Washington and the union.
The United States has announced new penalties, called sanctions, meant to cut off money and trade with Iran, calling the move an 'economic D-Day.' Iran's government called the sanctions 'economic terrorism.' Washington also asked China, which buys most of Iran's oil, to help enforce the sanctions, but China publicly refused, saying they won't solve the underlying conflict.
Trade talks between Canada and the United States remain stalled after Washington threatened tariffs of up to 50%.
Senate Democrats are asking the Trump administration why it has issued no new sanctions in 17 months against networks that help Russia dodge existing sanctions imposed over its war in Ukraine.
Ukraine bought 70 ATACMS, a US-made long-range missile, from Turkey instead of the US.
President Trump told Fox News that Iran will face a heavy military strike if nuclear negotiations break down again, keeping that option open even as Iran, the United States and Oman say they are close to a deal reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries about a fifth of the world's oil and gas out of the Gulf.
Since clearing its 86-12 procedural vote, the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026 has been narrowed to cap tariffs at 100 percent on the top five Russian energy buyers. Twelve EU states, including Czechia, still import some Russian energy, and Democrats warn the tariff power Trump would gain never expires.
Washington's new tariff wall has moved the story from complaint to counter-move, with Canada threatening its 'full range' of retaliation and allies from Brussels to Canberra contesting the reasoning itself.
After a third consecutive night of strikes on Iran, Trump has floated a tolling scheme in the Strait of Hormuz that he says could raise nearly $200 billion a year. The war is becoming a US-run chokepoint that reprices global energy trade and puts every Gulf-dependent ally on notice.
President Trump said the US will 'keep' and 'probably run' the Strait of Hormuz after overnight airstrikes on Iran, turning a weekend exchange of fire into an open contest over the passage that carries a large share of the world's seaborne oil.
Volodymyr Zelensky's cabinet reshuffle was already reshaping Kyiv's wartime strategy. Then Lindsey Graham, the sanctions bill's chief architect in the Senate, died hours after his last visit to the Ukrainian capital.
Rep. Nancy Mace is openly interested in Lindsey Graham's vacant Senate seat, while Politico reports top House Republicans are privately working to keep their own members from being appointed. The fight over the Senate's loudest pro-Ukraine seat now runs straight through the House majority math.
South Carolina's replacement machinery is now in motion: a temporary appointee, a special Republican primary, a November election. The process will decide more than one seat — it doubles as a test of where the Republican line on Ukraine goes next.