Thailand’s big money bid to become ASEAN’s data center capital

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June 12, 2026

thailand’s-big-money-bid-to-become-asean’s-data-center-capital — Thailand’s big money bid to become ASEAN’s data center capital

AI and cloud services do not run in the air. They need land, power, water, cooling, fiber, permits, and a lot of physical infrastructure. Thailand is now seeing more of that demand land inside its industrial estate ecosystem.

Thailand is no longer talked about only as a manufacturing base, a tourist destination, or a regional logistics hub. It is also attracting more attention as a digital infrastructure destination, especially for data centers and cloud services.

According to Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI), investment promotion applications in Q1 2026 exceeded 1.01 trillion baht (US$30.7 billion) across 624 projects. The digital sector accounted for 873.7 billion baht of that total, with data centers and cloud-related services accounting for a major share of the activity.

That tells us one thing quite clearly: the AI and cloud boom is not only about chips, apps or software. It also needs buildings.

More specifically, it needs industrial land, reliable electricity, water systems, cooling capacity, fiber connectivity, regulatory approvals and long-term infrastructure planning. This is where Thai industrial estate operators such as WHA Corporation and AMATA Corporation become relevant to the story.

Expanding data center pipeline

Several research houses have described data centers as a long-term growth segment within Thailand’s digital infrastructure sector.

Maybank Securities has estimated that Thailand’s data center capacity could rise significantly over the coming years, potentially reaching around 2.6GW. Krungsri Research has also described data centers as part of a broader structural shift in Thailand’s digital economy.

In January 2026, BOI approved seven major data center and data hosting projects worth more than $3.1 billion. These included projects from True Internet Data Center, GSA Data Center, Stellar DC and other operators.

One of GSA Data Center’s projects is located at WHA Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate 5 in Rayong. BOI has also approved a 4.6 billion baht data center project by Bridge Data Centres IIO (Thailand) in Chonburi, with an IT load of 134MW.

These projects show how Thailand’s digital infrastructure expansion is moving into established industrial zones, particularly in areas with land, utilities, transport links, and power infrastructure.

Still, it is important to separate approved investment value from actual financial recognition. A BOI approval does not automatically mean immediate revenue for any company.

Projects still need to go through land acquisition, construction, permitting, utility preparation, and commercial operation before they are reflected in operating results.

Data centers are not simple tenants. They have very specific requirements, especially around power reliability, land readiness, connectivity and cooling infrastructure.

Thailand has several factors that support this type of investment. First, data centers require a stable electricity supply. For large-scale facilities, power availability is one of the most important parts of site selection.

Second, the Eastern Economic Corridor, or EEC, already has industrial land, utilities, transport infrastructure, ports, roads, and investment incentives. The EEC covers key provinces such as Chonburi, Rayong and Chachoengsao.

Third, multinational companies continue to assess ASEAN locations as part of supply chain diversification and regional expansion strategies. Thailand remains one of the countries included in those discussions.

BOI’s Fast Pass mechanism also plays a role. It is designed to improve coordination and shorten approval timelines for selected strategic projects.

For data center operators, that can matter because projects often involve power allocation, land access, construction permits, work permits, and specialist technical requirements.

In short, Thailand is trying to make the process easier for large-scale investors. Whether that leads to completed projects depends on execution.

WHA Corporation

WHA Corporation operates across industrial estates, logistics, utilities and power, digital infrastructure and related services. That mix places WHA within the physical infrastructure side of Thailand’s data center development story.

Its industrial estate network includes locations in Thailand and Vietnam, with several estates located in the EEC. The company’s utilities and power businesses provide water, wastewater treatment and energy-related services to industrial customers.

For data center operators, this type of infrastructure is part of the site-selection equation.

They need land, but they also need supporting utilities, connectivity, and long-term infrastructure planning. Data centers are not just buildings with servers inside. They are high-demand facilities that require continuous operating support.

BOI’s approval of the GSA Data Center project at WHA Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate 5 in Rayong is one example of data center investment activity within WHA’s estate network.

WHA’s role should therefore be viewed through its existing business segments: industrial estate development, utilities, logistics, power and digital infrastructure.

Any financial impact from data center-related activity would depend on project execution, contract terms, construction timelines, land transfer schedule, and future operating conditions.

AMATA Corporation epicenter

AMATA Corporation develops and operates industrial estates in Thailand and other regional markets, including Vietnam, Laos, and Indonesia.

For Q1 2026, AMATA reported total revenue of 4 billion baht, up 17.87% year-on-year. Net profit was 1.4 billion baht, up 52.25% year-on-year. Revenue from real estate sales reached 2.5 billion baht, supported by land transfers in Chonburi, Rayong and Vietnam.

Reports also indicate that data center clients were among AMATA’s land buyers during the period. China-based Vistas/ZDATA has been linked to an 80MW data centre project at Amata City Chonburi.

This places AMATA’s estate network within the broader discussion around Thailand’s data center and digital infrastructure investment. AMATA has also announced initiatives related to advanced industrial development, including the AMATA European Smart City project with B.Grimm Power.

