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Iran Calls MoU Deal A 'US Defeat' As Trump Touts Tehran Forced Into 'Very Big Concessions'

Zero Rss
1 month 3 weeks ago
Iran Calls MoU Deal A 'US Defeat' As Trump Touts Tehran Forced Into 'Very Big Concessions' Summary
  • Trump Hits Back, Seeks Narrative Control: "The war is going very well. As you know, we're winning by a lot. Iran is making very big concessions."
  • Iran Declares MoU A US Defeat: Tehran says the Islamabad agreement proves Washington abandoned its pressure campaign.
  • Hormuz Traffic Resumes under UN Auspices: About 72 ships carrying roughly 20 million barrels of oil transited the strait in the past 24 hours under a UN-backed framework.
  • Brent Falls Below $75, Iran war low: Oil prices dropped to their lowest level since the Iran conflict began, erasing much of the war risk premium.
  • Trump, Tehran still at Odds despite MoU Signing, Switzerland Summit with Vance: Trump claims Iran agreed to "NO TOLLS" or shipping fees in Hormuz, while Iranian officials continue disputing key US claims.
  • Despite these Contradictions, Fragile Calm Persists: Qatar is urging direct US-Iran communication as questions remain over inspections, sanctions relief, and the long-term durability of the deal.
//--> //--> Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by July 31?
Yes 48% · No 53%
View full market & trade on Polymarket

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Trump Hits Back: Iran Forced to Make 'Very Big Concessions'

President Trump claimed Wednesday that Iran was offering significant concessions, stated within hours after Iran's lead negotiator, Parliament Speaker Ghalibaf told a Baku audience that Iran had secured 'US defeat'...

"The war is going very well. As you know, we're winning by a lot. Iran is making very big concessions," Trump told reporters at the Capitol.

"We'll see what happens — but it has been very, very, very powerful," the US President added. Tehran has remained insistent it never agreed to allow nuclear inspector access, and that the Strait of Hormuz is opening on its terms.

Meanwhile, the latest on the Lebanon tenuous ceasefire and crisis:

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇱🇧The first day of the round of talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington ended yesterday without any progress and in a certain sense there was even a retreat, according to two sources briefed on the negotiations
🇺🇸🇱🇧🇮🇱One of the sources said that in some parts of the…

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) June 24, 2026 Tehran Provokes Trump: Deal to End War a 'Declaration of US Defeat'

The post-war narrative battle between Washington and Tehran intensified Wednesday after Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf claimed the recently signed Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) - and confirmed in Switzerland - amounted to nothing less than a US capitulation.

Speaking in Baku during a gathering of parliaments from member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Ghalibaf argued that the agreement validated Iran's long-held position that negotiations only succeed when foreign powers abandon coercion and recognize the Islamic Republic's rights.

"The Islamabad memorandum of understanding became a declaration of the US defeat," Ghalibaf said.

The remarks underscore the widening disconnect between how Washington and Tehran are portraying the agreement. While the Trump administration has presented the MoU as evidence that its pressure campaign forced concessions from Iran, Iranian officials continue to frame the deal as proof that the United States ultimately backed away from attempts to dictate terms.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Wednesday that the Islamabad memorandum of understanding with Washington turned into “a declaration of US defeat.”
“The Islamabad memorandum of understanding became a declaration of the US defeat,” Ghalibaf said in Baku,… pic.twitter.com/HRUltq012R

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) June 24, 2026

Ghalibaf further suggested that the agreement demonstrated dialogue can only produce results when the opposing side ceases efforts to impose its will and instead accepts Iran's sovereign rights. Iran has lately stated that it asserted its red lines through 'action'.

Energy Secretary: 72 Ships Have Exited Strait in Last Day

Several vessels have already navigated the Strait of Hormuz utilizing a fresh evacuation framework established by the United Nations' shipping agency, an official confirmed on Wednesday. More via newswires:

US Energy Secretary Wright says roughly 72 ships have exited Strait of Hormuz in last 24 hours.

"Ships have already begun to pass under the plan," stated a spokesperson for the UN's International Maritime Organization (IMO), though they opted not to disclose specific details regarding the transiting vessels.

According to the latest LSEG ship-tracking data Wednesday, at least two dry bulk carriers and one cargo vessel successfully crossed the strait under the new program within a 12-hour window.

