least 20 people were killed by members of a yet-unidentified armed group in the region's Kawel community on Sunday. No arrests related to the incident have been made and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. [more]

EUROPEAN HEATWAVE | Southern England and about half of France are under heat warnings and advisories amidst an ongoing heatwave that is expected to last through the end of the week. Reports cite climate officials as saying this heatwave is already being compared to one in August 2003 that is believed to have caused about 15,000 deaths. [more]

SOUTH SUDAN | The country's National Elections Commission says South Sudan will hold its first general election on December 22 – the African nation's first since gaining independence in 2011. [more]

CANADA | Three people, including a police officer, were killed yesterday when a suspect with a long gun opened fire at a hotel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Authorities note that the suspect was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police and that the incident was the city's first in which a police officer was killed in the line of duty in 24 years. [more]

TURKEY | Amidst broad security preparations for next month's NATO summit in Ankara, security forces in the Turkish capital arrested more than 200 people today on suspicion of ties to extremist groups, including the Islamic State militant group. [more]

TECH INDUSTRY | Amidst operational changes at least partially driven by the adoption of artificial intelligence, tech giant Oracle's total workforce declined by about 13%, or 21,000 employees, from May 2025 to May 2026, according to the company's newly released annual report. [more]

WORLD CUP | Lionel Messi scored both goals in Argentina's 2-0 win over Austria yesterday to set a new record of 18 for the most goals ever scored by a single player in World Cup play. [more]

BASKETBALL | In a major NBA trade, the Miami Heat have reportedly acquired two-time NBA MVP and 10-time All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for multiple Miami players and several future first-round draft picks, including the No. 13 selection in tonight's NBA draft. [more]

R.I.P. | Music executive Clive Davis, best known for discovering and producing artists including Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Carlos Santana, Kenny G, and Whitney Houston, died yesterday at the age of 94. Davis won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a non-performer, in 2000. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 2016, in the first such move by an E.U. member country, the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to withdraw from the European Union, with 51.9% supporting Britain's exit (“Brexit”) and 48.1% opposing the move. [more history]