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‘An awkward family gathering’: Trump and G7 leaders convene in France amid geopolitical divergences

2026-06-15T10:30:07.865Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/15/politics/g7-trump-france-gathering

Geneva, Switzerland—

For weeks, President Donald Trump and his advisers have looked ahead warily to this week’s Group of Seven summit in France.

Overseeing a Middle East war stuck in a dangerous limbo between ceasefire and full-blown conflict, Trump risked arriving to the lakeside resort of Évian-les-Bains without a deal and under scrutiny from some of the world’s most powerful people.

Instead, Trump will touch down Monday eager to trumpet the accord he announced over the weekend that appears to end hostilities with Iran for now and, in the president’s telling, reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump had wanted to enter the summit of leading industrialized nations in a position of strength and with an agreement in hand, sources say. And after months of conflict and negotiations that drew immense skepticism from his fellow G7 leaders, he’ll now get that — albeit with significant, lingering questions about the specifics of the agreement and the extent to which each side will abide by it.

The Iran war had already been expected to dominate discussions this week among the leaders, each of whom was forced to confront higher energy prices as a result of the strait’s prolonged closure. Over the last several months, Trump lashed out at nearly all of them for their reluctance to help patrol the key waterway, making for an awkward backdrop to this week’s gathering.

Ahead of the summit, officials from four of the G7 countries said that how to move ahead in the Middle East — even with an agreement in place — would undoubtedly provide fodder for intense discussions behind the closed doors of the Belle Époque Hôtel Royal in Évian.

Trump plans to press the leaders to help in the strait now that an agreement is in place, according to officials. France and Britain have both said they would form a coalition to help open the waterway once the conflict ended, including the removal of mines laid by Iran over the course of the war.

On Tuesday, the leaders of three Arab states — Egypt, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — will also join for talks, invited by French President Emmanuel Macron to help home in on the thorny questions affecting their region. Trump will meet them individually as well.

Macron also asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to attend in an effort to cajole the G7 to agree on support for Kyiv and the need for negotiations to end Russia’s war, now in its fifth year. Trump spent much of his first year back in office trying unsuccessfully to broker an agreement between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. But he rarely discusses that conflict anymore as Iran consumes his attention, and European officials are eager to ascertain whether Trump is willing to apply new pressure on Putin.

Trump’s aides said discussions over coordination in the Strait of Hormuz, economic growth, supply chain resilience, legal immigration and artificial intelligence would all drive his conversations at this week’s summit. Officials from other G7 governments described similar agendas, but added China, the Ebola crisis in Africa and digital safety as potential points of conversation.

One US official said Trump planned to “reframe” discussions around development at the summit to focus on investment partnerships that would benefit both recipient nations and those providing the funds.

Trump’s long-standing skepticism of G7 summits

American officials have been frank, however, that the president is not approaching the summit with any particular goal in mind, and the administration is not expecting any large announcements or deliverables to emerge.

“It’s all really just a big photo op,” a senior White House official said. “It’s not like big things get done there. It’s more about the meetings that come after.”

The official said the summit could set the scene for more substantial conversations and dealmaking down the line. And some European officials also said they viewed the gathering as a precursor for another major summit — of NATO leaders in Turkey in early July — that many of them expect could prove contentious.

Trump has never been a particular fan of attending G7 summits. In his first term, he consistently questioned advisers whether his presence was necessary, and wondered what could be accomplished without the presence of countries like Russia and China.

Every summit he’s attended has, in some way, gone awry.

He abruptly cut short his time at two summits in Canada — one during his first term in the northern woods of Quebec and one last year in Alberta. Attending his first G7 in 2017 on the rocky coast of Sicily, he seemed to feel fellow leaders were ganging up on him by trying to convince him to remain in the Paris climate accord (some aides believed the pressure pushed him to withdraw from the agreement more quickly than he might have otherwise).

The last time Macron hosted the summit, in 2019, a dinner beneath the Biarritz lighthouse grew heated when Trump demanded Russia be readmitted into the alliance after being ejected following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Over their plates of Basque tuna, Trump’s fellow leaders offered little support for the idea.

Five years and a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine later, Trump opened last year’s G7 by issuing the same demand.

Max Bergmann, the program director for Europe at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, likened the summit to an “awkward family gathering … where you have to go to your in-laws and there’s an uncle that you don’t quite like.”

“No one wants to have a confrontation, even if things get quite passive aggressive at times,” Bergmann said. “But there’s always the possibility that things might snap, and it might get rather dramatic.”

Planning this year’s summit, French officials looked first and foremost to ensure Trump stuck it out after he cut short his stay in Kananaskis in Canada last year. For Évian, the French have taken no chances. The dates of the gathering were shifted by a few days to accommodate Trump’s plans to host a UFC fight at the White House on his birthday.

And Macron — who has endured a hot-and-cold relationship with Trump for almost a decade — invited the US leader to a dinner at the gilded Palace of Versailles, outside Paris, on Wednesday evening as the summit ends.

Expectations for concrete outcomes are so low that organizers say there will be no joint communiqué signed by all leaders, as was once customary at G7 meetings. Instead, leaders are set to endorse a set of ad hoc declarations on issues including critical minerals, health and the protection of children online.