An additional analysis of ship movements by Reuters, utilizing data from LSEG and MarineTraffic, indicated that at least 35 other commercial vessels - primarily dry bulk, cargo, and container ships - are gearing up to make the passage.

Brent Falls To Pre-War Levels

Brent crude oil prices fell below $75 a barrel late yesterday, marking the first time the global benchmark has traded under that level since the outbreak of the Trump-initiated Iran conflict.

The drop in crude prices could provide relief for consumers and businesses by easing pressure on fuel costs and inflation, a desired Washington outcome of the MoU signing - for which Trump has come under severe criticism from hawks at home. Speaking of escalating, we have another early morning Trump Truth Social statement, openly contradicting the consistent stated position of Tehran leaders.

Another Bombshell Trump Post Contradicting Iran's Public Stance

Since the Switzerland high level talks led by Vance, there's been a series of issues where Tehran and Washington have issued clearly contradictory statements. 

Trump says in the fresh statement that Iran informed the United States that there would be "NO TOLLS, NO INSURANCE COSTS, & NO OTHER CHARGES OF ANY KIND" imposed on vessels traveling through the strategic waterway.

Trump as is typical criticized media reports that had suggested Iran could seek payments from ships using the route, calling such coverage "Fake News." He added that if the information provided by Iran proved inaccurate, ongoing negotiations between the two sides would end "immediately."

The president also denied reports that the United States had provided funds directly to Iran or released Iranian assets without conditions. "No money has been given to Iran, or released from their money to them, by the U.S.," he said.

However, Trump stated that Washington plans to make some Iranian funds available for agricultural purchases. According to the president, the money would be used to buy US farm products, including "Corn, Wheat, Soybeans, and more." But Iranian leadership has vehemently rejected this narrative too.

"Food is desperately needed in Iran," Trump said, adding that the purchases would be made "exclusively from the United States."

Oil drops to Iran war lows on the Trump Truth social statement...

Qatar Pledges to Washington Will Hold a Firm Line on Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world's most important energy shipping routes, and any disruption or additional costs imposed on vessels passing through the channel could have significant implications for global trade and oil markets. It is officially 'open' in the wake of the MoU signing - but the next few days and weeks will be telling.

Meanwhile, some new developments on the Hormuz opening front, and Qatar LNG:

Qatar’s prime minister said establishing a hotline between the US and Iran is essential to prevent rogue actors impeding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, as he predicted that the Gulf state would resume normal liquefied natural gas production “within a few weeks”.  --FT

Trump is also asserting that Iran will allow IEAE inspectors in, something the Islamic Republic is also vehemently rejecting.

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/24/2026 - 18:45
Tyler Durden

Google Loses Another Two High Profile AI Researchers To Anthropic

Zero Rss
1 month 3 weeks ago
Google Loses Another Two High Profile AI Researchers To Anthropic

A duo of leading artificial intelligence researchers at Alphabet’s Google are planning to leave for rival Anthropic, adding to a series of high-profile departures that risk undercutting the search giant’s position in AI. 

Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel, both viewed internally as key contributors to Google’s Gemini AI model, are set to move to the Claude maker, Bloomberg first reported citing unnamed sources. Adler worked on the company’s AI coding effort and Pritzel was involved in the process of training artificial intelligence systems. 

The two are only the latest to take part in what is becoming a brain drain out of the search giant: the company had already lost two prominent staffers, with Nobel laureate John Jumper heading to Anthropic and star researcher Noam Shazeer going to OpenAI. Their moves rattled investors and cast new doubt on Google’s ability to compete in the fierce race to build better models.

Another researcher, Arthur Conmy, wrote on X Wednesday that he was set to join Anthropic to work on AI safety. During his time at DeepMind, Conmy was a senior research engineer who contributed to the Gemini 2.5 model as well as AI coding, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Bloomberg reported that two more Google AI employees are leaving Google for Anthropic, Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel.

Not to mention these two individuals who recently left as well.

Typically this is always a sign when a company is about to release a sub-par model. This… pic.twitter.com/Gj3fHeiRYP

— Chris (@ChrissGPT) June 24, 2026

Google, an early AI pioneer, spent much of the current AI boom playing catch-up with the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic before hitting its stride late last year with more capable models and chips. However, the latest defections suggest that there is internal pushback against the company's upcoming models.

The exits highlight the rising pressure Google faces from two startups that are on the cusp of going public, offering even tenured employees at Big Tech firms the chance at a rare payday by signing on before an IPO. In at least one case, a Google departure also appeared to be preceded by shifting priorities over how to allocate precious computing resources, an issue that has prompted other employees to leave the company entirely.