The project is intended to attract advanced technology companies with requirements around ESG standards, clean energy and higher-specification infrastructure.

AMATA’s involvement in this theme should be assessed over time by its land sales, estate development activity, backlog, infrastructure readiness, and project execution.

Project timelines matter

One important point: approved projects do not become completed projects overnight.

Industry research notes that there is usually a time gap between investment approval, land acquisition, contract finalization, permitting, construction and commercial operation. That means data center approvals may take time before they appear in company financial statements.

For industrial estate operators, revenue recognition depends on factors such as land transfer schedules, customer readiness, infrastructure delivery, regulatory approvals, and project milestones.

So, when looking at BOI-approved investment figures, readers should separate a few things: Approved investment value, signed agreements, land transfers, construction progress, and recognized revenue. They are related, but they are not the same thing.

Thailand’s data center expansion still depends on several practical factors. Power supply is one of the main considerations. Large-scale data centers require substantial and reliable electricity capacity. BOI has also noted that power readiness remains an important issue for future data center investment, particularly in high-demand locations.

Regulatory approvals may also affect timelines, especially for multinational investors and cross-border projects. Parent-company approvals, construction timelines, and infrastructure readiness can all influence when projects move from announcement to operation.

For AMATA, reports have highlighted the need to monitor land sales progress against the company’s full-year target, as well as execution in overseas markets such as Laos.

For the broader sector, external factors such as global trade policy, US-China tensions, and changes in multinational investment flows may influence manufacturing and digital infrastructure investment into Thailand.

These are not reasons to dismiss the trend. They are simply part of the operating reality behind large-scale infrastructure projects.

Data-driven bottom line

Thailand’s data center story is becoming a larger part of the country’s digital infrastructure landscape.

BOI data shows strong investment promotion activity in digital and cloud-related sectors. Several data center projects have also received approval, with activity concentrated in locations such as Chonburi, Rayong, Bangkok, Samut Prakan and Chachoengsao.

Industrial estate operators such as WHA and AMATA are connected to this development through land, utilities, infrastructure, and estate development.

This does not make the story a simple stock-market call. More broadly, it reflects Thailand’s shift toward digital infrastructure, where data centers depend on the same fundamentals as industrial estates: land, power, water, connectivity, and execution.

The less visible side of AI is not the chatbot on the screen – it is the physical infrastructure behind it. And in Thailand, that infrastructure story is now moving deeper into the industrial estate sector.

Vivian Collins is a quantitative research analyst specializing in algorithmic trading and risk analytics. She uses big data and machine learning to conduct predictive market analysis, integrating financial engineering with macroeconomic insight to generate data-driven investment strategies.

Did Iron Age Britons remove brains of the dead?

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June 12, 2026

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did-iron-age-britons-remove-brains-of-the-dead? — Did Iron Age Britons remove brains of the dead?

Very little is known about funerary practices in Iron Age Britain, since few human remains have survived. However, the environment in northwest Scotland is more conducive to preserving bone from that period. Archaeologists have previously noted evidence of postmortem manipulation of human remains, such as mummification, and of modifying human bones into tools or decorative artifacts. Now a new paper published in the journal Antiquity describes evidence of postmortem brain removal in remains from that region, as well as sharpened limb bones, possibly for use as tools.

The remains in question were found in 2000 at a burial cairn in Loch Borralie, near the most northwest tip of the Scottish mainland, after erosion revealed a human cranium. The excavated remains belonged to two individuals: one an adult female and the other a juvenile of (at the time) indeterminate sex; the cranium belonged to the latter. The authors of the new paper conducted a fresh osteoarchaeological analysis as well as multi-isotope and ancient DNA analysis. Radiocarbon dating of molar teeth from both sets of remains placed their deaths as occurring between 50 BCE and 70 CE.

In the case of the female individual, the authors noted an unusual break at the base of the cranium that likely occurred near the time of death. It’s the kind of fracture that one gets from high-velocity impacts, including vehicular collisions, sporting accidents, falls, assaults, or even long-drop hanging. But the known forensic patterns observed in the aforementioned scenarios don’t exactly match the pattern of the Iron Age cranium, leading the authors to conclude that it likely resulted from a targeted impact. They also noted perimortem fractures on both scapulae.

A scraped cranium?

But the most interesting finding was several straight, parallel striations inside the skull, indicating the brain matter had been methodically scraped out with a sharp instrument shortly after death. This would be the first known instance of such a practice in the region, although in southern France and Bulgaria, there is archaeological evidence of cutting out sections of bone post-mortem and refashioning them into amulets.

Evidence of intentional postmortem manipulation in an Iron Age female Briton — Postmortem manipulation in an Iron Age female Briton Credit: Rebecca Ellis-Haken

Furthermore, four of the woman’s long bones (both humeri, the left ulna, and the left femur) showed marks that had previously been identified as tooth marks, suggesting rodents had gnawed at the bones. The authors disagreed with that earlier assessment, concluding that the bone marks were more consistent with whittling using a sharp implement. Three of the four bones had been whittled to a sharp edge, while the fourth seemed to have been worn down through use as a tool after being whittled into a sharpened point. Yet all four bones were ultimately placed in the correct anatomical position once they were laid in the grave.