It’s a measure of how little convergence there is between Trump and his fellow G7 leaders on the most pressing geopolitical issues. While Iran and the ongoing war in Ukraine will be discussed, any conclusions will be reflected in a statement by the French presidency. The same solution was adopted by Canada ahead of last year’s G7.

Despite the obvious rifts, this year’s French hosts insisted the meeting amounted to a victory even before it began, making an early distinction between the two sets of topics that will be discussed.

“This Évian summit is, for us, already a success, in the sense that we have two categories of issues to address: substantive issues, which are truly very structural in nature and shape the international agenda, and current events and crises, which, by definition, require greater flexibility and cannot be fully anticipated in advance,” an official in the French presidency said. “On the substantive issues, this G7 summit is already a success.”

Meanwhile, the lakeside resort of Évian has transformed into a veritable fortress. A heavy police and military presence has contributed to the sense of siege being felt by many of the spa town’s residents.

“We have a lot of people who come by car to buy their bread,” said Delphine, who runs a bakery in town.

“Buying bread is not essential, and to cross the roadblocks you need an essential reason. I don’t think it’s going to be very pleasant, honestly. That being said, they’re just there to do their job. You can’t host seven presidents who are that important without security, but it’s a very unusual situation.”

CNN’s Elina Baudier Kim, Melissa Bell, Paula Newton and Sebastian Shukla contributed to this report.

Highly dangerous plutonium offers no quick fix to US nuclear fuel crunch

2026-06-15T10:05:59.959Z / Reuters

The Purex (Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant) separations facility at the Hanford Works is seen in an undated aerial photo. The building has been vacant for nearly twenty years but remains highly contaminated, according to the Department of Energy. DOE/Handout via REUTERS FOR EDITORIAL USE… Purchase Licensing RightsRead more

• Summary
• Companies

• Security and handling costs for plutonium fuel could be high, raising taxpayer concerns
• Non-proliferation experts and lawmakers warn of terrorism risks and economic viability challenges
• Oklo says surplus plutonium could help bridge fuel gap

WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) – The Trump administration is moving forward with talks with companies to turn Cold War-era plutonium into a fuel for new nuclear reactors, part of a multi-pronged strategy to ensure there is enough ​power to feed the U.S. data center boom.

But the scheme risks extensive delays and exorbitant security costs – to the point it may be unfeasible – due to a simple ‌fact: plutonium is incredibly dangerous.

Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here.

A grapefruit-sized hunk of the material, in the wrong hands, could yield an atomic weapon as strong as the one the United States dropped on Nagasaki during World War Two. Even the dust of the radioactive element, which has a half-life of 24,000 years, is potentially deadly if inhaled.

“This is weapons-usable plutonium,” said Ross Matzkin-Bridger, who worked on securing plutonium materials around the world at the U.S. Department of Energy and its arm the National Nuclear Security Administration. “I’m very concerned that there are ​big pieces of the risk that the taxpayers are going to be tackling.”

The Trump administration revealed last month that it had chosen five companies to enter advanced talks over developing 19.7 metric tons ​of various forms of plutonium, including from dismantled nuclear warheads, into reactor fuel.

Storing plutonium has long been a headache for the U.S. government, and the dash to ⁠use it shows how the industry is trying novel ways to achieve President Donald Trump’s goal to quadruple U.S. nuclear power capacity by 2050 as power demand from data centers surges.

U.S. Representative Bill Foster, an Illinois ​Democrat and the only physicist in the U.S. Congress, said “my brain goes on high alert” when he hears about the proposal.

Foster said the program would likely face sky-high security costs to keep it “robust against terrorism” ​and that stakeholders should look closely at the economies of such plants before moving forward.

The U.S. DOE said it expects that the majority of the workforce at a facility handling plutonium will require highest-level security clearances.

The companies would be required to submit material safety and security plans for the stabilization, packaging, transportation, and storage of plutonium, a spokesperson for the Office of Nuclear Energy said.

“DOE does not expect to pay for the specialized proliferation, security, and health protections required to process surplus ​plutonium,” the spokesperson said.

COMPANIES SELECTED

Oklo

, one company seeking to generate power with the plutonium, believes the material can be a fuel source at least until the U.S. expands domestic uranium supplies, including a type ​called HALEU, mostly made in Russia, that is more enriched than fuel used in today’s U.S. reactors.

Bonita Chester, an Oklo spokesperson, when asked whether taxpayers would end up paying large costs for the program, said the plan to use plutonium for fuel would eliminate the ‌need for another ⁠expensive and risky government plan to dilute and dispose of the material.

The Trump administration halted disposal efforts last year when it first announced the fuel plan.

Oklo “would invest in transport, the associated fuel fabrication infrastructure, as well as all licensing requirements, including safety, security, and safeguards,” said Chester. She did not detail the company’s estimate for those costs.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright sat on Oklo’s board until he joined the administration.

Wright was not involved in the selection of Oklo, forfeited unvested shares in the company, and “recused himself from matters specifically involving Oklo,” another DOE spokesperson said.