Shortly before Shazeer announced his plans to join OpenAI, computing power dedicated to one of his projects was reassigned to a London-based team at Google DeepMind, Bloomberg reported. The move was made in an attempt to boost collaboration across teams and streamline Google’s work on pre-training, the initial phase of AI development in which models learn from massive datasets.

A spokesperson for Google told Bloomberg the company remains confident in its position in the market for AI talent and pointed to Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis’s remarks earlier this week.

“There’s a lot of talent movement between all the leading labs and we win our fair share of the top talent. We have by far the biggest and broadest research bench of any of the labs out there,” Hassabis said at an event in Cannes. “It’s a ferociously competitive market right now, the most ferociously competitive it’s ever been in the tech industry.”

Shares of Alphabet closed down slightly after falling as much as 1.2% during the trading day Wednesday following the news.

According to the Bloomberg report, Shazeer’s career trajectory is emblematic of the intense talent wars that have defined the AI landscape. After co-authoring a seminal paper that helped catalyze the AI boom, he left Google in 2021 to found Character.AI, a chatbot startup, only to rejoin the firm in 2024 as part of an unusual licensing deal that valued his company at $2.5 billion.

Once back at Google, Shazeer co-led development of the company’s flagship Gemini AI model. Prior to his departure, he had also been working on a new AI architecture, two people said. The architecture was still based on the transformer, a technique that Shazeer and his colleagues introduced in 2017 that has become a staple of AI development in the years since, but it had been achieving promising results. Shazeer was both an admired and divisive figure within Google: his comments within Google about transgender identity and the Gaza conflict stirred controversy among some employees, bloomberg sources said.

Jumper, meanwhile, had emerged as a face of Google’s most ambitious AI efforts after winning the Nobel Prize for landmark research using AI to predict protein folding. Adler and Pritzel, both of whom are set to join Jumper at Anthropic, worked with him on that research.

Key members of Jumper’s team on the protein-folding research have exited Google DeepMind in recent months. Some have shifted to Isomorphic Labs, an Alphabet spinout company working on AI-designed drugs. 

Anthropic, which both partners with Google and also competes with it, has aggressively siphoned talent from the tech giant. DeepMind engineers are nearly 11 times more likely to leave for Anthropic than the reverse, according to a 2025 industry analysis from the venture capital firm SignalFire. That appears to no longer be the case. 

Like Google, the Claude maker is exploring life sciences and healthcare applications in a bid to broaden the uses of its technology. Anthropic recently raised a new round of funding at a $965 billion valuation, overtaking OpenAI, and is considering going public as soon as this fall.

AI researchers in the UK, where DeepMind’s leadership is based, are often subject to lengthy non-compete agreements, which are enforceable under British law. Jumper would likely not begin work at Anthropic until next year, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/24/2026 - 18:40
Tyler Durden

Transcript Shows Bill Gates Claim Epstein Issued 'Veiled' Threats Over Affairs

Zero Rss
1 month 3 weeks ago
Transcript Shows Bill Gates Claim Epstein Issued 'Veiled' Threats Over Affairs

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Bill Gates told lawmakers in a recent interview that Jeffrey Epstein threatened him subtly over his affairs but did not overtly blackmail him, according to a transcript released on June 23.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (C) in Washington, on June 10, 2026. Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images

Epstein in 2013 "made some veiled references that made me wonder whether he had become aware" of one of the affairs, Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, told the House of Representatives Oversight Committee on June 10.

Epstein later sent a reimbursement request to Gates, according to Gates. The request was for expenses that Epstein said he paid for one of the women with whom Gates had an affair.

"I viewed it as a tactic to reengage with me," Gates said. "I'd never asked him to do anything with respect to the person we're discussing, so I was rather surprised. That was the first time I knew explicitly that he'd become aware of that affair."

Gates said he directed staff members not to pay Epstein.

Still, Gates maintained that Epstein did not blackmail him.

"He never blackmailed me, but looking at these emails, it raises a serious probability that he contemplated blackmailing me," Gates said, referring to documents released by the Department of Justice in January.

Gates also said: "He never sent me anything that I would call blackmail. As I've said, he made veiled references to things like we should all want to be friends.

"Now that I see the January release of documents, it appears that in many cases he, at least in emails to himself, was sort of rehearsing how either he or he coaching someone else might choose to blackmail me, but none of those messages were ever sent to me."

