US and Iranian negotiators have reached what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described carefully as “perhaps have the makings of a deal here.” The memorandum of understanding, not yet signed by either President Trump or Supreme Leader Khamenei, would extend the current ceasefire by 60 days and initiate formal nuclear talks, while also opening the Strait of Hormuz in synchronized phases over that window, according to ABC News. A US Central Command statement issued overnight cited an “egregious ceasefire violation” by Iran, which doesn’t improve the conditions for final signatures.
Trump told reporters he can “outwait Iran.”
The ceasefire has been in place since April 8. It survived one extension in late April and another in mid-May. Each extension reset the clock without shortening the distance between a pause and an agreement. Bessent’s phrasing is the language of someone who has been in enough negotiations to know that the distance between a memorandum of understanding and two signatures can be considerable.
In November 2013, the United States and five other world powers reached an interim agreement with Iran called the Joint Plan of Action, described at the time as a historic breakthrough. John Kerry and Mohammad Javad Zarif then spent twenty months in hotel rooms in Geneva and Vienna before the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was signed in July 2015. The current ceasefire is seven weeks old.
A Russian Geran-2 drone struck the roof of a ten-story apartment building in Galati, Romania, early Thursday, injuring two people and forcing 70 residents to evacuate. It was the 28th time a Russian drone has entered Romanian airspace since Moscow began targeting Ukrainian grain shipments along the Danube River, CNN reported. Romania is a NATO member. The government summoned the Russian ambassador. US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker called it “a reckless incursion,” CNBC reported.
NATO’s founding charter describes an armed attack against one member as an attack against all. Article 5 has been invoked once in the alliance’s history, after September 11, 2001. The 27 previous Russian drone incursions into Romanian airspace each produced a summoned ambassador. The 28th produced the same.
The same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was still waiting for a reply to a letter he sent President Trump and Congress on Memorial Day. Zelenskyy wrote that “Ukraine relies almost exclusively on the United States for defending against ballistic missiles” and that deliveries had fallen short as the Iran war diverted US stocks, CBS News reported. He added that “Patriot systems remain the most effective defense against every type of Russian ballistic missile.” The appeal followed what Ukrainian officials described as the largest single aerial assault of the war, on May 24: 54 cruise missiles, 30 ballistic missiles, three Tsirkon hypersonic missiles, two Kinzhal missiles, and Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missiles in one night. As of Thursday, no reply.
Federal prosecutors charged a former senior CIA official identified as David Rush with criminal theft of public money after FBI agents searching his home on May 18 seized more than 300 gold bars valued at over $40 million, approximately $2 million in cash, and roughly 35 luxury watches, many of them Rolexes, the Washington Post reported. Court documents allege that from November to March, Rush requested and received the gold bars from the agency under the cover of work-related expenses. He held a top-secret clearance.
Prosecutors also allege Rush fabricated his academic and military credentials on his 2009 CIA job application. Clemson University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute each told the FBI they have no record of him attending. The charges include criminal theft of public money. The question that will take some time to answer isn’t whether he did what prosecutors allege. It’s how: how 300 gold bars left a federal intelligence agency across four months without triggering review, and what that answer says about whatever oversight process was or wasn’t functioning.
The Commerce Department’s personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, rose at a 3.8 percent annual rate in April, the highest reading in nearly three years and nearly double the Fed’s 2 percent target. Core PCE, which strips out food and energy, came in at 3.3 percent. Energy prices rose 18.3 percent year over year, driven by the Iran war and Strait of Hormuz disruptions. GDP growth for 2026 is now projected at 1.8 percent, down from 2.1 percent last year. The New York Federal Reserve has reported a “remarkable increase” in food insecurity, Wolf Street reported.
The last time PCE inflation ran this persistently above the Fed’s target without aggressive rate action was the mid-1960s. The result was the inflation spiral of the 1970s, which Paul Volcker ended by pushing the federal funds rate to 20 percent in 1981. Unemployment peaked at 10.8 percent in 1982. The Fed is aware of that history. Awareness hasn’t yet produced a decision about what to do with 3.8 percent.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded during an engine-firing test at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Thursday evening, around 9 p.m. ET, shaking homes and lighting the sky. No personnel were injured. The rocket had been scheduled to launch the following week carrying Amazon Leo internet satellites, NPR reported. Blue Origin operates one New Glenn launch pad. It is the one that was damaged Thursday night.
Jeff Bezos posted on X: “It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”
SpaceX’s Falcon 1 failed on its first three launch attempts, in 2006, 2007, and 2008, before succeeding on the fourth. Blue Origin isn’t in the existential position SpaceX was in 2008, when that fourth flight used the last available money. The New Glenn has now failed or significantly underperformed on three major milestones. Rocket development has always been this difficult. Rebuilding whatever needs rebuilding and getting back to flying is, at minimum, a plan.
It is Thursday. US and Iranian negotiators have the makings of a deal and no signatures. A Russian drone struck a NATO apartment building in Romania for the 28th time, and Zelenskyy’s letter asking for Patriot missiles hasn’t received a reply. A former CIA official is charged with taking 300 gold bars out of the agency under the cover of work expenses. PCE inflation hit 3.8 percent, nearly double the Federal Reserve’s target. And Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded on its own launch pad in Cape Canaveral. That’s the day.
And before you go: tomorrow in the Living section, Ruben Navarro publishes What Is Mezcal, which is the kind of piece Ruben writes best, the kind where he sits down with something that seems simple and comes back with everything underneath it. Mezcal gets treated as tequila’s rougher cousin, which isn’t quite right. Ruben explains the agave varieties, the pit-roasting process, the difference between what a palenquero in Oaxaca does over several days and what an industrial distillery does in an afternoon. The smoke in the glass isn’t a flaw. It’s a record of exactly where and how the spirit was made. The piece goes up Friday.