Carl Perez, CEO of Exodys Energy, which plans to build a facility on federal land to process surplus ​plutonium into nuclear fuel, said no facility can obtain ​required U.S. authorizations and licenses “without fully addressing ⁠worker protection, overall safety, and material safeguards against recognized standards.”

Greg Piefer, CEO and founder of SHINE Technologies, said it has extensive experience processing and handling nuclear materials, and that once plutonium generates power in a reactor, it is no longer dangerous.

“One of the most responsible things we can do with weapons-grade plutonium is ​to burn it,” he said.

Standard Nuclear and Flibe Energy, the other two companies involved in the advanced talks, did not respond to requests for comment.

ROCKY ​HISTORY

The U.S. history of converting ⁠plutonium to fuel is rocky. The U.S. had agreed in 2000 to turn it into mixed oxide fuel (MOX) to run in reactors. Trump’s first administration nixed the MOX program in 2018, saying it would cost about $48 billion more than the $7.6 billion already spent on it.

Oklo plans to run plutonium in so-called fast reactors it is developing and that it says are more efficient than reactors that had been expected to run on MOX. According to ⁠Oklo’s internal calculations, ​1 metric ton of plutonium used in a fast reactor could power almost 1 million American homes for a year.

Fast reactors ​in the U.S. have so far only been used for research, not power generation.

Ernest Moniz, a U.S. energy secretary under former President Barack Obama, said it is easier and less costly to dilute and dispose of the material. “My expectation is that you will ​find the government paying for a hell of a lot of what’s going on here, including all the security you would need around weapons-grade plutonium.”

Reporting by Timothy Gardner; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Nia Williams

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

据国际海事组织统计，2月底至6月11日，霍尔木兹海峡确认发生46起袭船事件，造成14名海员死亡。 （路透社）

国际海事组织欢迎美国与伊朗达成协议，并称正在推进波斯湾地区被困海员疏散计划。

新华社报道，国际海事组织秘书长多明格斯星期一（6月15日）发声明说，美伊协议有助于国际海事组织推进疏散数千名困在波斯湾地区海员的计划。

他表明，国际海事组织正在同各方密切协作，从而高效且安全地推进疏散计划，全面实施仍需一定时间。

国际海事组织也重申，会继续致力于维护海上安全、保障海员权益和航行自由、维护全球贸易持续畅通。

自伊朗战争2月28日爆发以来，霍尔木兹海峡航运面临来自美伊双方的限制措施，且频频发生针对船舶的袭击事件。

据国际海事组织统计，自2月底至6月11日，相关海域确认发生46起袭船事件，造成14名海员死亡。

美国和伊朗星期天（6月14日）宣布达成停战谅解备忘录。美国总统特朗普在社交媒体上说，霍尔木兹海峡将在19日签署谅解备忘录后开放。

Vance’s fraud task force is sweeping up legitimate small businesses

2026-06-15 09:00 / The Washington Post

Vance’s fraud task force is sweeping up legitimate small businesses

The vice president and other officials have downplayed evidence of collateral damage in their crackdown on fraudulent hospices.

June 15, 2026 at 5:00 a.m. EDT Today at 5:00 a.m. EDT

14 min

45

Vice President JD Vance listens to Mehmet Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief, speak in May. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

By Isaac Arnsdorf

In April, when the Trump administration began suspending about 800 hospices in the Los Angeles area suspected of fraud, a small local agency started accepting patients from the affected providers. The owner never thought he would be next.

民进党立委：台湾首架F16V战机准备从美返台

2026年6月15日 17:02 / 联合早报

民进党立委：台湾首架F16V战机准备从美返台

台湾民进党立委王定宇星期一（6月15日）在脸书转发美国航空迷上载的台湾首架F16战机为从美国返台作准备的照片。 （取自台湾民进党立委王定宇脸书）

台湾民进党立委王定宇在社交平台发文称，台湾空军采购的首架F-16V战机在美国整装待发，准备从美国返回台湾。

王定宇星期一（6月15日）在脸书转发美国航空迷上载的台湾首架-16V战机为从美国返台作准备的照片。

王定宇写道，台湾首架全新F-16V（Block 70），机号6831双座机，挂载行李荚舱、三个副油箱并装上适型油箱，被目击已经从美国南卡罗来纳州格林维尔（Greenville）工厂，飞抵得克萨斯州沃斯堡海军航空站联合预备基地，专家预估极大可能是准备飞往台湾。

据台湾今日新闻报道，为了对抗大陆新一代先进战机，台湾国防部在2019年从美国采购66架F-16C／D Block70战机，总预算达2472亿余新台币（100亿新元），原订于2024年首批交机，但因全球供应链中断及软体测试等因素严重延宕，2025年3月28日才举行首架F-16V交机典礼。

有美国航空迷目击台湾的新购F-16V从得州沃斯堡海军基地起飞。据了解，返台交机作业计划由台方飞行员驾驶。由于F-16V加挂油箱最大航程约4100公里，航程未及台湾，因此必须透过美军加油机，预计进行近20次空中加油，跨越太平洋直接飞返台湾花莲基地，预计最快三天内飞抵台湾。

