And Sweden’s ‘Queen of Trash’ is sentenced to six years in prison.
Happy Wednesday and welcome to your morning wrap of the key political and business headlines from around the world.
First up, US President Donald Trump has called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” as its conflict with Israel enters its fifth day, The Guardian reports.
Trump posted on social media that the United States knows the location of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying that “he is an easy target” but he won’t be killed – “at least not for now”.
Reuters reports that the supreme leader’s main military and security advisers have been killed by Israeli air strikes, leaving major holes in his inner circle.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Meanwhile, aerial attacks by both sides continue. Israel said it now had control of Iranian airspace and intended to escalate the campaign in the coming days, though it will struggle to deal a knock-out blow to Iran’s deeply buried nuclear sites without US support.
Iran has so far fired about 400 missiles and hundreds of drones towards Israel, with only about 35 breaching Israel’s defensive shield, according to Israeli officials.
The Associated Press reports that airports across the Middle East have closed due to the conflict. Dozens of airports have suspended all flights or drastically reduced operations, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded.
In other news, the BBC reports that Israeli forces killed 51 Palestinians waiting for flour at a Gaza aid site. The civil defence agency run by militant group Hamas said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the aid site in Khan Younis, injuring more than 200 people.
Israel’s military told the BBC it is looking into the reports. Witnesses said Israeli forces opened fire and shelled an area near a junction where thousands of people had gathered, hoping to receive flour from a World Food Programme site.
Children in Gaza.
In business news, streaming services have dethroned broadcast and cable television in the United States, winning more viewers for the first time in May.
Monthly data from Nielsen, reported by CNBC, showed that streaming captured 44.5% of total television usage in the US last month, with broadcast and cable accounting for 20% and 24% of viewership, respectively.
“While many have expected this milestone to occur sooner, sporting events, news and new season content have kept broadcast and cable surprisingly resilient,” Nielsen’s senior vice president of product strategy and thought leadership, Brian Fuhrer, said.
In May 2021, only five streaming platforms exceeded 1% of total US television viewing.
Wall Street’s main indices, meanwhile, edged lower overnight as the conflict in the Middle East persisted. The Dow Jones, the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq each fell between 0.2% and 0.3%. US energy stocks rose as oil prices remained elevated on the uncertainty.
"With price hikes likely on the way due to the tariffs, we think that officials will be reluctant to sound too dovish at this junction, either in the communications or the dot plot," Ebury head of market strategy Matthew Ryan said in a research note.
Finally this morning, a Swedish businesswoman who called herself the “Queen of Trash” has been sentenced to six years in prison in one of the country’s biggest environmental crime cases.
Fariba Vancor, formerly known as Bella Nilsson, was convicted of environmental crimes after her waste management company, Think Pink, illegally dumped toxic waste in locations across Sweden. She was convicted alongside nine others, including her ex-husband.
Think Pink was hired by local authorities, construction firms, and private individuals to dispose of everything from building materials to toys. Instead of legally disposing of the waste, Think Pink buried or dumped it on sites in central Sweden between 2015 and 2020.
The waste was found to contain substances harmful to both human and environmental health, such as arsenic, lead and mercury.