Other archaeologists remain unconvinced that the woman’s brain had been removed or that the long bones had been deliberately whittled down into tools. “The marks certainly suggest some manipulation of the cranium, but whether we can link them to the brain removal, I don’t know,” Richard Madgwick of Cardiff University, who was not involved in the research, told New Scientist. Madgwick thinks the long bones may have already been broken and were simply repurposed as tools and finds it “remarkable” that the used bones were then placed back in the ground in anatomical order.

Second cousins?

As for the young person’s remains, the ancient DNA analysis showed he was male. The authors concluded he was between 14.5 and 15.5 years old when he died, and the bones showed signs of growth disruption and vitamin C deficiency.

Both individuals were genetically typical of Scottish Iron Age populations. The isotope analysis suggested they had both spent the early part of their lives in a coastal environment—most likely the east coast of Sutherland—moving to the Loch Borralie area after childhood. They were close biological relatives, possibly maternal second cousins. The cairn’s layers indicate they were not buried at the same time, however, and their bodies did not receive the same postmortem treatment.

“The genetic and isotopic evidence highlights long-term interconnectedness between maritime communities around the north coast and Northern Isle of Scotland, where individuals and small groups periodically moved across wide areas, facilitating the maintenance and spread of cultural ideas and practices,” the authors concluded. And the treatment of the woman’s bones “demonstrates that, although sparse in terms of their archaeological survival, the Iron Age dead held a strong and compelling presence in the world of the living.”

Antiquity, 2026. DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2026.10353 (About DOIs).

Anonymous Tip Reignites Search for Savannah Guthrie’s Missing Mom

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June 12, 2026

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anonymous-tip-reignites-search-for-savannah-guthrie’s-missing-mom — Anonymous Tip Reignites Search for Savannah Guthrie’s Missing Mom

A chilling new tip has reignited the desperate search for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, months after she vanished from her Arizona home.

Searchers in Mexico were sent scrambling this week after an anonymous tipster claimed a possible grave connected to Nancy may have been found south of the border.

Ramona Guadalupe Ayala Ortiz, who leads the missing persons search group Buscando Corazones Nogales, said the organization received the tip on Wednesday and quickly launched a search effort in Mexico.

But so far, the claim remains unconfirmed.

Authorities have not said whether there is any evidence that Nancy was taken to Mexico. They also have not confirmed whether the alleged grave has any connection to her disappearance.

The tip was reportedly investigated by volunteer searchers, who have been combing through remote areas as the mystery surrounding Nancy’s disappearance continues to deepen.

Nancy vanished from her Tucson-area home in February, setting off a terrifying search and leaving her famous daughter heartbroken.

Authorities have said they believe Nancy may have been abducted after evidence of a struggle was found inside the home. Law enforcement sources previously said there were signs of forced entry, raising fears that foul play was involved.

Blood was also reportedly found inside the home, though authorities have not publicly confirmed whose blood it was.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said early in the investigation that detectives were treating the case with serious concern. Homicide investigators were brought in after officials discovered a scene inside the house that troubled them.

The case has stunned viewers who know Savannah as one of the most familiar faces on morning television.

Behind the scenes, the Today star has reportedly been trying to stay strong while coping with the agony of not knowing what happened to her mother.

Sources previously said Savannah has broken down in tears between commercial breaks, only to compose herself moments later before returning to camera.

On Mother’s Day, Savannah shared an emotional message vowing that her family would not give up.

“We will never stop looking for you,” she wrote. “We will never be at peace until we find you.”

An insider previously said life is nowhere near “back to normal” for Savannah and that no one expects it to be anytime soon.

“The grace and strength she shows each day, putting one foot in front of the other despite the pain, is truly inspirational,” the source said.

The same insider questioned how the case could still have so few answers months later.

“It’s incredibly difficult to grasp that there have been no new viable leads, and no significant evidence beyond the doorbell camera footage,” the source said. “How is that even possible?”

For now, the anonymous tip in Mexico has only added another disturbing twist to an already haunting mystery.

Nancy’s loved ones are still waiting for answers. And Savannah’s heartbreaking promise remains clear: they will not stop searching.

Did US ‘precisely’ bomb water facilities serving 20,000 Iranians?

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June 12, 2026

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did-us-‘precisely’-bomb-water-facilities-serving-20,000-iranians? — Did US ‘precisely’ bomb water facilities serving 20,000 Iranians?

A water facility is seen in Bemani, Iran, after an attack that a New York Times analysis showed was likely a US precision strike on June 10, 2026. Deliberately attacking civilian infrastructure is a war crime under international law. Photo: Rokna News Agency

As temperatures in the village of Bemani, Iran, near the Strait of Hormuz, reached above 100°F this week, two water facilities were struck by bombs, cutting off the drinking water supply for 20,000 people in the area.

An analysis by The New York Times late Wednesday indicated that the attack on the drinking-water storage facilities appeared to be a precision strike by the US, raising questions about whether the Trump administration intentionally attacked civilian infrastructure, which would constitute a war crime under international law.