针对新购F-16V战机交机延宕，台湾国防部长顾立雄今年3月在立法院答询时表示，已有59架F-16 Block70战机在生产线上制造，与MQ-9B无人机同样预计今年第三季开始交运，并坦言今年要交付全部66架战机相当困难。

国际海事组织：美伊协议助推受困海员疏散计划

2026年6月15日 18:05 / 联合早报

据国际海事组织统计，2月底至6月11日，霍尔木兹海峡确认发生46起袭船事件，造成14名海员死亡。 （路透社）

国际海事组织欢迎美国与伊朗达成协议，并称正在推进波斯湾地区被困海员疏散计划。

新华社报道，国际海事组织秘书长多明格斯星期一（6月15日）发声明说，美伊协议有助于国际海事组织推进疏散数千名困在波斯湾地区海员的计划。

他表明，国际海事组织正在同各方密切协作，从而高效且安全地推进疏散计划，全面实施仍需一定时间。

国际海事组织也重申，会继续致力于维护海上安全、保障海员权益和航行自由、维护全球贸易持续畅通。

自伊朗战争2月28日爆发以来，霍尔木兹海峡航运面临来自美伊双方的限制措施，且频频发生针对船舶的袭击事件。

据国际海事组织统计，自2月底至6月11日，相关海域确认发生46起袭船事件，造成14名海员死亡。

美国和伊朗星期天（6月14日）宣布达成停战谅解备忘录。美国总统特朗普在社交媒体上说，霍尔木兹海峡将在19日签署谅解备忘录后开放。

Vance’s new book puts his Catholic faith at the center of his story — and his political future

2026-06-15T10:30:08.384Z / CNN

• Vice President JD Vance’s new book chronicles his Catholic conversion and connects it to his political transformation.
• The book arrives as Catholicism experiences something of a resurgence in America, with conversions increasing.
• Vance’s faith-centered memoir comes as he positions for a potential 2028 presidential run.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

When JD Vance published his best-selling book “Hillbilly Elegy” in 2016, he had drifted away from the Christian faith of his childhood — a familiar story amid a broader national retreat from organized religion that had left church pews emptier than in previous decades.

Now, Vance as vice president — and likely 2028 presidential contender — is a practicing Catholic, a conversion he has chronicled in his second book, “Communion,” publishing Tuesday. And it’s landing on bookshelves amid a remarkable turnaround: Catholicism is, by some measures, experiencing a resurgence in the United States unlike anything in recent memory.

An American-born pope presides over the Vatican the first time in the church’s history. While Catholicism still faces long-term demographic struggles, conversions are surging, with some dioceses reporting record highs. Accounts of Gen Z converts filling church pews have injected new energy into the 2,000-year-old religion and have surprised even Catholic leaders who had long braced for continued decline.

The revival has found particular resonance on the political right. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon; right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec; anti-diversity, equity and inclusion activist Christopher Rufo; and podcasters Michael Knowles and Matthew Walsh are among the prominent conservatives who have embraced their Catholic faith — a faction of the new right building a political and spiritual identity distinct from the evangelical Protestantism that has long dominated Republican politics.

“Communion,” a copy of which was obtained by CNN, is Vance’s entry into that growing canon. In it, Vance connects his faith to his political transformation — from Donald Trump skeptic to Trump’s vice president — and to his views on the prevailing social and economic debates. Through this lens, Vance argues for prioritizing families over gross domestic product, limiting migration, rejecting universal basic income, and discouraging abortions by improving conditions for new mothers and young children.

“My political evolution was downstream of the much more fundamental change in how I saw the world,” he writes. “I had looked inside our elite institutions and found them intellectually and spiritually broken. Was it any surprise that I would eventually reject their politics as well?”

Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation — the influential conservative think tank behind much of Trump’s second-term agenda — said having the most powerful elected Catholic in the country speak openly about his faith should embolden more officials to do the same.

“We live in a time that for some Americans, it’s not only unfashionable but unacceptable that many of us talk about faith in public,” said Roberts, himself a Catholic. “It’s rather remarkable because so many leaders are uncomfortable doing that for whatever reason. It’s a very positive move, not just for him and the conservative movement but for the country because what people are looking for is transparency and authenticity from their leaders.”

The book also arrives as questions about Vance’s political future are increasingly difficult to ignore. Sitting vice presidents almost never publish books while in office — and the last one who did, George H.W. Bush, went on run for president, noted Joel Goldstein, a constitutional law professor at Saint Louis University and one of the country’s foremost experts on the vice presidency.

But Vance faces an unusual bind: He must serve loyally as Trump’s No. 2 while establishing himself as the future of the party on a compressed timeline. Trump is constitutionally barred from a third term but has shown little interest in anointing a successor — and has at times privately floated Secretary of State Marco Rubio as an alternative.

A book about faith, Goldstein argued, allows Vance to step out from Trump’s shadow without risking divisions with the man he still serves.

“To the extent one of the challenges of running for president is being perceived as a No. 1 when you have been acting as a No 2, this gives him a stage where he’s seemingly independent,” he said.

