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By Nicole Jao and Tom Polansek
NEW YORK/CHICAGO, June 9 () – High energy costs are squeezing grain and soybean growers ⁠across ⁠the U.S. farm belt, as the Iran war chokes fuel ⁠supplies through the Strait of Hormuz and pushes diesel prices to record highs in key agricultural states.
Many farmers were already under pressure before ​the conflict and facing a fourth straight year of shrinking margins, battered by a resurgent drought, high input costs and fallout from U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies, which have weighed on crop prices.
The conflict drove diesel prices ‌in several states across the Midwest, America's primary corn ‌and soybean-producing region, to new all-time highs in May, just as farmers ramped up plantings and other spring fieldwork. Wisconsin diesel hit $5.873 per gallon, while Indiana reached $6.167, and Illinois rose to $6.14 in mid-May. Ohio and Michigan ⁠also posted records, according to ⁠data from the motorists association AAA.
The national average diesel price has surged more than 40% since the Middle East ​conflict began. Global crude oil prices, which underpin diesel and gasoline, jumped about 30% since late February.
On farms across the U.S., diesel powers equipment needed for crucial field operations, from spraying pesticides and planting seeds to fertilizing fields and harvesting crops.
Unlike other sectors that can switch fuels, most U.S. farm machinery is designed to run on diesel, leaving farmers highly exposed to diesel price volatility.
"It's a huge cost," said Glenn Brunkow, who raises soybeans and cattle in Wamego, ​Kansas. "There's just not much we can do about it, and we weren't budgeting for it. It came out of nowhere and surprised us."
Prior to the war, fuel-related expenses accounted for ⁠about ⁠3% to 4% of an average Illinois row-crop ⁠farmer's input costs, or roughly $16 to $23 per ​acre, said Ben Klieve, Benchmark Analyst, referencing estimates from the University of Illinois.
If diesel prices stay at their current level, fuel-related costs could rise to 5% to 6% ​of total input costs, or from a $20 per acre midpoint ⁠to $30 acre for row-crop farmers, Klieve said.
"It's a very difficult environment for row-crop farmers today," he said. "The prices of the grain that they're producing have fallen sharply in recent weeks and are actually down relative to the pre-Iran war levels, while input costs like diesel and fertilizer remain significantly higher so their bottom lines are only getting weaker."
FARMERS BRACE FOR LOSSES
Corn and soybean farmer Tom Murphy said he delayed plans to turn over soil in fields he recently rented in northwest Indiana because he did not want to use up precious fuel to operate his machinery.
Before prices spiked, Murphy intended to till five fields to make the ground level so ⁠that it would be easier to operate equipment for spraying and harvesting crops. However, he only tilled one of those as he tried to stretch ⁠out about 6,000 gallons of farm diesel he bought in December. He will still use the fields to grow crops, but the land will not be in the condition he wanted.
"We're going to leave them a little rough this year and fix them next year, I guess," said Murphy, who does not till most of his fields.
Murphy said in late May that he had about 2,500 gallons left in storage from December and would need to buy more to tend to crops during the important summer growing season.
Don Bloss, a grain and soybean grower in Pawnee City, Nebraska, said he was paying higher shipping rates to truckers to haul corn 80 miles to market.
"You just have to keep writing out the checks," Bloss said. "We're at everybody else's mercy."
MORE PAIN MAY BE ON THE WAY
Experts warned fuel prices may rise further if the Iran war continues to choke global fuel supplies.
Demand for U.S. petroleum products has remained high since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passageway for nearly a fifth of global oil flows. If exports of gasoline and diesel remain ⁠near record levels heading into the summer, the domestic supply cushion that helps keep their prices in check could shrink further.
U.S. distillate fuel oil inventories fell to a 23-year low in May, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. The country's distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.1 million barrels in the week ended May 22 to 100.8 million barrels, the lowest since May 2003.
The coast is anything but clear as uncertainty surrounding a potential deal between the U.S. and Iran persists, said Patrick ​De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
"Overall, any setback in negotiations could quickly reverse the recent decline in fuel prices De Haan said.