As the provincial water authority in the area reported that two storage tanks had been destroyed in an attack early Wednesday, US Central Command said on social media that the US Air Force and Navy had used “precision munitions” to strike “Iranian air defense, ground control stations and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz.”

Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, posted a video of damage to one of the facilities, whose light blue pipes were consistent with water infrastructure.

“As part of its aggression against Iran, the US military has deliberately struck vital civilian water infrastructure in Sirik, Hormozgan, destroying two reservoirs with a combined capacity of 2,500 cubic meters,” said Baqaei. “These facilities supplied drinking water to more than 20,000 residents across ten villages. This is not collateral damage – it is a calculated war crime and a flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law. The US must be held accountable for committing such systematic brutal attacks on civilian life-sustaining infrastructure.”

The analysis of the strikes came as the US waged more attacks Wednesday night and early Thursday, including on an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman and against Iranian radars and air defenses.

In its analysis, the Times said commercial satellite imagery showed two water facilities in Bemani whose descriptions matched those given by Abdolhamid Hamzehpour, the chief executive of the province’s water authority, on Wednesday, when he reported the structures had been damaged by missiles.

Hamzehpour said in a statement that the high temperatures in the area were “unbearable” for residents without drinking water, and said that mobile water tanks had been deployed to nearby villages.

The roof of one of the facilities collapsed, according to videos released by Iranian state media, and the center of the roof of the other structure appeared to have been struck by a bomb.

The Times noted that both buildings were remotely located, with no other infrastructure located in the immediate vicinity, suggesting a likely precision strike.

Tasnim, a semiofficial news agency in Iran, released photos of bomb fragments that it said were recovered from the site. Researchers with the Open Source Munitions Portal identified the fragments as parts of a GBU-39 bomb, which is used by the US Air Force.

The precision-guided bomb was “consistent with the damage shown in the footage of the damaged building: a clean hole punched through the building’s roof and limited blast damage around it,” reported the Times.

The bombing came as President Donald Trump complained that Tehran was taking too long to finalize a peace deal. The US and Iran have each carried out attacks this week, raising doubts about a ceasefire deal that was reached in April following Trump’s threats to wipe out Iran’s civilization.

“Trump is so angry that Iran will not give him a deal that he is telling the US military to commit war crimes,” said Phillips P. O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews. “Destroying a drinking water facility is not an attack on a target of war, but a mafia-style operation designed to harm the Iranian people.”

-Common Dreams

F1 teams spend millions on their simulators—what makes them different?

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June 12, 2026

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f1-teams-spend-millions-on-their-simulators—what-makes-them-different? — F1 teams spend millions on their simulators—what makes them different?

Among the ways Formula 1 has changed in the 21st century has been its adoption of driver-in-the-loop simulators. It all started in the early 2000s, probably at McLaren, maybe at Toyota or Ferrari; F1 teams are notoriously secretive about their performance advantages. Along the years, they’ve gotten more and more capable, but so too have high-end consumer sims like the multi-axis setups that cost tens of thousands of dollars. What is it that makes the multimillion-dollar simulators used in F1 that much more expensive, and that much better for the job?

For one thing, latency.

“There’s this intimate link between the inputs that [a driver] provides to the car, the way the car responds, and then the driver immediately feels that and reacts to it. So this is a very dynamic closed loop involving the driver and the car,” explained Ash Warne, founder and CTO of Dynisma Motion Generators, a UK-based simulator company that supplies Ferrari, Alpine, and soon Cadillac with DiL simulators that can cost as much as $10 million.

“And what we do in a driving simulator is obviously to take away the car entirely and to bring in our system, and we need it to replicate the real car as accurately as possible, because otherwise your World Champion racing driver, who has this innate and instinctive understanding of what the car should be, will immediately pick up on it as different,” Warne said.

Two McLaren Formula One technicians working in front of computer monitors displaying multi coloured telemetry traces produced by the Formula One simulator, being driven by a Formula One test driver, visible on the other side of the computer screens in the McLaren Racing technical area of the McLaren Technical Centre, Woking, Surrey, United Kingdom, 23rd June 2016. The centre was designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster, Foster + Partners. (Photo by Darren Heath/Getty Images) — A rare look inside an F1 team’s simulator, in this case, McLaren in 2016. Credit: Darren Heath/Getty Images

And he really does mean low latency. “Between 3 and 5 milliseconds. So this is from the moment that the car physics model says, for example, the back end of this car is stepping out and starts to accelerate the car in yaw to when we can actually measure, on an accelerometer on the chassis of the simulator, that movement happening,” Warne said. For context, that’s about an order of magnitude quicker than the best commercial flight simulators, or the National Advanced Driving Simulator that we drove in Iowa a few years back.

3 ms

Warne started Dynisma after working for both McLaren and then Ferrari, after realizing that an ultra-low-latency simulator was possible. “I was able to prove, just with pen and paper, and then with simulation, that we ought to be able to get this kind of delay down, around 3 milliseconds,” Warne said. The first prototype, built when Dynisma was still a one-person operation, used hobbyist-grade electronics and motors to prove the concept. “Rather than using the industrial computers and [programmable logic controllers] and control systems we use today, the first system was developed using an Arduino and Raspberry Pi and a whole bunch of other consumer electronics,” Warne said.