Gates had said through a spokesperson in 2023 that Epstein tried to "leverage a past relationship" to threaten him, without providing details.

Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died in federal prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking of minors.

Gates has said he met with Epstein multiple times from 2011 through 2014, and that he ended the relationship in 2014 after concluding that Epstein could not deliver on claims that he could raise billions for global health efforts.

Gates said in his opening statement that he should have never met with Epstein in the first place but that he never witnessed any indication Epstein was involved in criminal conduct.

He told lawmakers that it was a mistake to engage with Epstein in part because of his prior conviction, according to the newly released transcript.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, during the June 10 interview noted that Epstein's employees were among his victims.

"Yeah, that's a very good point," Gates said.

"I never spent time with any women who I was aware were victims, and so that's why I've enumerated very carefully when I ever saw any of those admin assistants, because, tragically, as you say, it appears in the press now that some of those women were indeed victims.

"So, to that degree, for the photos, for sitting on the plane or standing there during the magic trick, I may have been in the presence of victims."

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/24/2026 - 18:20
Tyler Durden

All Banks Pass Fed's Stress Test, Unleashing Latest Wave Of Dividends And Buybacks

Zero Rss
1 month 3 weeks ago
All Banks Pass Fed's Stress Test, Unleashing Latest Wave Of Dividends And Buybacks

In all the excitement over Micron's blowout earnings, we almost forgot that today was another Fed stress test day - which every bank passed with flying colors as usual - which in turn allowed bank to unleash a fresh flood of dividends and buybacks.

The biggest US banks boosted their dividends after passing this year’s Federal Reserve stress tests, a hurdle that even Bloomberg admits has "softened" in recent years as regulators hash out new requirements.

The results of the Federal Reserve Board's annual bank stress test confirmed that large banks are well positioned to weather a severe recession and able to continue to lend to households and businesses. Despite absorbing more than $708 billion in total loan losses under this year's hypothetical scenario, capital declined only 1.6 percentage points in aggregate, staying above minimum capital requirements.

"Today's results underscore the strength of the banking system," Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle W. Bowman said. "As we work to increase the transparency and accountability of the stress test, public feedback will help us continue to improve and instill greater confidence in the stress test and its results.

The Fed’s exam (the results can be found here), an offshoot of the 2008 financial crisis, showed that all of the banks examined would maintain enough capital to withstand a hypothetical economic downturn. All 32 banks tested remained above their minimum common equity tier 1 capital requirements during this year's hypothetical recession scenario, which was similar in severity to the prior test. The hypothetical scenario this year included a severe global recession with a 39 percent decline in commercial real estate prices and a 30 percent decline in house prices. The unemployment rate also increased to a peak of 10 percent, and economic output declined commensurately.

The review tends to set the tone for how aggressive banks are in returning capital to shareholders through dividends and repurchasing shares. It requires banks to consider hypothetical crisis scenarios and estimate the losses they might face based on their books of business. Yet as most banks have consistently passed the test, even those who suffered in the aftermath of the March 2023 bank crisis, the "test" has become more of a greenlight from the Fed to banks to release capital. 

Sure enough, immediately after the results, banks proceeded to announce their shareholder friendly acts: JPMorgan increased its quarterly payout to $1.65 a share from $1.50, while Goldman Sachs raised its dividend to $5 from $4.50 after the results of the Fed’s annual review were announced. JPMorgan also authorized a new $50BN share-repurchase program effective July 1. Wells Fargo raised its payout to 50 cents from 45 cents and Morgan Stanley increased its dividend to $1.15 from $1.

The nation’s six biggest banks paid out more than $140 billion in dividends and buybacks last year, surpassing a record set in 2019. The firms collectively posted their largest annual profit since 2021 on the back of record trading revenue.

Unlike other years, the 2026 results won’t impact capital requirements as the Fed continues revising the tests to make them more bank-friendly. As a result of that decision “there is no expectation that the firms delay until a particular time the public disclosure of their planned capital actions through the third quarter of 2027,” the Fed said in a statement Wednesday. 

Additionally, Bloomberg notes that this year’s test has limited impact because the Fed voted in February to freeze the current stress capital buffer requirements until 2027 as it continues to overhaul the annual exam. Last year, those requirements fell for many banks as the test was less stringent than in past years. 

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/24/2026 - 18:00
Tyler Durden

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