U.S. rescinds waiver permitting Iranian oil sales after Iran attacks tankers

2026-07-07T19:04:00-0400 / CBS News

By Richard Escobedo

Updated on: July 7, 2026 / 7:04 PM EDT / CBS News

The Trump administration on Tuesday revoked a waiver that allowed Iranian oil sales, a key source of revenue for the regime, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Treasury Department said that “General License X,” which was issued two weeks ago as part of an interim peace deal between the U.S. and Iran and exempted Iranian oil sales from U.S. sanctions, would be superseded by a narrower waiver called “General License X1.”

The new license does not authorize any new Iranian oil sales after Tuesday. It allows a grace period until July 17 for transactions already in process and authorized under the previous license, with the money from those sales placed in a “blocked, interest-bearing account.” It is unclear how many transactions were already in process.

The U.S. had been required to issue sanctions waivers and allow Iran to export crude oil as part of a 60-day U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding struck last month. That deal also extended a ceasefire between the two countries — a provision the U.S. accused Iran of violating Tuesday by attacking three commercial vessels.

“As President Trump and the administration have repeatedly affirmed, the MOU in effect with Iran is entirely performance-based,” a U.S. official told CBS News in a statement after the oil sanctions waiver was rescinded. “Iran will only reap benefits if they exhibit good behavior. Iran’s actions in the Strait were wholly unacceptable to the United States and will be met with consequences. Our negotiators continue to work in good faith towards a final deal.”

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, blasted the U.S. revocation of the waiver, saying it violated the memorandum of understanding, in a post on X.

“Iran, while issuing a serious warning regarding the consequences of America’s breach of the agreement, will take decisive actions to safeguard its national interests and security,” Gharibabadi wrote.

Oil prices rose on the news. The international Brent Crude benchmark climbed to $75 a barrel. The U.S.-based West Texas Intermediate crude benchmark jumped to $71.

A spokesman for Saudi Arabia’s Embassy in the U.S. condemned Iran’s attacks on commercial vessels and said that Saudi and Qatari tankers were targeted.

“The Kingdom affirms that these unacceptable attacks are an assault on the security and safety of international navigation, and the energy of global energy supplies,” the spokesperson said.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said Tuesday it struck targets inside Iran in retaliation for the strikes on commercial vessels, which CENTCOM called a “clear violation of the ceasefire.”

The cessation of attacks on commercial ships and the U.S. waiver permitting Iranian oil sales were key components of the memorandum of understanding signed by the U.S. and Iran on June 18. The memorandum halted fighting between the U.S. and Iran for 60 days, while both sides worked to iron out technical details over Iran’s nuclear program, and required Iran to allow for the safe passage of commercial ships.

It also helped put a lid on oil prices, which peaked at $125 a barrel in late April because the Strait of Hormuz, where one fifth of the world’s oil transited before the war, was effectively closed. Iranian drone and missile strikes also severely damaged oil and gas infrastructure in Gulf countries, leading to supply shortages which pushed up prices.

Shortly before the memorandum was signed, commercial oil reserves were on track to hit critical levels. Gasoline prices, which peaked at over $4.50 a gallon in May, would likely have risen even further.

“Oil reserves run out in about 4 weeks,” President Trump said in a press conference on June 17.

China and India, among the top buyers of Iranian oil, “were the primary beneficiaries” of the “General License X” sanctions waiver, according to Daniel Tannebaum, a former sanctions official at the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department.

It is unclear what impact two weeks of Iranian oil sales — plus a surge in oil shipments through the Strait — will have on oil markets.

The broader impact of the U.S. withdrawal of “General License X” is yet to be seen, said Tannebaum, who is now a partner at Oliver Wyman, where he leads the Global Anti-Financial Crime practice.

“What we do know is the Strait of Hormuz is permanently changed at this point,” he said. “This war set off the conditions for Iran to do something that no one really believed they could do, and I don’t know how you get that genie back in the bottle. It will take a remarkable feat of diplomacy to really move back to the type of free navigation that we saw through the Strait just five months ago.”

U.S. conducting retaliatory strikes against Iran

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/us-retaliatory-strikes-iran-attacks-commercial-ships/

U.S. conducting retaliatory strikes against Iran after attacks on commercial ships

(04:09)

Mexico investigating possible U.S. violation in 2024 capture of infamous cartel leader: “Someone lied”

2026-07-07T13:54:00-0400 / CBS News

Mexico said Tuesday it is investigating whether its sovereignty was violated by the United States in the 2024 capture of drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, in the latest flareup of diplomatic tensions over Washington’s war on cartels.

The inquiry comes after the FBI displayed in an exhibition the plane used to bring most-wanted Zambada, co-founder of the notorious Sinaloa cartel, to the United States.

“If one of the U.S. agencies participated in this operation, they would be violating international treaties and the (Mexican) constitution,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said at her daily press conference.

Zambada was arrested in the United States in July 2024 alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is also imprisoned.

When Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty to U.S. narcotrafficking charges last December, he admitted to having kidnapped Zambada to bring him to the United States — a betrayal meant to win favor with U.S. authorities. According to details revealed in Guzman’s plea deal, Zambada was ambushed, loaded onto a plane, drugged and spirited across the border to the United States.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico said in 2024 that no U.S. agency had participated in the operation, Mexican government secretary Rosa Icela Rodriguez said at the morning news conference.