Those close to Vance deny the book is meant to stir more speculation about his presidential ambitions. One ally of the vice president’s told CNN that Vance cleared the book by White House leadership before moving forward and that the reception from Trump’s inner circle was positive. Neither the White House nor Vance’s office responded to requests for comment.

Vance has downplayed the timing, too, saying he began working on the book not long after he finished his first memoir. A 2024 financial disclosure form from his time in the Senate shows Vance had a deal with HarperCollins to write a second book in 2017 (his office didn’t say why previous disclosures did not note this agreement). In 2020, he published 6,700 words in The Lamp, a Catholic magazine, on his transformation from lapsed Christian to atheist to his baptism. He has also credited the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk for inspiring him to speak out more about his faith.

While “Communion”looks ahead to life after death, there’s little trace of the near-term decision looming over Vance in the text’s 288 pages. Nor is there much account of his experience as vice president, operating inside Trump’s White House.

Rather, in explaining the purpose of the book, Vance writes: “I’m a Christian, and I became a Christian because I believe that Jesus Christ’s teachings are true. But I didn’t always think that, and by sharing my journey I might be helpful to others—Catholic, protestant, or otherwise—who are seeking reconciliation with God.”

A publicity blitz to support the book is already underway, with stops on Fox News, “CBS Sunday Morning” and “The View,” a regular testing ground for White House hopefuls. The book will also sell in stores alongside published works from aspiring Democratic politicians such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Vance also has competition in his choice of topic. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has spoken often about his Jewish faith while promoting his own book. Another entry, from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear — also a Democrat and potential 2028 contender — is expected later this year. Like Vance, his book, “Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken Country,” will center on his Christian beliefs.

Terry Schilling, the founder of American Principles Project, a socially conservative advocacy group that has urged Republican leaders to lean into culture wars, is already enthusiastic about the prospect of Vance succeeding Trump. Schilling, also a Catholic, said he anticipates Vance’s new book will allow him to lay out the commonalities between himself and evangelical Republicans, who remain an influential voting bloc in GOP politics.

It’s a much different approach from the one famously taken by John F. Kennedy when he confronted questions about his Catholic faith during his 1960 presidential campaign. Kennedy declared in an address to Protestant ministers that “the separation of church and state is absolute” and that his decisions as president would not be influenced by the church. The second Catholic president, Joe Biden, was more open about his faith but navigated other tensions with his religion, especially over his views on abortion.

“Rather than doing the JFK thing and saying, ‘I’m not going to be a Catholic president,’ he’s saying, ‘If I’m elected president, here is how my Catholic faith will inform my presidency,’” Schilling said.

Polling shows that Catholics are moving in the direction of those who identify as evangelicals by becoming more conservative. Trump won 59% of Catholics in 2024, according to CNN exit polls, higher than any Republican presidential nominee since at least 1972. New converts and recently ordained priests and nuns also appear to be considerably more conservative than those born into the religion and older clergy, said Ryan Burge, a political scientist at the Washington University Center on Religion and Politics.

“It’s an institution that’s becoming increasingly conservative, increasingly Republican, and Vance embodies where the church is headed,” Burge said.

This new wave of conservative Catholics has grown increasingly skeptical of the political movements by the Vatican, first under Pope Francis and now Pope Leo XIV. There has been friction at times, too, between Trump’s White House and the Catholic leaders, particularly over immigration. Trump has referred to Pope Leo as “weak on crime” and “terrible on foreign policy,” sparking the pontiff to respond that he had “no fear of the Trump administration.”

Amid the back-and-forth, Vance advised the Vatican to “stick to matters of morality.”

In 2025, Vance also drew scrutiny from some church leaders when he cited a medieval Catholic theology known as “ordo amoris” in justifying Trump’s immigration crackdown. Vance explained the doctrine as: “You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.” Pope Francis later pushed back against Vance’s interpretation in a letter to US bishops.

More recently, Vance responded positively to Pope Leo’s warnings about the risk of artificial intelligence to humanity.

The tension between Washington and the Vatican underscores the growing awareness around the Catholic Church’s importance in American politics. Kelsey Reinhardt, the president of Catholic Votes, an organization that mobilizes voters of the faith, said her group’s political arm is already planning how to wield the religion’s growing influence in 2028, when there could be a slate of Catholic presidential contenders.

In addition to Vance, Rubio is also Catholic, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was raised in the faith as well. On the Democratic side, Newsom and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez identify as Catholic, and so does Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose political ambitions remain an open secret.

“If Catholics aren’t at the table, they’re on the menu,” Reinhardt said. “People are waking up to the realization that the Catholic vote is determinative of this nation.”

But the renewed interest in Catholicism masks broader trends that show the religion is losing ground in America, Burge said. The uptick in converts, he noted, is more than recent years but still historically low and just a small fraction of Americans, about 1.5%. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church is baptizing about 500,000 babies a year — down from 1.3 million in the 1960s — and far more people are leaving than joining, Burge said.

The reality, Burge said, is that Vance’s book — and his political future — are confronting a faith still in decline.

“Catholicism is having a moment. There’s no way to deny that,” Burge said. “The vibes are up. But the macro level trends are down.”

