Latest news for 11 June 2026

IRAN

Hormuz closed (again).

Answering the latest US strikes, plus President Trump’s claims the US has been secretly escorting oil out to market, Iran has now announced the full closure of Hormuz again. Meanwhile, India has confirmed the death of three nationals aboard a tanker hit by US strikes on Monday — the US argues the tanker had tried to break the US blockade. (Reuters)

CANADA

Let it lapse.

President Trump has warned he’s “not looking to renew” the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA), which hits a key renegotiation deadline on 1 July. (CBC)

Comment: Warnings of any imminent collapse of the world’s biggest FTA (by GDP) will naturally send shivers down the spines of countless US, Canadian, and Mexican businesses. But those same shared shivers should probably serve as a reminder that this is also a classic Trumpian negotiation tactic — for all its flaws, the end of the USMCA would be devastating to the US itself. More talks are scheduled for next week, and even if those fail, the July deadline most likely extends the status quo while annual reviews continue for another decade.

TANZANIA

Let’s do a deal lah.

Singapore’s mostly-ceremonial president (Shanmugaratnam) just used his city’s first state-level visit to Tanzania to sign new deals on double taxation, carbon credits, skills training, and trade facilitation. (AA)

Comment: What’s Singapore want with Tanzania, you might wonder? Amid the US-China rivalry back home, Singapore has quietly hustled for new growth corridors farther afield, and Tanzania also happens to be home to the HQ for the 8-country East African Community bloc, which has been hinting at a free trade pact.

BRAZIL

Drop it low.

The key Bovespa stock index out of Sao Paulo just dropped to its lowest levels since January, sliding ~7% in the last month alone. (Investing.com)

Comment: Markets are likely pricing in a) four more years of Lula (seen as less business-friendly than his lagging October rival), and b) robust data out of the US, hinting at higher — and lower-risk — yields up north.

CHINA

Japan-maxxing.

The Times (of the Financial variety) have declared the Japanification of China’s bond market is complete now that its entire yield curve is below 2% (including for ultra-long holdouts). (FT $)

Comment: Translation? This tends to reflect a deeper structural and sentiment slump across property, debt, demographics, and consumption. It arguably confirms what we (per Richard Koo) have long viewed as a classic ‘balance-sheet recession’ — folks using any breathing room to pay off existing debt rather than borrow to fuel the next stage of growth. It all makes Beijing’s stimulus efforts just that much harder.

EUROPEAN UNION

Digital pact with Korea.

Korea’s President Lee and the EU’s António Costa just used the 11th EU-South Korea summit in Brussels to sign a landmark new digital trade agreement. It basically extends their 2011 FTA into the digital realm, delivering smoother cross-border data, valid electronic contracts, and clearer rules for both sides. (EEAS)

Comment: The EU scores a win by exporting its high-standards (privacy, consumer protections) to a major Asian economy, while South Korea gets to hedge against US-China rivalry and lock in its status as a trusted EU partner in the region. PS — while we’re in Europe, a heads-up the ECB is widely expected to deliver a 25bp rate hike today (Thursday) amid energy price spikes and inflation risks, its first increase in years.

UNITED STATES

Mythos and legends.

Anthropic has released its new scaled-down ‘Fable 5’ Mythos AI model after first deeming the advanced version too dangerous for the general public. The Fable 5 comes with guardrails around sensitive topics like cybersecurity. (TechCrunch)

Comment: Cue the jokes about the CEO of Oreos or whatever finally releasing a new scaled-down flavour because the earlier flavour was just *too good*. A more interesting trend might be the data out of Citi and elsewhere suggesting China’s trailing-edge AI models are (say) 85% as good as the US frontier, but 95% cheaper — if that performance is good enough for most, it risks upending AI’s cost curve.