“The versions are contradictory. Someone lied,” she said.

“What agreements did that agency have, or who else participated with the criminal group?” Sheinbaum said, according to La Jornada. “In this case, everything seems to indicate that the ambassador (Ken Salazar) lied.”

Last August, Zambada pleaded guilty to federal charges related to his role as a co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, including drug trafficking, gun offenses and money laundering. Federal prosecutors alleged that Zambada and other Sinaloa cartel leaders were responsible for massive quantities of heroin, cocaine and fentanyl and other illegal drugs being distributed into the U.S.

Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada CBS News

The war between factions of the Sinaloa cartel unleashed after the arrest of Zambada has left thousands dead and missing.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly said that drug cartels control Mexico, warning he will use boots on the ground south of the border if Sheinbaum doesn’t crack down on criminal gangs.

Sheinbaum has downplayed the threats, emphasizing that Mexican soldiers use U.S. intelligence to track down narcotraffickers — as with the killing of cartel boss Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera in a raid in February.

In April, two CIA agents died in unclear circumstances during an anti-drug operation alongside soldiers and state police in the border state of Chihuahua —without apparent authorization from Mexico’s federal government.

Sheinbaum’s administration opened an investigation, still ongoing, into whether the presence of the agents represented a violation of national security laws, creating fresh diplomatic friction.

Days later, the U.S. Justice Department indicted the then-governor of Sinaloa, Ruben Rocha Moya, as well as nine other current and former officials, on drug charges.

Rocha Moya is a member of Sheinbaum’s ruling left-leaning Morena party — and a close ally of her mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Sheinbaum responded to the indictments by requesting the U.S. provide “irrefutable” evidence against Rocha Moya before potentially extraditing him.

Charlie Kirk murder suspect ate at Chick-fil-A and changed clothes before shooting activist, agent says

2026-07-07 15:09:00-0400 / CBS/AP

The man charged with killing Charlie Kirk strolled Utah Valley University in shorts and a T-shirt, bought a meal at Chick-fil-A and made contact with Kirk’s staff, before returning in different clothes to shoot the conservative activist from a rooftop, an investigator testified Tuesday.

Utah State Bureau of Investigation Agent David Hull described Tyler Robinson’s alleged movements before and after Kirk was killed as prosecutors played previously unseen campus surveillance videos in state court. The defendant first arrived on campus about four hours before Kirk was killed, Hull said.

While the court on Tuesday watched video of Robinson allegedly walking to the roof and lying down, Erika Kirk appeared to be crying and dabbing her eyes.

Prosecutors say they intend to seek the death penalty in the case. They are trying to convince Judge Tony Graf that they have enough evidence to bring Robinson to trial on an aggravated murder charge.

Robinson has not yet entered a plea. His attorneys have not commented on his guilt or innocence. They have, however, sought to get the death penalty taken off the table, so far unsuccessfully.

In a video shown Tuesday, Robinson goes over a railing onto a rooftop, crouches down and runs to a site overlooking where Kirk was speaking, Hull testified. After the shooting, Robinson runs back across the roof, drops to the ground and flees on foot, Hull said.

Utah Department of Public Safety agent David Hull testifies during a preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, the Utah man accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, on July 7, 2026 in Provo, Utah. Trent Nelson – Pool / Getty Images

Investigators later found the suspected murder weapon — a bolt-action rifle with one spent round — wrapped in a towel in some nearby woods. Later that night, a police officer again spotted Robinson in the campus area, Hull testified.

The defense objected to broadcasting a second, enhanced video showing the same surveillance footage that was played for media earlier, and the judge sustained.

This week’s preliminary hearing marks the most significant presentation of evidence to date in the case. Authorities allege Robinson, 23, shot Kirk on Sept. 10 while the conservative activist and ally of President Donald Trump was speaking to a crowd of thousands.

Former university police Officer Christopher Bagley testified Monday that he witnessed the shooting then went to the nearby gravel rooftop, where it appeared someone had been lying prone with a clear sightline to Kirk’s location.

“It looks like a sniper pad,” Bagley told the court.

Court will hear statement from Tyler Robinson’s roommate

Prosecutors also plan to present video from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office from Sept. 11 — the day Robinson turned himself in — and recorded testimony from Robinson’s roommate.

Judge Graf ruled last month that Robinson’s former roommate did not have to testify in person during the preliminary hearing.

Prosecutors allege Robinson confessed in a note left for his roommate, who was also his romantic partner, that read: “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.”

Robinson reportedly texted his roommate that he targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred,” prosecutors have said.

Prosecutors have also said they plan to present DNA evidence linking Robinson to the suspected murder weapon, autopsy findings and witness statements. They contend the shooting endangered others at Kirk’s campus event — an aggravating circumstance that could make the crime punishable by death under Utah law.