High bandwidth is another must, and it’s an area where we see a big difference from flight simulators. “They move very, very slowly, and they’re interested in doing sustained bank angles, whereas we’re doing a very different problem,” Warne explained. “It’s all about being in a vehicle that’s stuck to the roads, and all of the vibrations that come from every bump that you get in the road, also from engines, etc, tires vibrating, all of these sorts of higher-frequency vibrations get transmitted in a car up through into the driver’s seat,” he said.

“The biggest thing with simulators has always been the fight to make the tires feel like a tire, even though you don’t have tires. And that’s a very critical thing for the driver to feel the displacement of the suspension, the tire moving under the rim. That’s such a very distinctive feeling for the driver. So right now a lot of work is put into that,” said Simon Pagenaud, sim driver for the Cadillac F1 team.

Pagenaud has seen racing simulators evolve alongside his career, which includes an Indy 500 win as well as championships in both IndyCar and the American Le Mans Series. “My first experience on the simulator I think was probably 2008 with Wirth Research… when we had the De Ferran Motorsport program and it was already pretty good, but it definitely is not at the level it’s at now,” Pagenaud said. “The evolution since my first time on the simulator is tremendous. The visuals, of course; the movement of the platform is another thing. I would say the hardware has massively improved, and the latency is something we fight for with computer power every day, but the latency is really everything to give the driver the right feedback,” Pagenaud said.

Time to work

But what is it that a sim driver actually does for their team? “The biggest thing right now, especially in F1, is trying to understand the energy spent into the tire and not overheating the tires. So it is a big part of our job right now, trying to figure out what can we do to make the tires last longer, work better with the race car, give us more grip,” he said.

“The goal is to make the car better and help the race drivers perform better on race weekend, which is the job for every sim driver,” Pagenaud said. “The younger ones, obviously they’re also trying to prove themselves. So their job’s a bit different to mine. They need to perform. They need to always be super fast. I need to be consistent. I need to give the engineers a very subjective feedback on, ‘was this better or was this worse for real life?’ So I’m always trying to project myself into real life.”

As the two Cadillac race cars of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas got ready for the first practice session of last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, Pagenaud was also getting to work in the sim at GM’s motorsports HQ outside Charlotte, North Carolina, plugged in to the same comms network as the engineers at the track and the Charlotte control center. (The Cadillac F1 team’s new Dynisma sim will be installed at the team’s new base in Indianapolis.)

“I’m trying to understand what the drivers are talking about, about the race car, their problems, their strength. And then as soon as free practice one is finished, we get on and we correlate what we have on data. Then after that’s correlated and we’re happy with minimum speed to the corner, maximum speed on the straightaway and everything lines up on the computer, then we can move on to performance items,” Pagenaud said.

Those performance items are the various changes the engineers want to test, and running through as many as 50 of them can mean a very long day, particularly when you consider the time changes involved with some races. Good thing Pagenaud has some experience with endurance racing…

The work is methodical. “So, say a run has to be five laps; we have to do five laps—in a row. If you crash, you restart five laps. So it can be a nightmare very quick if you start crashing. And then you want to be consistent; you want to be within two tenths [of a second] per lap deviation, so then it’s quality data that the engineers can look at. So it is a stressful job in that sense because you want to give the best data possible. And I personally also want to be respected for the job, so I got to give my best,” Pagenaud said.

Oil rises more than $1 as escalation in US-Iran strikes unnerve traders

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June 12, 2026

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oil-rises-more-than-$1-as-escalation-in-us-iran-strikes-unnerve-traders — Oil rises more than $1 as escalation in US-Iran strikes unnerve traders

Oil prices jumped on Thursday as Tehran declared the critical energy chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz, closed ‌after the U.S. launched additional strikes against Iran and as President Donald Trump vowed even more attacks if no peace deal is secured.

Brent futures rose $1.48, or 1.59%, to $94.58 a barrel as of 0243 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed $1.71, or 1.90%, to $91.74. U.S. crude futures gained more than $3 earlier in the session.

Iran’s top joint military command announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, including oil tankers and commercial ships, saying any vessel attempting ⁠passage will be shot at.

“It once again suggests a deal is still some way off and that energy flows from the Persian Gulf will remain heavily constrained,” said ING analysts in a note to clients.

The renewed escalation in fighting prompted oil prices to rally in early morning trading, they said.

On Wednesday, the U.S. military said on X that commercial ships continue to transit in and out of the strait.

It also said no U.S. warships have been struck in the strait, after Iran’s state media reported U.S. ships near the waterway were targeted by missiles and drones.

U.S. forces began launching additional strikes against multiple targets in Iran at 5:15 p.m. EDT (21:15 GMT), the latest in an escalating exchange of attacks that threaten ‌to ⁠reignite a full-scale war, which was paused in early April when the two sides agreed to a fragile ceasefire.

