President Donald Trump on Friday said a 20-year moratorium on Iran’s nuclear program would be enough for him to strike a deal and end the war.

The allowance for Iran to enrich uranium at any point in the future — even decades out — marks a shift for the president, who has repeatedly insisted that the country never be allowed to do so.

Even as reports proliferated that the U.S. was negotiating some kind of timeline behind the scenes, the Trump administration denied that they’d accept anything less than a full surrender and a permanent end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

But as Trump flew home from a two-day summit in China amid a war with seemingly no easy end in sight, the president, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, appeared to move the goalposts. (POLITICO – Continue Reading)

The recent surge in inflation is likely to get worse over the next several months, according to a survey Friday from the nation’s top economists.

Consumer price inflation is projected to hit 6% for the first quarter, according to the Survey of Professional Forecasters, a blue-ribbon group that is polled each quarter by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

In the most recent forecast three months ago, the panel put the expected consumer price index gain at just 2.7%. However, that was just before the U.S. and Israel launched attacks against Iran, hostilities that have sent energy prices soaring while pushing inflation data well past the 2% mark the Fed targets.

For the full year, the panel put the CPI rate at 3.5% for the all-items number and 2.9% for core, which excludes volatile food and energy prices. That’s up from estimates of 2.6% for both in the prior survey. (CNBC – Continue Reading)

China and the United States have provided critical support to the oil market and helped ease the huge supply disruption in the Middle East and kept energy prices from surging even higher.

The oil market has lost about 10 million barrels per day (bpd) of exports from the Persian Gulf due to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the International Energy Agency’s latest update this week.

It is the largest oil supply disruption in history, equivalent to about 10% of total global consumption. But crude prices on Thursday closed just above $100 per barrel, which is lower than the prices seen during smaller supply disruptions such as the one following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. (CNBC – Continue Reading)

Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the US this autumn, the first in more than a decade, as the two powers seek stability amid their deepening rivalry.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed late on Friday that Xi would make the trip at the invitation of his US counterpart Donald Trump.

“Both sides should work together to make thorough preparations, create a favourable atmosphere, and achieve more substantive outcomes for the interactions and exchanges between the two heads of state,” Wang said. (SCMP – Continue Reading)