A vehicle is parked outside 4th District Court with numerous images of Charlie Kirk during the first day of a weeklong preliminary hearing for Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk, on July 6, 2026 in Provo, Utah. Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images

Kirk’s family members attend hearing

Before his death, Kirk and the organization he co-founded, Turning Point USA, galvanized the conservative youth vote to help Mr. Trump win a second term.

This week marks the first time Kirk’s parents, Kathryn and Robert, and widow, Erika, have been in the courtroom since the case began. Robinson’s parents, Matt and Amber Robinson, also have been present and sat a few rows behind the Kirks on Monday.

Kirk’s family briefly walked out of the courtroom twice on Monday — when Bagley started testifying about Charlie Kirk’s arrival on campus and again when prosecutors introduced several graphic videos of Kirk’s shooting. Each time, they returned.

In a statement before Monday’s hearing, Kathryn and Robert Kirk said, “Every court proceeding serves as a painful reminder of his death and the loss that has irrevocably impacted our lives and the lives of his children.”

Prosecutors have a low bar

The proceeding resembles a minitrial, but prosecutors need only demonstrate that there are reasonable grounds to believe Robinson killed Kirk and should stand trial. The standard is lower than for a trial, where prosecutors must prove guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Legal experts say that means prosecutors should have little trouble advancing their case.

Defense attorney Kathryn Nester repeatedly objected to evidence introduced by prosecutors. She was mostly overruled by the judge.

When she asked Bagley about finding an empty pistol holster on the ground after the crowd fled, he acknowledged he never took custody of the holster and didn’t know whether it had been fingerprinted.

Spectators camped out for hearing

Utah County residents Denae Branch and Jean Rivera lined up outside the courthouse in Provo around midnight Tuesday and snagged one of the few seats available to the public.

The women said they were in the crowd when Kirk was shot and now think about it every day.

“It feels like a lot of the world just kept spinning and we’re still dealing with the trauma of it,” Branch said. “Our hearts and minds are still trying to process it and, yeah, it kind of helps being here.”

Rivera on Tuesday wore a shirt that read “FREEDOM” — just as Kirk did on the day he was shot. She said she hoped to hear testimony about Robinson’s alleged confession note.

Iran attacks ships in Strait of Hormuz days after Trump gave Tehran ‘a week off’ for Khamenei funeral

Qatari liquified natural gas carrier Al Rekayyat and Saudi crude tanker Wedyan were struck as ceasefire tensions mount

July 7, 2026 2:24pm EDT / Fox News

By Morgan Phillips, Liz Friden

BREAKING: Iran reportedly resumes attacks in Strait of Hormuz

Iran has reportedly resumed attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, a move the Trump administration has claimed is a violation of the ceasefire.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Iran attacked commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz Monday and Tuesday, reigniting tensions after President Donald Trump said the U.S. had given Tehran “a week off” during funeral ceremonies for slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

A U.S. official confirmed that three commercial vessels were struck by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz between Monday and Tuesday.

The attacks targeted commercial shipping transiting one of the world’s busiest maritime choke points. British maritime authorities confirmed a vessel was struck by a projectile near the coast of Oman Monday, while Iranian state media reported the ship had ignored warnings from Iranian forces. The attack reportedly caused a fire on board, but there were no immediate reports of fatalities.

On Tuesday, the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported that another tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz had been struck by an unidentified projectile. UKMTO said the vessel sustained what was believed to be structural damage but reported no casualties or environmental impact. The agency said it was continuing to investigate the incident and advised vessels transiting the strait to exercise caution and report any suspicious activity.

WALTZ CALLS OUT IRANIAN DIPLOMAT AT UN FOLLOWING DRONE STRIKES ON BAHRAIN AND KUWAIT

The attacks threaten one of the world’s most important energy corridors and raise fresh questions about whether the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire can survive long enough for the Trump administration to negotiate a broader peace agreement. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s seaborne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, making any disruption to commercial shipping a potential risk to global energy markets and U.S. strategic interests.

Commercial cargo vessels and crude oil tankers are anchored in the Gulf of Oman, off the coast of Muscat, Oman, on June 21, 2026, as they prepare to transit through the critical Strait of Hormuz.(Shady Alassar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

That followed two ships being hit Monday.

A U.S. official confirmed one ship hit Monday as the Al Rekayyat, a Qatari liquified natural gas carrier. Iran acknowledged the attack, with state media saying the tanker ignored “repeated warnings” and continued to transit along the southern route of the strait near Oman with U.S. assistance.

A second vessel, the Saudi-flagged crude tanker Wedyan, also sustained damage near the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. official confirmed. The cause of the damage was not immediately clear, and Fox News Digital has reached out to the vessel’s operator, Bahri, and the Saudi Embassy in Washington for comment.

The White House and the Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment. Central Command, which leads military operations in the Middle East, declined to comment.

TRUMP’S MOUNT RUSHMORE ADDRESS FEATURES 28 MINUTES OF ICONIC WORDS, 23 MINUTES OF DAZZLING LIGHT, FIREWORKS

The renewed attacks also cast doubt on the Trump administration’s diplomatic strategy. Just days earlier, the White House had paused negotiations while Iran observed funeral ceremonies for slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in hopes of resuming talks after the mourning period concluded.

