hundreds

STILL paying daily roaming fees abroad? Stop: a simple, budget-friendly tech trick is officially killing off old-school data charges this summer. 

If you are jetting off abroad, the dread of returning home to a monster phone bill is all too real. But travel-savvy tourists are sidestepping airport SIM card kiosks entirely and using a game-changing digital alternative: the travel eSIM. 

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Leading the charge is Ubigi, a pioneer in the travel eSIM space since 2018. It offers affordable travel eSIM data plans, providing instant mobile internet access across more than 200 destinations worldwide. 

Best of all, Sun readers can score an exclusive discount to keep connected for less. 

What is an eSIM and how does it stop roaming fees?

An eSIM is a digital SIM on your smartphone, with no need for a physical card.

Instead of swapping physical plastic cards or getting hit with eye-watering daily roaming fees from your service provider, you simply download a digital data plan. 

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This allows you to keep costs incredibly low while retaining the freedom to use WhatsApp, FaceTime, Google Maps and any social media platforms exactly as you would at home.

Catching ‘Football Fever’? Unlimited USA and Canada data 

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You install the QR code once, and you can top up on the go via the Ubigi app seamlessly. The app even supports biometric login (FaceID/fingerprint) for rapid, secure access while you travel.

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“I am temporarily relocating to Kumalia.”

When Kaka Ali said those words over the phone on June 8, I nearly asked him to repeat himself. I had been speaking to him about farming and survival in northern Borno for nearly two years. Kumalia was where he was born, but it was also a place that most people had long stopped calling home.

The community is located within Monguno Local Government Area (LGA) in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria. The Boko Haram insurgency had emptied it in 2016, forcing residents to flee to Monguno town and Maiduguri, the state capital. The government never formally reopened the community. In the years that followed, its name surfaced mostly in conversations about what the insurgency had taken.

“Why would you go back there?” I asked. 

“The negotiations did not go through,” Kaka replied. 

I did not fully understand what he meant until weeks later.  

On June 21, I reached him again. I learnt that he had returned to Monguno to attend the funerals of four friends who were killed the previous day by suspected Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists while working on a farm near Kartari, a remote settlement close to Cross Kauwa town in Kukawa LGA, on the shores of Lake Chad. Twelve other farmers were also killed in the incident. 

The men had travelled to Kartari from different parts of northern Borno, drawn by the search for land to cultivate after farming had been disrupted closer to home. That same day, in Zabarmari, a farming community in Jere LGA, another 11 farmers were reportedly killed. By then, Kaka’s explanation about Kumalia finally made sense.

The warning had come months earlier at the onset of cultivation in February, when farmers across parts of northern Borno began receiving warnings from ISWAP terrorists not to farm this season. The message spread among returning farmers and community leaders through word of mouth.

“They approached farmers who had gone to Kartari and told them we must not cultivate this year,” said Musa Abubakar, a farmer from Cross Kauwa. “They also informed community leaders in villages close to them, and those leaders passed the message to us in other towns,” he said. 

According to Musa, farmers who wished to cultivate were instructed to relocate with their families to terror-controlled territories, locally known as Daula, and farm there instead. Many initially assumed it was another extortion attempt because for years, cultivating in parts of northern Borno had meant paying terror groups for access to land. In 2024, HumAngle documented how farmers in the region paid millions of naira in levies and so-called farming permits to ISWAP. This season, farmers pooled their money together, some contributing at least ₦50,000 each, hoping to negotiate their way back to their fields. However, the effort failed, and the warning held.

So they began looking elsewhere. Some moved toward the Lake Chad region. Others returned to abandoned communities. More than 100 farmers from Monguno, according to Kaka, relocated to Kumalia, where they erected makeshift shelters from sticks and dry grass to plant their crops. They plan to stay until the harvest season in November or December.

The women were not left behind either. 

“My sister is there,” Kaka, the 30-year-old father of two, said. “Many women went with their children. The older ones trekked with their parents. The younger ones are carried on their backs or transported in push carts.” 

Kaka’s older sister, Yabusam Ali, travelled with one of her children and left the others with their grandmother in Monguno. Other women made similar calculations, weighing which children could endure the walk and which would be safer left behind. Yabusam said conditions remain basic but manageable. 

“There is drinkable water there,” she told HumAngle. 

For now, that is enough. Kumalia has no schools, no health facilities, and no visible state presence. It is a settlement held together by necessity. Over the coming months, the community will once again have residents, not because it is safe, but because it has become the least dangerous option left.

Across Borno, the farming ban, enforced through violence and the threat of it, is reshaping how rural families survive. Some have abandoned cultivation entirely. Others have confined themselves to plots within sight of military positions. A growing number are returning to communities the state had given up on, betting that the promise of a harvest is worth living beyond its protection. Together, these choices are accumulating into something larger than disrupted planting seasons: a food security crisis taking shape incrementally, in the daily calculations of people who can no longer be certain what the harvest will bring, or whether there will be one at all.