Trump told Fox News reporter Trey Yingst on Wednesday evening that the strikes would stop shortly but that he would “bomb the shit out of them” if Iran’s leaders did not sign an agreement with the U.S. immediately.

Iran’s months-long blockade of the strait, which normally carries a fifth ⁠of global oil and gas shipments, has kept oil prices elevated.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels to 426.5 million barrels in the week ended June 5, the EIA said on Wednesday, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a ⁠4 million-barrel draw.

U.S. crude inventories, including those from strategic reserves, have fallen by 79 million barrels since the Iran war began on February 28, as the top global producer moved to plug supply gaps after the strait was effectively ⁠shut.

Underscoring the squeeze, OPEC output in May slid to its lowest level in over two decades, a Reuters survey showed, as a U.S. naval blockade curbed Iran’s exports and Tehran’s effective closure of the strategic waterway slashed shipments from other Gulf producers.

Source: Reuters

Hakeem Jeffries Finally Finds a Spine: Dem Leaders Rallied Against Extending Domestic Spy Law

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Matt Sledge

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June 12, 2026

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hakeem-jeffries-finally-finds-a-spine:-dem-leaders-rallied-against-extending-domestic-spy-law — Hakeem Jeffries Finally Finds a Spine: Dem Leaders Rallied Against Extending Domestic Spy Law

When the House of Representatives voted on a long-term extension of a controversial surveillance law in April, House Democratic leaders were content to let their members vote as they wished, dealing a blow to privacy advocates seeking reforms to a provision that allows domestic spying without a warrant.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., had said he personally supported reforms, for instance, but declined to whip votes against the law.

“Voting for a clean reauthorization of Section 702 is co-signing the Trump administration’s mass surveillance agenda.”

President Donald Trump’s appointment of housing czar Bill Pulte to be the nation’s spy chief, however, appeared shore up Democratic leaders’ spines — for now.

Citing Pulte’s lack of experience and fealty to Trump, Jeffries on Thursday corralled his members into opposing a short-term extension of the law, leading to a 218–198 defeat of the measure. Democratic leaders did not issue a formal whip notice, but they did release a forceful statement against it hours before the vote was set to take place.

The different approach from leadership between the two votes was “night and day,” one Democratic staffer told The Intercept.

Dozens of the 42 Democrats who had voted for the “clean” renewal last time reversed their positions, dooming an attempt by Speaker Mike Johnson. R-La., to pass the short-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before it expires Friday.

The hardened line was welcomed by advocates, but in a letter penned by dozens of civil society groups they told Democrats not to flip back without changes — whether Pulte is slated to take the helm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence or not.

Hours after the failed vote, Trump said he would nominate Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to serve as national intelligence director. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had resigned, saying her husband had been recently diagnosed with bone cancer, and is expected to depart on June 19.

There are bedrock policy problems with the surveillance law that go much deeper than the personnel Trump installs atop spy agencies, the groups said in the letter. They asked Democrats to block a long-term renewal of Section 702 unless it includes major reforms.

“Voting for a clean reauthorization of Section 702 is co-signing the Trump administration’s mass surveillance agenda,” the groups said in the letter. “Key administration officials — including Stephen Miller, FBI Director Kash Patel, and outgoing DNI Tulsi Gabbard — have made it clear that this reauthorization fight is a White House priority, and that reform is an unacceptable impediment to the administration’s agenda.”

The letter targeted 42 Democrats — including House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes, D-Conn. — who voted in April for a “clean” three-year renewal of Section 702 with only minor tweaks.

Himes was among those who, citing Trump’s appointment of Pulte to replace Gabbard, changed positions and voted against the extension Thursday.

Only Seven Holdouts

The fight over FISA has roiled Congress for months. Following the “clean” renewal’s failure and lawmakers’ inability to agree on a compromise for a longer extensions, more than 90 Democrats voted for the shorter-term postponement of Section 702’s expiration.

Since then, advocacy groups have kept up their pressure on Democrats. Thursday’s vote suggests they are making progress. Only seven Democrats voted for the short-term renewal of the law on Thursday, compared to 199 opposed. The split was reversed in the Republican caucus, with 190 votes in favor and 19 against.

The Democrats voting in favor of the short-term extension were Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas; Donald Davis of North Carolina; Jared Golden of Maine; Vicente Gonzalez of Texas; Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey; Susie Lee of Nevada; and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington.

While the privacy advocates said reforms shouldn’t hinge on any spy official’s fate, they did say their preexisting concerns about the spying law were heightened by Trump’s appointment of Pulte and the administration’s recent release of a counterterrorism strategy calling for a crackdown on “left-wing extremists.”

“It is alarming that, under these conditions in particular, any Democratic members of Congress would vote to extend a warrantless surveillance authority for this administration to wield with no meaningful oversight,” the groups said. “The case for reforming Section 702 has never been more urgent. It is critical that you protect your constituents from the Trump administration’s mass surveillance agenda.”

The groups signing the letter Thursday — including the American Civil Liberties Union, Common Cause, and many local chapters of the organizing group Indivisible — support requiring intelligence officials to obtain judicial approval for searches of American communications.