Speaking during a Fourth of July address at Mount Rushmore, Trump said Iran was “dying to settle” after months of military pressure and declared the U.S. had given Tehran “a week off for a funeral because we’re nice.”

Trump did not elaborate on what the pause entailed, but U.S. and Iranian officials had delayed negotiations until after the conclusion of Khamenei’s multi-day funeral procession, which is scheduled to end with his burial in Mashhad.

Monday’s attack on commercial shipping raises fresh questions about whether the diplomatic opening Trump described can survive renewed hostilities in one of the world’s most strategically important waterways.

Iran has insisted it should play a leading role in managing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and has sought to collect fees from commercial vessels transiting the strategic waterway. The Trump administration has rejected that position, insisting the strait remain open to free international navigation.

Iranian religious leaders and other mourners walk past the coffins of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and members of his family during a viewing ceremony ahead of the dayslong funeral ceremonies at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran, July 3, 2026.(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

In recent days, Iran warned that commercial tankers using routes not approved by Iranian authorities would face a “forceful response,” and the latest strike comes after multiple attacks on commercial shipping since the U.S.-Iran conflict began earlier this year.

The latest attacks are the newest test of the fragile ceasefire established under a memorandum of understanding signed in June that launched a 60-day negotiating period aimed at reaching a broader peace agreement between Washington and Tehran. The accord called for reopening the strait during the negotiations and an end to military operations while the two sides negotiated a final deal.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

On June 25, Iran attacked the Singapore-flagged cargo ship M/V Ever Lovely with a one-way drone while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz along the Omani coast, prompting U.S. retaliatory strikes on Iranian missile, drone and coastal radar sites. U.S. Central Command called the attack “a clear violation of the ceasefire.”

The truck carrying the coffins of the slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and members of his family makes its way through mourners during the funeral procession toward Azadi Tower in Tehran, Iran, Monday, July 6, 2026.(Vahid Salemi/AP)

Commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz had begun to recover in recent days following the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, though shipping remained well below historical levels. Ship-tracking firm Kpler reported daily traffic had stabilized at roughly 30 to 60 vessel crossings, down from around 140 per day prior to the U.S. offensive against Iran known as Operation Epic Fury.

‘We do need to defund the police’: 2020 interviews undermine Abdul El-Sayed’s claim he never advocated for unpopular movement

2026-07-07T17:09:56.105Z / CNN

Michigan Democratic Senate front-runner Abdul El-Sayed has faced criticism for previous comments he made about defunding the police. In recent interviews, El-Sayed has insisted he “never, never called for defunding” the police. Last week in an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt, he said he deleted old tweets supporting the movement because they were taken “out of context,” calling them “clickbait in DC.”

But interviews from 2020 show El-Sayed repeatedly endorsed defunding the police, according to a CNN KFile review of his media appearances. “We do need to defund the police,” El-Sayed said in a 2020 radio interview while specifically discussing how the slogan could undermine criminal justice reform efforts.

El-Sayed’s interviews from 2020 and 2021 show him embracing the “defund the police” movement — not just uttering the phrase but supporting the key principle of reinvesting funds from the police into other public-sector spaces such as mental health and anti-poverty efforts.

His comments came during the height of the defund movement’s popularity following George Floyd’s murder in May 2020. While the movement gained traction among progressives, it remained politically unpopular with the broader public.

“We are in a moment where a lot of our public conversation gets chewed down into 280 characters or less,” El-Sayed said in June 2020 on Detroit Public Radio, arguing it was better to explain what needed to be done than hedging “behind a hashtag.”El-Sayed at the time was a public health advocate, podcast host and Detroit’s former public health director.

“I believe that we do need to defund the police in so far as defunding the police is disinvesting in the means of incarcerating someone or killing them on the streets,” he added. “And in investing more in the means of educating and empowering, engaging communities with the means of being able to take on systemic poverty, that we’ve allowed systematic racism to allow to fester in too many communities.”

El-Sayed added it meant investing less money in police.

“What if we were to invest in social services? What if we were to invest in public schools? What if we were to invest in public libraries? What would the world look like there? And I think that has to be the way we go. And that means both investing more in these services, and it also means investing less in police,” he said.

Roxie Richner, a spokesperson for his campaign, pointed to El-Sayed’s public health experience working with local law enforcement in Wayne County, Michigan, and told CNN in a statement that “his perspective has become more nuanced.”

“One simple word has never been enough to fully explain the reforms we need for a challenge as complex as our criminal legal system,” Richner said.

“Just as he did in Wayne County in 2023, Abdul believes we need to improve law enforcement recruitment, retention, and retirement funding so that law enforcement officers come from the communities they serve. He also believes we must reject militarized policing, pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, and opt for community violence intervention, behavioral health response, and improvements in public health to reduce violence and protect the lives of communities and law enforcement alike.”

El-Sayed has emerged as the Democratic front-runner ahead of Michigan’s August 4 primary in one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races. He will face US Rep. Haley Stevens after state Sen. Mallory McMorrow dropped out Sunday.

El-Sayed and Stevens are scheduled to face off Tuesday night in a statewide televised debate.