CNN’s Alayna Treene contributed to this report.

They’re uninsured after Obamacare became too costly. And they’re far from alone.

June 15, 2026 5:00 AM EDT / KFF Health News

Sugar Grove, North Carolina— Year after year, Ross and Rebecca Tobiassen saw their healthcare costs rise, having relied on the Affordable Care Act for federally subsidized health insurance since its start in 2014. Year after year, the couple in western North Carolina kept their coverage, believing the peace of mind was worth the cost.

But in December, that changed. The Tobiassens decided to cancel their insurance when Rebecca saw the cost of their monthly premiums would jump from $130 to more than $550.

“It makes no sense,” she said. “It’s not worth it anymore.”

Rebecca and Ross Tobiassen canceled their Affordable Care Act insurance last year when it became too expensive. Andrew Jones/KFF Health News

The couple own and are the only employees of a small auto shop just west of Appalachian State University in the North Carolina mountains. Rebecca worries about her husband, whose work as a mechanic can be dangerous. A spring once shot a metal ball joint into their garage wall like a gun. A heavy object crushed Ross’ thumb. In 2020, Ross became mostly blind in one eye after repeatedly getting metal shards in it and developing an infection in his cornea.

The Tobiassens are among the Americans who canceled their ACA coverage after Congress allowed enhanced tax credits that helped pay for insurance plans to expire at the end of 2025. The Tobiassens benefited from those tax credits — like millions of other enrollees expected to drop or be dropped from their coverage as the year progresses, unable to keep up with the higher costs.

Established by the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act during the COVID pandemic, the expanded subsidies reduced monthly premiums for many families and prompted a tidal wave of new signups, doubling ACA enrollment to about 24 million.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is expected to soon release complete data on how many people are no longer covered under the ACA, but an early analysis from KFF, citing Wakely Consulting Group research, showed enrollment could drop from over 22 million at the end of 2025 to as low as 16.5 million in 2026.

In North Carolina, individual ACA signups for 2026 were down 22% compared with the year before, a greater drop than any other state, amounting to a decrease of more than 213,000 people, according to enrollment data. While the Tobiassens’ two teenage daughters remain on Medicaid, Rebecca said the new prices showed that the federal government doesn’t care about families like hers.

“We’ve known that you don’t care about us,” she said, “but you’re making it plain and simple now.”

The couple’s insurance hadn’t helped them cover all their medical needs. When the pain from Ross’ eye infection worsened five years ago, Rebecca insisted he go to a specialist, who told them that fixing the eye through cornea replacement surgery would cost them up to $30,000 and require Ross to take six months off.

Ross chose a less expensive treatment to kill nerves in the eye instead.

The couple know they’re taking a risk by not being insured. If something were to happen, they could face an enormous medical bill.

Ross, 47, said the blindness in the one eye doesn’t significantly affect his job. He works long hours, sometimes into the night to keep up with demand.

“I try not to think about it too much,” he said. “I just work.”

Ross Tobiassen built his auto shop, which he owns with his wife, next to his home on his property in western North Carolina. Andrew Jones/KFF Health News

Katie Alexander oversees volunteers for Pisgah Legal Services, a western North Carolina nonprofit that helps low-income people secure health insurance. Alexander has helped North Carolina and Tennessee residents try to get ACA marketplace plans since Obamacare’s launch. She said she’s never seen anything like this year.

Nearly 100 Pisgah clients, out of about 700 that Alexander’s team worked with during open enrollment, decided to drop insurance this year, and many others chose cheaper ACA plans with less coverage, Alexander said.

Alexander said the people who have dropped their coverage include Lyft and Uber drivers. They’re trying to start their own businesses. They are artists and people who can work only part-time, because they’re chronically ill. Some are unable to get insurance through their employers, or they make too much to be on Medicaid.

“Even for folks who don’t have chronic illnesses,” Alexander said, “there’s just this nagging at the back of your mind, kind of constantly, of: ‘Don’t get hurt. Don’t get sick. Because you can’t afford that.’”

ACA premiums and deductibles steadily increased for years starting in 2022, then spiked during the enrollment period for 2026 plans, according to data analyzed by KFF. The Tobiassens have seen every dip and rise in plan costs since 2014 when the plans launched. They joined immediately and paid about $30 a month, Rebecca Tobiassen said.

“You actually felt like you were benefiting,” she said.

But through the years as the marketplace became more expensive, the couple made concessions, switching at one point from a silver plan — historically the most popular — to a bronze. The plan mostly provided for the couple’s basic needs.

As they saw their deductibles and premiums rise over more than a decade, Rebecca feared the day would come when they could no longer afford even the cheapest plan.

“Plans are unaffordable, no matter how you cut it,” said Risha Gidwani, a healthcare policy researcher at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine. “It’s just who is shouldering the unaffordability.”

Gidwani and health economist Cheryl Damberg, in a study published earlier this year, found that most bronze plans, the cheapest ACA options for many, would be unaffordable without subsidies for the average person using the federal healthcare coverage.

Without subsidies, many families using these plans don’t make enough to afford premiums or deductibles, Gidwani’s research shows.