Debates over the law, which was first passed in 2008, have occasionally flared thanks to events such as the disclosures of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and Trump’s complaints about a “deep state” intelligence conspiracy against him — though GOP opposition to the spy law dwindled with Trump taking power.

The privacy advocates, however, said they have never seen left-leaning organizers as fired up as the current round of debate over the spying law — organizing that helped precipitate the turnaround by some Democrats.

Some Democrats who were previously staunch supporters of the domestic surveillance law, such as Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., and now facing serious primary challenges voted against clean reauthorization in April, though Goldman missed Thursday’s vote.

Trump’s appointment of Pulte to serve as intelligence chief has put the law’s most fervent Democratic supporters in a bind, however, given his lack of qualifications for the job and accusations that he has wielded sensitive government databases against Trump’s opponents.

Himes, for instance, led the House Intelligence Committee’s Democrats in writing a letter to Trump calling on him to rescind his appointment of Pulte on Wednesday.

The Connecticut representative sounded exasperated in comments to Politico earlier this week. In previous fights over renewal of the surveillance law, reformers have suggested that the deadlines were artificial because of certifications from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court allowing spy agencies to continue collecting overseas communications for another year.

“It’s a total mess,” Himes told the outlet. “Very sadly, I think we’re going to test this untested question about whether the program can run on a judicial certification alone.”

2 Gazans killed, 4 injured in Israeli attacks amid ceasefire violations

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June 12, 2026

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2-gazans-killed,-4-injured-in-israeli-attacks-amid-ceasefire-violations — 2 Gazans killed, 4 injured in Israeli attacks amid ceasefire violations

People mourn as 34-year-old Palestinian man Islam Hasan Salih dies at Al-Awda Hospital after getting severely injured in an Israeli attack on Nuseirat camp in Gaza, Palestine on June 11, 2026. [Hassan Jedi - Anadolu Agency]

People mourn as 34-year-old Palestinian man Islam Hasan Salih dies at Al-Awda Hospital after getting severely injured in an Israeli attack on Nuseirat camp in Gaza, Palestine on June 11, 2026. [Hassan Jedi – Anadolu Agency]

Two Palestinians were killed and four others wounded in separate Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, marking a new violation of a ceasefire deal in place since last October, a medical source said, Anadolu reports.

The source said a 40-year-old man was killed and another injured in a drone strike in the New Camp area, north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

In Gaza City, a Palestinian was killed when an Israeli drone fired a missile into the roof of his house in the Al-Maghrabi area in the city center, the source added.

A woman was also seriously injured by Israeli gunfire in the Atatra area, west of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

READ: UK, Australia, Canada launch fund to support two-state solution efforts

Two more Palestinians sustained moderate injuries when an Israeli drone exploded near civilians in the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, the source said.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 981 people have been killed and 3,111 injured by Israeli army fire since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, 2025.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, about 73,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 173,000 others wounded, while widespread destruction has affected 90% of the enclave’s civilian infrastructure.

New Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh won’t immediately get what he wants

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June 11, 2026

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new-fed-chairman-kevin-warsh-won’t-immediately-get-what-he-wants — New Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh won’t immediately get what he wants

Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and President Donald Trump. Photo: White House

The Federal Reserve is under new leadership. Kevin Warsh, Donald Trump’s appointee to succeed Jerome Powell as chair, was confirmed by the Senate on May 13. He will preside over his first meeting of the Fed’s interest-rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee on June 16 and 17.

Warsh takes the reins at the central bank aiming to make some changes. Pundits are predicting he won’t be able to, and it’s true he faces significant obstacles. Over time, though, he might well have some success.

Farmers and other business borrowers are eager to see one of the changes. Warsh favors lower interest rates. Problem is, the FOMC has cooled on them. Though the committee’s April policy statement retains a slight bias in favor of further cuts, it has in fact held rates unchanged in the 3.5% to 3.75% range for three consecutive meetings.

And now, after two months of reports suggesting the labor market is strong and a new report putting inflation above 4%, markets are betting the Fed’s next move will be to raise rates, not lower them.

Chart: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Even before those reports it wasn’t hard to understand the lack of enthusiasm for cuts. Inflation has exceeded the Fed’s 2% target for five years.

Starting in September of 2024, the FOMC made several interest-rate cuts on the premise that inflation was coming down and on a path to 2%. But in recent months inflation has been going the other way. In April, the consumer price index rose 3.8% from a year ago. In May, it rose 4.2%. It’s not surprising sentiment on the committee is shifting toward the possibility of rate increases.

According to the committee’s April meeting minutes, “A majority of participants highlighted … that some policy firming would likely become appropriate if inflation were to continue to run persistently above 2%.”

Faced with these facts, Warsh will be hard pressed to persuade the other 11 members of the FOMC to vote for lower rates – at least as long as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and the inflation rate remains uncomfortably high.

Some committee members worry that consumers are beginning to expect higher inflation. That could keep the inflation rate elevated even if energy prices fall. Inflationary expectations have a tendency to become self-fulfilling prophecies. Workers demand bigger raises; employers raise product prices to maintain profit margins.