The winner of the Democratic primary is expected to face Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in November. In a battleground state carried by President Donald Trump in two of the last three elections, including 2024, Michigan Republicans are likely to scrutinize Democrats’ past positions on crime and policing.

El-Sayed, a 41-year-old progressive activist, served as the lead public health official for the Detroit Health Department and later as the head of Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services. He also hosted a podcast, “America Dissected,” and served as a CNN contributor.

Even in 2020, polling repeatedly showed policies advocating to “defund the police” were extremely unpopular. A Fox News poll from July 2020 showed that 82% of surveyed Michigan registered voters had a favorable view of their local police. A 2021 Axios/Ipsos poll found that just 27% of respondents supported the “defund the police” movement as of April 2021, with 70% opposed to it.

When asked last week by CNN’s Kasie Hunt on whether he still supported defunding the police, El-Sayed did not directly answer but said his tweets were taken out of context.

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed on what democrats can learn from proressive candidates

10:43 • Source: CNN

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed on what democrats can learn from proressive candidates

10:43

“I deleted all the tweets because I didn’t want them to be taken out of context like this so that you could distract from the actual conversation that Michiganders really want to have about what they want their leadership to actually fight for them to do,” El-Sayed said.

Pressed twice by Hunt on whether he still supports defunding the police, El-Sayed did not directly answer. Instead, he said voters should judge him by his record running Wayne County’s Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services, saying he “funded the system because it needed to be funded.”

“I think this debate about 2020 and the ways that tweets are going to play are really nice on CNN if you want to get clicks,” he added. “They’re not that effective, and nobody really asks me about them on the streets or in communities in Michigan. So, if you want to talk about housing or health care or corporate dominance in our politics, I think those are a lot more legitimate questions that people are actually asking me about what they want their next senator to do in the state of Michigan, rather than for clickbait in DC.”

The interview came after El-Sayed previously sought to distance himself from the slogan after CNN reported on his deleted tweets in November 2025.

In an interview with the Detroit News shortly after the article was published, he said, “I want to be clear, I actually never, never called for defunding. My goal in that conversation was to help everybody to understand what we were talking about.”

But the deleted tweets CNN reported show El-Sayed repeatedly embraced the substance of the defund movement, even when he framed it as “refunding” other public services. CNN tallied thousands of deleted tweets, including about a dozen in support of the “defund the police” movement.

“Most major US cities spend WAY TOO MUCH on police departments to police poverty & WAY TOO LITTLE on public schools, health departments, recreation departments, & housing to eliminate poverty. Fixing that is what the #Defund movement is about,” El-Sayed wrote in a since-deleted post from June 2020.

“The police have become standing armies we deploy against our own people,” he added in another June 2020 post.

El-Sayed’s deleted tweets were not his only public expressions of support for defunding the police.

Throughout 2020, he repeatedly endorsed some of the movement’s goals in interviews, speeches and writings, often describing them as shifting government resources away from policing and incarceration and toward public health, education and anti-poverty programs.

“The question becomes, where are the places that we as a society ought to invest? Should we be investing in militarized police — police that have military materiel — or should we be investing in mental health services, poverty reduction, food, walkability, higher-quality air and better access to water?” he said in November 2020 when speaking to a college group, according to the Manistee News Advocate, a local newspaper.

And in May 2021, El-Sayed wrote on his Substack that instead of having productive conversations to combat rising crime, the discussion “will likely reduce back to the debate about policing.”

“The irony of this is that those advocating for reductions in police budgets aren’t doing so in a vacuum: they’re advocating for those dollars to be invested in taking on exactly the same causes of insecurity that the pandemic exacerbated that underlie so many of its consequences, like crime,” he wrote. “Smaller police budgets mean more investment in housing, childcare, food assistance, and income support.”

An epidemiologist, El-Sayed often framed “systemic racism and police brutality” as a public health issue. In the summer of 2020, El-Sayed was a contributor in an online University of Michigan seminar on police brutality in America.

“So we have to ask ourselves, do police departments really need tanks and weapons of war and the materiel that’s coming back as hand-me-downs from the military abroad? Do police really need to use guns? Do we need as much of a police force?” he said at the seminar.

He continued, “When we talk about the question of quote-un-quote ‘defunding the police,’ it’s a question of asking, how do we right-size government away from the racist ideologies that have led us to investing in war materiel for policing rather than public health for children?”

“Defunding the police is disinvesting in the means of incarcerating someone or killing them on the streets and investing more in the means of educating and empowering engaging communities,” El-Sayed said in another 2020 local press interview.

Nigel Farage, U.K. far-right leader and former Trump ally, resigns amid finance scandal in high-risk gamble

2026-07-07 12:27:18 EDT / CBS News

By

London — British politician Nigel Farage, a one-time ally of President Trump who has led a surging far-right, populist movement in the U.K., resigned on Tuesday as a lawmaker to trigger a special election. It’s a high-risk political gamble to renew his mandate from voters as he faces mounting pressure over a financial scandal.

Farage has been accused of violating British parliamentary law for failing to disclose financial gifts — including from a 32-year-old convicted criminal who calls him “Daddy,” according to The Sunday Times newspaper.

The Reform U.K. Party leader said he would stand in the by-election for his vacated seat, which is likely to take place in the early fall.

Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage announces his resignation as a member of parliament, July 7, 2026, in London, England. Getty

“I’ve decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,” Farage said in a televised address Tuesday, referring to the southeast England constituency he’s represented in parliament for two years.

“This will be a people versus the establishment by-election,” he declared, calling it “a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment to frankly tell them where to go.”

His resignation means that two parliamentary investigations into donations from two wealthy individuals will be suspended.

Farage reiterated his stance on Tuesday that he had “done nothing wrong.”

Reform U.K. leader Nigel Farage announces his resignation as a member of parliament, July 7, 2026, in London, England. Dan Kitwood/Getty

BBC New’s chief political correspondent Henry Zeffman called the move an attempt “to appeal to a higher political authority than the parliamentary standards committee,” the body that has been investigating Farage’s financial declarations as a lawmaker.

Britain’s outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, however, called it a “desperate stunt,” saying Farage had made the decision because he is “up to his neck in sleaze.”

Farage’s party, Reform U.K., which supports the mass deportation of people in the country without legal documentation and the scrapping of national climate goals, has been topping public opinion polls for at least a year.

The party’s ascent — and its success in recent local elections in particular — was part of the reason the ruling Labour Party forced Starmer to tender his own resignation last month.

Starmer is almost certain to be replaced by his Labour colleague Andy Burnham within a few weeks, taking the reigns of both the party and the prime minister’s office.

Farage, if he wins his seat back, could become Burnham’s most serious challenger in the next national elections. If he isn’t reelected to the parliament, however, he cannot become prime minister.

Farage is a divisive figure in U.K. politics. He’s seen as the architect of Britain’s “Brexit” from the European Union, which recent polling shows a majority of voters now believe was a mistake, and he has faced multiple allegations of historic racism.

He has, in the past, appeared keen to show himself as a close ally of President Trump, particularly ahead of the 2016 U.S. election when Mr. Trump won his first term in office. In 2024, he offered to act as a “bridge” between Mr. Trump and Britain’s newly-elected Labour Party.

“I might be useful as an interlocutor, unofficially, behind the scenes, to try and help mend some of those fences,” he said at the time.

In March, however, after Farage visited Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida but didn’t end up meeting with the president, sources close to the British politician told the Financial Times the relationship between the two men had cooled.

Farage had stated before the trip that he would be “dining at Mar-a-Lago.”

A representative said after the trip that he had never planned to meet Mr. Trump in Florida.

See Trump’s shifting blame game on the Russia-Ukraine war

2026-07-07 3:00 PM ET / CNN

By Kevin Liptak, Amy O’Kruk

30 min ago

PUBLISHED Jul 7, 2026, 3:00 PM ET

Photo Illustration by Alberto Mier/CNN/Getty Images

Donald Trump Russia War in Ukraine

President Donald Trump’s inability to find peace in Ukraine — a war he once claimed would be over the day he took office — has caused him enormous frustration. But the focus of his ire has zig-zagged throughout his second term in office.

At moments, Trump has flashed anger toward Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky, casting him as ungrateful and unwilling to compromise.

Other times, he has vented about Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he once hoped would agree to a peace deal because of their close relationship.

Tracking the back-and-forth has become a pastime for European officials, who have worked to keep Trump on Ukraine’s side, even as he sometimes parrots Russian talking points.

Who Trump appears to favor often reflects who he spoke with last. Trump will have a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday.

But he also spent more than an hour on the telephone this weekend with Putin.

Data sources: CNN reporting, NBC News, Truth Social (@realDonaldTrump), Rev transcripts, Roll Call transcripts.

Photo credits: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images; Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images; Donald Trump/Truth Social; Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images; Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images; Aaron Schwartz/AFP via Getty Images.

Rahm Emanuel expected to say Israel needs “significant changes and a new direction” in Tel Aviv speech

2026-07-07 12:59:00 / CBS News via AP

Rahm Emanuel, a potential Democratic presidential candidate and longtime defender of Israel, will denounce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv this week and deliver a bracing message that the country’s relationship with the United States is “at a crossroads.”

“It cannot stand or survive as it has been,” Emanuel will say at Tel Aviv University on Wednesday, according to remarks obtained by The Associated Press. “To maintain the strength of our ties, we need significant changes and a new direction.”

In an interview with the AP ahead of his speech, Emanuel said Israel’s continued military response to Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, has been “reckless and careless in the treatment of Palestinian life — not only the military campaign but using food and medicine as an instrument of your military goals.”

Asked whether Israel had committed genocide, an accusation leveled by some human rights organizations and rejected by the Israeli and U.S. governments, Emanuel said the question should not be considered in isolation without also examining conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan.

“I’m ready to have that discussion,” he said, “but I don’t think it should be politicized, and then dilute the power of what genocide means.”

Taken together, the interview and upcoming speech from a stalwart of Democrats’ centrist wing are another demonstration of how far the party has shifted away from its historic support of Israel almost three years after the war in Gaza began.

About 58% of Democrats say the U.S. is “too supportive” of the Israelis, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, up from 45% in January 2024. Roughly half of Democrats believe that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war with Hamas.