People who drop health insurance also change what’s known as the “risk pool,” Gidwani said, when a group of people share financial hazards.

If healthier people drop out of the risk pool, fewer people subsidize the people who get sick, Gidwani said. That means premiums for the people who get sick will increase again in the future, she added.

“That becomes what we call a death spiral,” Gidwani said.

Even if the subsidies hadn’t expired, taxpayers would have borne an estimated $350 billion burden over the next decade to cover them, Gidwani’s study noted.

After dropping coverage they’d relied on for 11 years, the Tobiassens have no plans to return to the ACA marketplace. They looked into alternative options through a faith-based healthcare organization but decided to go without.

For now, they don’t have a plan B. They’ve set aside some money for a medical emergency. And if their savings run out, Rebecca Tobiassen said, they have a couple of last resorts to lean on: credit cards or family members.

Are you struggling to afford your health insurance? Have you decided to forgo coverage? Click here to contact KFF Health News and share your story.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Warsh’s debut Fed press conference may reveal his strategy for inflation, rates

2026-06-15T10:03:17.68Z / Reuters

WASHINGTON, June 15 (Reuters) – New Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh has talked at length in recent years about the U.S. central bank’s balance sheet, the need to say less about interest rates and why it should not dip into issues like climate change.

A Fed press conference on Wednesday, though, will mark his first substantive comments from the chairman’s perch about what’s happening with inflation, unemployment and the economic outlook as he makes a rhetorical turn from the abstract words of a policy analyst to the concrete, potentially market-moving words of the world’s most important central banker.

Inflation, in particular, seems stuck more than a percentage point above the Fed’s 2% target, and Warsh’s characterization about whether and when it is likely to fall will be a key first step in the evolution of monetary policy under his leadership.

It’s one that investors will take as a cue about the likelihood of higher rates that many now see coming this year.

What might have been otherwise temporary price shocks, triggered by the Trump administration’s import tariff hikes and elevated oil prices due to the U.S.-backed war with Iran, now threaten a more persistent inflation problem. Meanwhile, the U.S. labor market is close to full employment, hiring has rebounded, and Warsh’s colleagues in the Fed’s regional districts hinted in a recent report at building wage pressures.

The press conference immediately following the end of the Fed’s June 16-17 policy meeting will provide Warsh an opportunity to address those economic cross-currents as he builds a narrative about the risks he sees facing the central bank and how he plans to frame its response.

Warsh, who succeeded former Fed chief Jerome Powell about a month ago, “has been much more vocal in terms of the balance sheet, he’s been much more vocal on communication strategy. When it comes to what’s your theory of change for inflation, what’s your view in terms of the current posture of monetary policy, those things are a big black box that we’re going to start to open up,” Ed Al-Hussainy, portfolio manager for fixed income and macro at Columbia Threadneedle, told reporters last week.

There will be much to unpack: Warsh’s assessment of the impact of tariffs on goods prices; whether the recent oil price shock will persist and spread; whether, as recent data suggest, the improvement in inflation that had been coming from slowing rent prices has run its course.

Those are the sorts of issues Powell, who remains on the Fed’s Board of Governors, would address directly in his press conferences. Warsh has said he doesn’t want to provide too much information about the central bank’s likely next interest rate moves. But where he draws the line between “forward guidance” and offering his outlook for the economy or inflation will be an important aspect of his opening press conference.

“I think Warsh is going to punt on the question” of where inflation is heading and what the Fed might need to do about it, said Christopher Hodge, chief U.S. economist at Natixis CIB Americas, who still expects the central bank to cut interest rates rather than raise them, though the timing remains uncertain. Despite a “neutral-to-hawkish tone,” Hodge said, “I don’t think he will preclude cuts, but the onus will be on the data to prove that the energy shock is past us.”

Line graphs of inflation policy rules.

AVOIDING A ‘BAD LOOK’

The Fed is widely expected on Wednesday to hold its benchmark interest rate steady in the 3.50%-3.75% range, where it’s been since December. In addition to a policy statement, it will also issue updated quarterly economic projections from its policymakers. Warsh’s press conference will begin shortly after.

The new Fed chief dislikes some of the central bank’s current communications tools, including the projections and accompanying “dot-plot” chart of rate expectations, but would need broad consensus among his 18 fellow policymakers before eliminating or changing it.

Warsh is not obligated to submit projections of his own, and doing so might reveal him to be more aligned with the central bank’s mainstream monetary policy thinking than former Fed Governor Stephen Miran, who was a defender of the sharp rate cuts called for by President Donald Trump during his brief stay on the Fed’s board. Miran’s low-hanging dot will now disappear.

More significant is whether the Fed drops policy statement language indicating its next rate move is likely to be a cut in favor of more neutral wording opening the door to a possible hike. Three policymakers dissented in favor of such a shift at the April 28-29 meeting. Others, including influential Fed Governor Christopher Waller, have since said they now support the move after a recent jump in hiring eased their concerns about the labor market’s health. The change would also align with Warsh’s preference to offer less forward guidance.

Warsh faces a possible communications challenge if, for example, the Fed’s policy statement adopts a more neutral tone while the dot-plot chart shows many of its policymakers expect rate hikes by the end of the year.