Warsh believes AI will make American workers more productive, which will ease inflation. Maybe someday, his critics respond – but the billions being invested in AI right now are heating up the economy and keeping unemployment low, undercutting the argument for lower rates.

Warsh believes the FOMC looks at the wrong measure of inflation. Rather than excluding volatile food and energy prices in search of “core inflation,” Warsh favors so-called “trimmed” measures, which discard the biggest price movers both up and down. One of these trimmed gauges, issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, puts inflation fairly close to the Fed’s 2% target.

The Dallas Fed builds its measure off of the government’s Personal Consumption Expenditures index, the FOMC’s preferred measure. The PCE said prices in April were 3.8% higher than a year earlier. Subtracting food and energy, they were up 3.3%. The Dallas Fed’s trimmed PCE was up only 2.3%.

Many economists have problems with trimmed measures and some roll their eyes at Warsh’s picking a politically convenient one. Warsh seems unlikely to convince his fellow FOMC members to switch. He might, though, have some luck getting them to think about alternatives to the PCE and the CPI. That will take time, but who knows? The result of that exercise could be support for lower rates.

Time could be on Warsh’s side in another way. Top administration economic officials believe energy prices will soon come down, lowering the inflation rate and making interest-rate cuts possible later this year. The hitch: The officials may be overly optimistic. It could take longer for energy prices to come down than they think.

Warsh wants the Fed to be “quieter,” and that’s a change he may be able to start making right away. His quieter Fed would make fewer speeches, stop issuing forward guidance and get rid of the “dot plot,” in which FOMC members give forecasts for economic growth, inflation and interest rates.

Warsh is a known commodity on Wall Street. Early in his career he worked as an investment banker. As a Fed member during the 2008 financial crisis, he was the Fed’s ambassador to the world of high finance. Wall Street favored his appointment.

A quieter Fed, though, could make Wall Street squirm. The less the Fed says, the more the street will have to guess its intentions. That’s a recipe for unwelcome volatility in financial markets.

Former longtime Wall Street Journal Asia correspondent and editor Urban Lehner is editor emeritus of DTN/The Progressive Farmer. This article, originally published on June 10 by the latter news organization and now republished by Asia Times with permission, is © Copyright 2026 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved. Follow Urban Lehner on X @urbanize.

Netanyahu Says Israel Not Party to Iran Deal, Praises Nuclear Restrictions as Iran Signals ‘High Probability’ of Approval

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June 11, 2026

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netanyahu-says-israel-not-party-to-iran-deal,-praises-nuclear-restrictions-as-iran-signals-‘high-probability’-of-approval — Netanyahu Says Israel Not Party to Iran Deal, Praises Nuclear Restrictions as Iran Signals ‘High Probability’ of Approval

The Prime Minister’s Office said Thursday night that US President Donald Trump spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding an emerging memorandum of understanding with Iran ahead of formal negotiations, while Iran’s Fars news agency signaled a “high probability” of accepting the deal.

In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said that although Israel was not involved in the memorandum of understanding, Netanyahu welcomed commitments conveyed by President Trump regarding the goals of any eventual agreement.

“Although Israel is not a party to the memorandum of understanding, the Prime Minister expressed his appreciation for President Trump’s commitment that the final agreement at the conclusion of negotiations will include the removal of enriched material, the dismantling of enrichment infrastructure, restrictions on missile production, and an end to Iran’s support for its terror proxies in the region.”

Earlier in the evening, a senior Israeli official told Channel 12 News that Israel had not received advance notification of a finalized US-Iran agreement. The official said, “To the best of our knowledge, Mojtaba Khamenei has not yet approved the agreement, and we are not aware of any finalized framework document.”

Channel 12 reported that Netanyahu’s situation assessment meeting was dispersed shortly after it began because of a “diplomatic call.”

Later on Thursday, Iran’s Fars news agency reported that there was “a high probability that the regime will approve that proposal.” Fars said a draft memorandum of understanding remained pending final approval in Tehran and Washington.

The agency said President Trump had previously sought changes to the draft after becoming frustrated by delays from Mojtaba Khamenei in granting final approval.

Iran has insisted that the war end “on all fronts,” particularly in Lebanon, while the proposed arrangement would also reopen the Strait of Hormuz and provide for the gradual easing of the US blockade on Iranian ports and certain sanctions relief.

The memorandum would not resolve disputes over Iran’s nuclear program. Instead, it would launch a separate negotiating process on future restrictions. Previous reports indicated those talks would continue for 60 days.

The remarks followed a Truth Social post by President Trump announcing that planned US strikes on Iran had been canceled and that discussions toward an agreement were advancing.

“Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” President Trump wrote.

He also stated that “Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others.”

President Trump added: “The Naval Blockade will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized—Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly.”

The post announced a cancellation of what would have been a third consecutive night of strikes against Iran. The United States launched two days of retaliatory strikes on Iranian military and radar sites after Tehran downed an American Apache helicopter. Iran later fired ballistic missiles and drones at US assets in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan.

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