Israel’s plans to occupy Gaza. Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan last night to expand its military offensive in Gaza, an unnamed Israeli official told news organizations today. The plans reportedly include capturing all of the territory and remaining there for an unspecified time. The Houthis said that they would repeatedly target Israeli airports in response to Israel’s growing operations in Gaza; Israel vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and Iran after a Houthi rocket landed in the area of Israel’s main international airport yesterday.
OPEC+ output hike. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers said Saturday that they would increase their output by around 411,000 barrels per day next month. This follows a previous decision in April to raise output; since then, prices of the international benchmark Brent crude have fallen around 20 percent. Trump has called for lower oil prices, and is due to visit the Middle East this month. Early today, the price of crude oil was hovering around a four-year low hit in April.
Mexico rebuffs U.S. troops. Mexico rejected a proposal by Trump to send U.S. troops across the border to combat drug gangs, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Saturday. She told supporters at an event that “sovereignty is not for sale.” A U.S. National Security Council spokesperson praised bilateral security cooperation but said that Mexico “must do more” to counter gangs and cartels, and that the United States stands ready to help.
TikTok’s penalties in Europe. The European Union fined TikTok $600 million for failing to uphold privacy standards while transferring data to China. Meanwhile, Irish authorities said the company failed to disclose where personal data was being sent and ordered it to reverse course. TikTok said its new data storage system “has some of the most stringent data protections anywhere in the industry” and that it “never provided European user data” to Chinese authorities.
U.S. defense tech to Ukraine. A U.S.-made Patriot air-defense system currently located in Israel will soon be moved to Ukraine under a deal reached by the Joe Biden administration, unnamed current and former U.S. officials told the New York Times. Talks are also reportedly underway to transfer an additional system from Germany or Greece. The Defense Department said the United States “continues to provide Ukraine” with previously authorized technologies.
India, Pakistan impose trade bans. India’s foreign trade office announced on Saturday a ban on imports coming from or transiting through Pakistan as tensions continue to heat up following the killings of Hindu tourists in Kashmir last month. Pakistan followed suit by announcing bans on goods produced in India or goods bound for India from third countries. Pakistan’s ban would not affect goods that were already under contract, Dawn reported.
Washington lists Haiti groups as terrorists. The United States added two Haitian gangs to a list of foreign terrorist organizations, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the move aimed to end “impunity for those supporting violence in Haiti.” He warned that people who transact with the groups may risk being sanctioned. An analyst from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime said the designation would hamper humanitarian work.
Trump threatens film tariffs. The U.S. president yesterday wrote on social media that he had instructed his team to prepare a 100 percent tariff on movies produced overseas. Other countries’ incentives for the film industry constitute a “national security threat,” he wrote. Some of the most-anticipated movies for the U.S. market in the coming weeks were made partly or totally outside of the United States. It was not clear how such tariffs would be calculated.