Emanuel’s proposals will include sanctions on Israelis who attack Palestinian civilians and property, along with companies and banks that support settlements considered illegal by most of the international community. He also wants to end U.S. subsidies to Israel’s defense budget, arguing the country “should be able to buy American arms under the same financial terms, the same restrictions, and the same requirements as every other trusted ally that abides by our laws.”

In addition, Emanuel will blame Netanyahu for driving Israel to a “dead end,” emboldened by poor decisions from American leaders.

“For too long, American policy toward Israel operated under the assumption that the best thing Washington could do for Jerusalem was to blindly and silently stand behind your government, without conditions, without demands, and without consequences when we disagreed,” he will say. “That has been our mistake. Unconditional support has produced a prime minister who has presumed that his strategic interests would incur no cost if he ignored America’s concerns.”

There’s little precedent for an American with presidential ambitions to travel to another country, much less one as fraught as Israel, to deliver such a stinging rebuke of its political leadership. Centrist figures like Emanuel have been more reluctant than Democrats’ progressive base to question longtime U.S. support for Israel in recent years.

President Trump, once a staunch ally of Netanyahu’s, has recently expressed frustration with him during the war with Iran, as U.S. and Israeli goals diverged. Last month, Mr. Trump told a reporter that Netanyahu has “no f*g judgment” after Israel launched an attack against Iran-backed militants in Beirut.

“Why did Bibi have to do a f*g attack?” Mr. Trump said to Axios. “I was so pissed off. I let him know.”

Those comments came after Vice President JD Vance said Netanyahu had “gotten some things wrong.”

How will Netanyahu react?

Emanuel’s remarks could prompt a fiery response from Netanyahu, who famously once called Emanuel, who harbored ambitions of being the first Jewish speaker of the House, a “self-hating Jew.” Netanyahu faces his own battle for reelection in October, and the veteran leader may try to use a confrontation with Emanuel for political gain by appearing to stand strong in the face of international criticism.

Emanuel, who arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday ahead of the Wednesday speech, told the AP that he’s intentionally avoiding interactions with Israeli elected officials during his visit to avoid interfering with the country’s upcoming elections. Instead, his agenda includes visiting a hospital that serves Israelis and Palestinians and meeting with the family of an Oct. 7 hostage.

For possible Democratic presidential contenders gauging how to address the fallout from Israel’s war in Gaza and Netanyahu’s perceived tilt toward the Republican Party, led by Mr. Trump, the speech represents an especially frontal strategy. The war has disrupted political coalitions in both major political parties in the U.S., with younger voters recoiling at Israel’s approach to the conflict pressing American leaders to take a tougher stand. The issue has roiled some Democratic congressional primaries this year and could continue to be a dividing line in the contest for the party’s presidential nomination in 2028.

Castigating Netanyahu for doing little to advance diplomatic efforts to end the war, Emanuel will note that “support for Israel is plummeting around the world.”

“You’ve lost Europe,” he will say. “Your scientists face exclusion from international research networks. Your artists and academics are shut out of exhibits and conferences.”

Support for Israel has waned

While Netanyahu has forged generally strong ties with Mr. Trump and the Republican Party, Israel’s support among Democrats has slipped in recent years. But in portraying Israel as increasingly isolated, Emanuel’s comments have echoes of recent remarks from Vance, a sign of how criticism of the country is taking hold in both parties. Speaking recently from the White House briefing room as the U.S. worked to close a deal to end the war with Iran, Vance said Mr. Trump was “the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time.”

For all his tough words, Emanuel, who is Jewish and whose father was born in Jerusalem, will offer notes of sympathy and understanding. He acknowledged the toll of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in which Hamas-led militants launched air and ground strikes on Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. He noted disappointments from previous rounds of peace talks with Palestinian leaders.

“But even while acknowledging that history, the path forward cannot be held hostage to a past defined exclusively by recriminations,” he will say.

He will call the two-state solution “discredited” and instead push for a “23-state solution” that includes Israel, the Palestinians and the 21 other members of the Arab League in a peace deal.

“The 21 Arab nations that have exploited Palestinian rights as a slogan for decades now need to roll up their sleeves and stand up a governing authority capable of accepting the historic Jewish connection to this land,” he will say.

While no prominent Democrat has formally entered the 2028 contest, that could change soon after the November midterms with a field that could ultimately swell into the dozens. Few have been as open about their intentions as Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff, congressman, Chicago mayor and U.S. ambassador who has spent much of the past three decades holding one public office or another. Absent such a post now, he’s gained attention by releasing a string of policy proposals, biking through the early voting state of New Hampshire, appearing on podcasts and stepping up his social media presence.

Sen. Bernie Sanders says he encouraged Graham Platner to step aside

July 7, 2026 1:18 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Tuesday that he spoke with Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner and recommended that he exit the Senate race after a bombshell report Monday accusing Platner of sexual assault. Platner denied the allegation.

“I have spoken with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine,” Sanders said in a statement. “In light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside.”

On Monday, Politico reported that a Maine woman, Jenny Racicot, said Platner entered her home without permission in late 2021 when he was drunk and forced himself on her. Racicot said she and Platner met on a dating app in 2019 and had consensual relations before the night of the alleged sexual assault.