Source: U.S. News & World Report

Published: June 9, 2026 6:47 PM

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WELLINGTON, June 10 () – For the first time ⁠in ⁠a decade, New Zealanders see ⁠the United States as more of a threat than China, ​a survey by the Asia New Zealand Foundation found, as concerns over trade disruption and ‌global instability weigh on public ‌sentiment.
• The foundation's annual Perceptions of Asia and Asian Peoples survey, now in ⁠its 29th ⁠year, polled 2,300 people in January and February.
• 39% of respondents ​saw the United States as a friend of New Zealand, while 35% viewed it as a threat. By comparison, 43% saw China as a friend and 23% saw it as ​a threat.
• The number of people who perceived the U.S. as a friend ⁠fell significantly ⁠over the last year, while ⁠the view ​of China improved.
• The survey also found that 81% of New Zealanders see ​developing ties with Asia as ⁠important.
• "There is a growing recognition that prosperity, resilience and security will depend on the depth and quality of our relationships across Asia," Asia New Zealand Foundation Chief Executive Suzannah Jessep said in the report.
• New Zealand and the U.S. have deepened ⁠defence, security and technology cooperation in recent years, with Wellington seeing Washington as ⁠central to Indo-Pacific stability and as a counterweight to China's growing influence.
• At the same time, New Zealand's exporters have been hit by U.S. tariffs, while the economy has faced pressure from higher oil prices linked to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
• "New Zealanders also still understand their sense of security largely through an economic lens, and so tariffs and disruption to global trade weigh heavily on those calculations," said David Cie, professor of ⁠international relations at Victoria University of Wellington.
• Souring U.S. sentiment followed a broader pattern across Western liberal democracies, Cie said.
• A University of Sydney poll released in December found the majority of Australians, Janese and Indians believe U.S. President ​Donald Trump's second term has been bad for their countries.
(Reporting ​by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Kevin Buckland)

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Published: June 9, 2026 6:05 PM

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By David Morgan and Katharine Jackson
WASHINGTON, June ⁠9 () – ⁠U.S. House of Representatives ⁠Speaker Mike Johnson met with President Donald Trump on ​Tuesday to discuss his controversial pointment of loyalist Bill Pulte as spy chief, which ‌has threatened passage of ‌a surveillance law in Congress.
Trump's pointment of the mortgage regulator to serve ⁠as ⁠acting director of national intelligence has led to a showdown on ​Citol Hill, as lawmakers worry he may abuse his position to pursue Trump's perceived enemies. That has complicated efforts to renew the law, which allows U.S. intelligence ​agencies to monitor some foreign communications without court proval. The law ⁠expires on ⁠Friday.
The No. 2 House ⁠Republican, ​Steve Scalise of Louisiana, said Johnson was meeting with Trump to discuss next ​steps.
One of the reasons ⁠that the speaker's not here right now is he's over at the White House working with the president to finalize this agreement on FISA, Scalise told reporters, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
The renewal effort stalled ⁠in the Senate last Friday, as Republican skeptics joined with Democrats to ⁠vote against bringing it up for debate. The vote represented a significant setback for Republicans, who narrowly control both the Senate and House of Representatives.
Both the House and the Senate will need to prove the surveillance authority, contained in Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows intelligence agencies to monitor emails and other communications of foreigners located outside the U.S. without individual judicial warrants.
As ⁠the head of a low-profile mortgage regulator, Pulte accessed confidential data to push for mortgage fraud probes against several of the president's perceived foes. No criminal charges have been brought against any of ​them.
(Reporting by David Morgan and Katharine Jackson in Washington; Editing ​by Andy Sullivan and Matthew Lewis)

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Published: June 9, 2026 4:02 PM

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BRUSSELS, June 9 () – The European Commission has ⁠urged ⁠Albania to act without ⁠delay to ensure it is aligned with EU environmental legislation ​if it wants to accede to the bloc, a Commission spokesperson said on ‌Tuesday, commenting on a planned ‌Kushner-backed luxury resort.
On Monday, Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama told ⁠in an ⁠interview that his country will press ahead with a luxury resort ​planned by U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and his daughter Ivanka Trump on a remote stretch of Balkan coast despite protests over its environmental impact.
The ​protests have been dubbed the Flamingo Revolution because the stretch of coast ⁠is ⁠a migratory pitstop for ⁠the birds. ​They have widened into broader opposition to aspects of Rama's 13-year tenure.
The 27-member ​EU has said ⁠it could admit new members, including Montenegro, Albania and Ukraine by 2030, but that depends on alignment with EU laws, including on the environment.
"Albania should refrain from action that could undermine the fulfilment of the closing benchmark, and ⁠we expect the Albanian authorities to act without delay," spokesman Guillaume Mercier ⁠said.
"We are in contact with the Albanian authorities on this issue," he added.
Faced with protests over the last week in Tirana and on the southern coast, where the resort has been proposed, Rama played down the environmental concerns and said an environmental impact assessment would be completed.
"We are very proud of what we have done for the wildlife in Albania. The European Commission has no reason ⁠to doubt our firm will to protect whatever has to be protected when it comes to wildlife and nature," he said.
Kushner's Affinity Partners' company, which is set to build the resort, has not responded ​to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, writing by ​Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Barbara Lewis)
Copyright 2026 Thomson .