The median policymaker projection is expected to show the Fed on hold through 2026, moving away from the quarter-percentage-point rate cut policymakers had anticipated in their previous two outlooks as a continuation of an easing cycle that began in 2024 when inflation seemed on track to fall to the 2% target.

Yet if, as expected, the median outlook on inflation is also marked higher without an anticipated rate hike, it will raise questions about whether the Warsh-led Fed is at risk of making the same mistake as under Powell in regarding the forces driving prices higher as temporary and likely to fade without higher borrowing costs. Indeed, the policy rules that Warsh called “aspirational” tools while at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution now almost universally suggest rates should rise.

Warsh, in the run-up to his nomination for the top Fed job by Trump, sketched out ideas about why inflation, and therefore rates, could fall, from the impact of his plans to lower the Fed’s $6.71 trillion balance sheet to productivity improvements from the artificial intelligence boom. He has also suggested inflation may be mismeasured and be running lower than reported.

How much he leans on those ideas to caution about rate hikes will offer a first glimpse of his approach as the Fed’s leader, and whether it seems to differ all that much despite his sharp criticism of its recent decisionmaking process.

“It’s a bad look for the Fed to say inflation is much too high, but we are going to ignore it because if you exclude these five things it will go away,” said William English, former head of the Fed’s monetary affairs division and now a professor at the Yale School of Management. “He does not want to get too far in front of that.”

Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Dan Burns and Paul Simao

国际欢迎美伊达成协议 盼霍尔木兹海峡恢复自由航行

2026年6月15日 19:39 / 联合早报

美国和伊朗几经折腾终于达成协议，让国际社会松了一口气。图为星期一的巴基斯坦首都伊斯兰堡，民众在报摊前停下脚步，看各报封面上的这则头条新闻。 （路透社）

（布鲁塞尔综合电）美国和伊朗终于达成停战谅解备忘录让全世界松了一口气，纷纷表示欢迎，并呼吁各方全面落实协议，确保霍尔木兹海峡重新开放。法国总统马克龙说，由法国和英国牵头组建的多国护航部队随时可部署到霍尔木兹海峡。

联合国秘书长古特雷斯星期天（6月14日）说，美伊达成协议是朝结束中东战争迈出的关键一步，希望有关各方能够巩固这一势头，继续加倍努力以最终解决冲突。

古特雷斯赞扬巴基斯坦、卡塔尔、埃及、沙特阿拉伯和土耳其等多国协助促成美伊协议，并重申联合国随时准备支持各方实现持久与全面的和平。

欧盟委员会主席冯德莱恩星期一（15日）说，美伊协议应允许霍尔木兹海峡立即重开，各方迅速全面落实协议是当务之急。她强调：“必须恢复不收费的航行自由，这对于地区稳定和全球经济至关重要。”

她也敦促各方尊重黎巴嫩主权与领土完整，在黎巴嫩实现真正停火，否则中东不可能实现和平。

欧盟外交与安全政策高级代表卡拉斯说，这项协议有望成为一项突破性进展，欧盟将权衡如何参与下一阶段和平进程，并随时准备好为达成可持续的解决方案做出贡献。

中东国家表示相信美伊协议能促进地区和平。卡塔尔外交部说，这是朝着巩固可持续和平、促进地区及国际经济增长迈出的重要一步。

埃及外交部说，希望这项协议能成为中东和平的重要转折点。土耳其外长费丹形容，这是中东建立持久和平与稳定道路上的“重要里程碑”，希望后续谈判也能继续以建设性的方式进行。

英国、法国、德国和意大利星期天发联合声明，呼吁迅速全面执行美伊谅解备忘录，并强调霍尔木兹海峡必须尽快无条件重开。

马克龙星期一在社交媒体上发文说，英法牵头的多国护航行动已准备就绪，随时可向霍尔木兹海峡部署。他强调：“恢复海上交通，且不设限制也不收取通行费，是维护地区稳定和全球经济的必要条件。”

德国船东协会VDR说，这项协议能否使霍尔木兹海峡重开并恢复安全航行仍有待观察，但协会对此持谨慎乐观态度。

中国外交部发言人林剑在星期一的例行记者会上说，中方希望美伊如期签署这份谅解备忘录，也希望相关各方坚持和平选择，通过对话谈判解决问题。

他指出，霍尔木兹海峡是用于国际航行的重要海峡，恢复海峡局势稳定，符合地区国家和国际社会的共同利益。中方希望海峡尽早恢复安全自由通行，并愿同地区国家和国际社会就有关问题保持沟通。

澳洲总理阿尔巴尼斯说，各方应继续保持克制并开展建设性对话，这对于防止局势升级与达成持久协议至关重要。新西兰外长彼得斯也说，对话与外交仍是解决长期问题的最有效手段。

另一方面，英法德意在星期天的联合声明中说，如果伊朗对核计划采取可核查的明确措施，四国愿意解除相关制裁。

但声明也说：“伊朗绝不能获得核武器。我们随时准备就此事与美国、伊朗和国际原子能机构合作。”