Platner called the allegation “categorically false,” but he indicated Monday that he was reflecting on “the best path forward.”

Sanders’ statement marks a key development, after a series of Democrats who had previously supported Platner withdrew their endorsements Monday or urged him to withdraw from the race. But the opinion of the Vermont independent, who has been one of Platner’s key supporters, carries significant weight.

The Senate Democrats’ campaign arm has already said it would not invest in the race if Platner remained on the ballot, and the Senate Majority PAC said it was redirecting resources away from the Maine Senate race after the allegation, severely limiting his campaign’s ability to continue through the November election.

Platner won the Democratic primary to take on GOP Sen. Susan Collins last month. But under Maine election law, candidates may be replaced if they withdraw by 5 p.m. on the second Monday in July. After that, the state political party has two weeks to select a new nominee.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/democrats-call-for-graham-platner-to-abandon-senate-race-after-sexual-assault-accusation/

Exclusive: Netanyahu tells CNN he opposes US sale of F-35 jets to Turkey as he downplays divisions with Trump

2026-07-07T17:08:41.628Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/07/politics/netanyahu-opposes-sale-f35-jets

Just hours after President Donald Trump said he’s considering selling F-35 stealth fighter jets to Turkey, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke against the potential move, even as he downplayed divisions between the two world leaders.

In an interview with CNN, Netanyahu warned that the sale of America’s most advanced fighter aircraft “doesn’t make Turkey a friendly state to the United States.” In part of an escalating dispute with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Netanyahu described Ankara as “a regime that’s infected with the Muslim Brotherhood, which hates the United States.”

“He’s not exactly a model ally of the United States,” Netanyahu told CNN’s Dana Bash. “He threatens to destroy my country, the one and only Jewish state.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview with CNN Turk last week that Israel has “become a burden that humanity can no longer bear,” prompting Israel’s foreign minister to condemn the remarks as “textbook incitement to genocide.”

“This is not a force for peace and stability. When you give them that power, you’re going to see aggression in its wake,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu said he’d urged Trump directly not to sell the jets to Turkey, saying Tuesday that doing so would “destroy the power balance in the Middle East.”

But Trump, who is in Turkey as part of the NATO summit, has indicated he is willing to overturn a ban on the sale of the jet to Ankara that he put in place during his first term. He described Turkey as an “extraordinary” ally of the United States.

Netanyahu downplayed any divisions with Trump, saying the two see “eye-to-eye” on major issues, even after Trump said over the weekend that the Israeli leader “knows who the boss is.”

“He’s the President of the United States. He does what is good for the United States,” said Netanyahu. “I’m the Prime Minister of Israel, I do what is what is important for Israel, and most of the time these things are identical.”

Netanyahu, who publicly railed against the Iran nuclear deal under former President Barack Obama, has so far held back from condemning the current ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran. The agreement ended a war that Netanyahu was pushing to continue and lifted longstanding sanctions on Iran’s ability to sell its oil in exchange for opening the critical Strait of Hormuz. The pact also floats the possibility for hundreds of billions of dollars in additional sanctions relief should the two sides reach a permanent truce.

https://www.cnn.com/

Crucially, the agreement fails to address any of the major issues the US and Israel set out at the start of the war in late-February, including Iran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile production, its support for proxies or the stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Asked about the ceasefire agreement, Netanyahu reserved his judgement.

“It’s too early to say what will happen,” he said. “The president believes that he can stop Iran’s nuclear program, and he believes he can do it through negotiations. I have my doubts, but I think he should be given the chance, and he’s trying to achieve that.”

Netanyahu took a far harsher attitude toward Democratic lawmakers over the party’s declining support for Israel, at one point singling out New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his previous comments that while he supports Israel “as a state with equal rights,” he could not back “any state that privileges one religion over the other.”

“It’s ridiculous, it’s absurd,” Netanyahu said, adding that while Israel is an “imperfect democracy,” it is still “100 times better than these dictatorships and these horrible, horrible tyrannies that Mamdani and his supporters support.”

He also criticized Rep. Haley Stevens, a Jewish Democrat running for Senate in Michigan, over her comments that his actions as Israeli prime minister had made American Jews less safe.

“It’s made her uncomfortable because she can’t stand up for the truth,” he said. “She’s trying to probably excuse antisemitism.”

Pressed on whether he bore any personal responsibility for the deteriorating support in the US for Israel, Netanyahu dismissed the suggestion, arguing instead that social media was driving the rising opposition.

Netanyahu also addressed an ongoing surge in settler violence in the occupied West Bank. Describing the perpetrators as a group of 150 “juvenile delinquents,” he acknowledged the issue has “blown up beyond belief.” He said the police and military “take actions,” but the courts in Israel “are very lenient” against those convicted of settler violence. “Our citizens cannot practice violence against anyone,” he said.

Despite Netanyahu’s statements, the West Bank has seen a surge of settler violence – some with instances of Israeli soldiers standing idly by – in conjunction with the Israeli government rapidly expanding settlements throughout the territory. In a one-month period earlier this year, Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said there were 305 incidents of settler violence, including attacks on people and property and land seizures.