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Published: June 9, 2026 2:56 PM

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By Mark Trevelyan
LONDON, June 9 () – The Trump administration has told the exiled Belarus opposition of a delay in its ⁠efforts to ⁠get President Alexander Lukashenko to free more political prisoners, opposition leader ⁠Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told .
Her comments marked the first public acknowledgment of a slowing in the momentum of negotiations led by President Donald Trump's envoy John Coale ​that have persuaded Lukashenko to free more than 400 prisoners so far. Human rights group Viasna says nearly 870 remain in jail, including at least 170 who are "particularly vulnerable" due to age, sickness or harsh detention conditions.
Tsikhanouskaya told in an interview that ‌she had been told by the U.S. side that "the next ‌releases were postponed for a while" but she could not disclose why.
"Knowing the reason, it doesn't worry me. Of course, we want more people to be released as soon as possible, and any delay, it ruins health for many of them," ⁠she said, speaking in English. "But ⁠it's not the end of the process."
She pointed to upbeat comments by Coale, who posted on X on June 3: "We are ​not finished. Keep hope alive!"
requested comment from Coale and from Lukashenko's office. Neither responded.
ENGAGING WITH BELARUS LEADER A SHIFT IN U.S. POLICY
The U.S. decision to enter talks with Lukashenko – a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin – represented a sharp departure from previous Western policy. For years, he had been treated as a pariah and hammered with U.S. and EU sanctions over his human rights record and backing for Moscow's war in Ukraine.
Tsikhanouskaya – considered by Western governments to be the rightful winner of a disputed 2020 ​election claimed by Lukashenko – has welcomed the U.S. engagement as an important humanitarian initiative, while warning against conferring legitimacy on the veteran authoritarian ruler.
She has made no secret of her discomfort at Trump's public ⁠flattery ⁠of Lukashenko, whom he has called "the Highly Respected ⁠President of Belarus", but acknowledges that the U.S. ​proach has been effective.
"Neither President Trump nor those around him are naive, they understand who they are dealing with, and they can make some tactical moves to free people," she said.
SANCTIONS ​RELIEF IN RETURN FOR PRISONER RELEASES
In a major shift, the U.S. ⁠announced in December it was lifting sanctions on potash fertiliser from Belarus, a leading global producer, as a reward for the prisoner releases.
But this has yet to translate into a significant revenue boost for Lukashenko because EU sanctions remain in place, forcing Belarus to send its exports through Russia instead of the more efficient route via Lithuania's port of Klaipeda.
Lithuania said last month that the U.S. was pressing it to restore Belarusian access to Klaipeda, but Vilnius would not discuss this while the EU sanctions remain in force until February 2027.
Pavel Slunkin, a former Belarusian diplomat now working as an independent political analyst in Warsaw, said Lukashenko's frustration with the inability of the U.S. to bring the Europeans on board was the likely ⁠reason for the delay in the prisoner talks.
"Probably the Americans delivered a promise (to Lukashenko) that they could not fulfil," he said in a telephone interview.
"The American sanctions ⁠have never been the biggest problem for the regime in Minsk. The toughest sanctions are the European ones."
DIPLOMACY AND VODKA
Coale, 79, was pointed by Trump last year to head talks with Lukashenko. He has cultivated the former collective farm boss through long hours of talks and vodka-drinking sessions, quietly emptying his glass on the floor in order to stay sober.
Among the hundreds of prisoners to be freed are Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and prominent opposition figures including Tsikhanouskaya's husband Siarhei Tsikhanouski.
On ril 28, Coale told he expected to get more prisoners out in the next month. But six weeks later, that has yet to hpen.
On June 4, Coale rejected an assertion on X by Valery Tsepkalo, a Belarusian opposition politician and former ambassador to the U.S., that Lukashenko had refused to meet him in May.
RISING TENSIONS
The stalling of talks coincides with an increase in tensions between Lukashenko and the West in recent weeks.
Belarus has conducted joint nuclear exercises with Russia, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he believes Moscow is trying to draw Belarus deeper into the war.
Arrests of Lukashenko critics have continued, even though Coale said the U.S. had told him this must cease.
Tsikhanouskaya said people were being arrested "every ⁠day" but accurate statistics were lacking because relatives feared reprisals from authorities.
Rights group Viasna has reported at least 50 prison sentences meted out since December that it considers politically motivated. Last month alone, it added 32 names to its list of political prisoners.
Tsikhanouskaya told that Lukashenko was operating a "revolving door" to replace old prisoners with new in order to maintain his bargaining power.
While praising Coale for a "fantastic job," she said she had shared her concern that Lukashenko was trying to play tricks.
"He wants to get a Lamborghini for the price of a bicycle. Take a lot while giving a little," ​she said.
"And now if the Americans and the Europeans don’t maintain a principled position, we will repeat the same cycle again: Lukashenko will deceive, the sanctions will be ​removed, and the regime will still be there, without systemic changes."
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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Published: June 9, 2026 1:54 PM

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