The consequences extend far beyond the communities where cultivation has been disrupted. Agriculture remains one of Nigeria’s largest employers and a critical source of food for millions of households. The World Bank estimates that nearly four in every five rural households in Nigeria depend on farming, while livestock rearing is especially common across the country’s northern regions. When insecurity forces farmers off their land, harvests decline, market supplies tighten, and food prices rise.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), a food security monitoring and forecasting initiative, estimates that between 21 and 22 million people across northern Nigeria will require humanitarian assistance during the June-to-August lean season, driven by escalating conflict, lower-than-expected household food production, and constrained access to food. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) similarly projects that more than six million children across northern Nigeria will experience acute malnutrition this year, with conflict, displacement, and reduced access to food among the principal drivers.

Kaka had already made these calculations. “Are you not afraid of attack from the terrorists, or of being mistaken for one by troops?” I asked him. “We will die even if we don’t go,” he replied. “So, it is all the same.”

Flags on the farm

Just as Kaka mentioned, several farmers in northern and central Borno say the people who first heard the warnings were often those who had gone ahead of the rains to clear their fields. 

In Monguno, Koso Abubakar said farmers preparing their land were approached and warned against cultivation. They returned to town carrying the news, and from there, the message spread from household to household. In Cross Kauwa, a farming and fishing community on the shores of Lake Chad, the warning reached those working near Kartari, a remote settlement under Kukawa LGA. Community leaders received it and relayed it to surrounding towns.

In Lassa, a farming community in Askira-Uba LGA in southern Borno, it arrived with violence. Andrew Adamu, a farmer there, said suspected terrorists attacked and flogged women they found working on their fields at the beginning of the season. “They said nobody should farm there,” he said. “They [the women] said they had mounted their flags on those lands.” 

The flags, a territorial marker used by terror groups across the region to signal control, were understood immediately. Few people in Lassa are now willing to venture beyond the land immediately surrounding the town.

Musa, a farmer in Cross Kauwa, said the warning came with an additional condition in the northern Borno community. He said that farmers willing to cultivate were instructed to relocate permanently with their families to terror-controlled territories and continue to farm there while paying levies instead. The requirement to relocate permanently was new. The levies were not. But this time around, levy negotiations failed in some places. 

However, in parts of southern Monguno, some farmers were reportedly permitted to cultivate after paying ₦50,000 each. The inconsistency stirred speculation that the restrictions reflected internal disagreements among ISWAP commanders rather than a unified policy. 

“It was said that two Amirs controlling two farming villages had a dispute over farming fees,” Kaka explained. “The Amir controlling where we farm said he would not allow anyone to farm this season. The other Amir said farmers were welcome to cultivate in his territory after paying this year’s levy.”

HumAngle could not independently verify the claim.

When negotiations collapsed, the consequences began to accumulate. In Lassa, Andrew said, women were beaten while working on their farms. In Auno, Konduga LGA, a 55-year-old farmer was attacked and killed while working on his land earlier in February, according to residents. News of his death, Aja Bukar, another farmer, said, spread quickly through surrounding communities, confirming what many had hoped was merely a threat. 

Then, on June 20, 15 farmers were killed near Kartari while working on their fields. Bashir Suleiman, a farmer from Doron Baga, said the victims included four farmers from Monguno, six from Kukawa town, three from Baga, and two from Cross Kauwa. 

In Cross Kauwa, Musa said most farmers have stayed away from their fields since. The few still cultivating have been permitted by the military to plant low-growing crops, such as beans and groundnuts, within a fixed distance of the community’s defensive trench. Beyond that line, he said, most no longer believe the harvest is worth the risk.

The return to Kumalia

For the first time in nearly a decade, Kumalia has residents again. Not many, and not enough to resemble the farming community it once was before the insurgency emptied it in 2016, but enough to bring movement back to a place which has long given up — children’s voices have returned. Smoke rises from cooking fires in the morning. The fields are being planted. And temporary shelters made from sticks, ropes, and dry grass stand across parts of the settlement. 

Getting there, however, is not easy. According to Modu Baluye, a farmer who also relocated to Kumalia, reaching the settlement takes five hours of walking over terrain most vehicles cannot cross. “We travel by foot,” he said. “There is no means of transportation except push carts.” The shelters, he said, are simple: stick frames with dry grass roofing, which offers little protection from rain or wind, but they are enough to house families for the months between planting and harvest.

For years, displacement pushed families out of places like Kumalia and into towns where security forces could better protect them. Now, insecurity around farming is pushing some of those same families back, not into safety but into a different kind of exposure: too far from the state to be protected, yet close enough to armed groups to be noticed.

Communities across northeastern Nigeria have learned, often through grief, that living or farming in remote and ungoverned territories can attract a different kind of violence during military operations. Aerial surveillance, in vast terrains where terror groups move through civilian spaces, collect levies, and use local markets, must be able to distinguish between farmers and fighters. In places like Kumalia, unrecognised by the government, absent from any official resettlement record, populated by people living in makeshift shelters on cultivated open land, that distinction is not guaranteed.

In April 2026, reports showed that more than 30 civilians were killed when a Nigerian Air Force strike hit a village market in Jilli, a remote settlement between Gubio LGA in Borno State and Geidam LGA in Yobe State. Military authorities described it as an active terrorist enclave. Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum later acknowledged that the area’s market had been officially closed due to terrorist activity, yet civilians were among the dead. It was not the first such incident. In 2017, a military aircraft bombed a displaced persons camp in Rann, Kala-Balge LGA, killing more than 100 people including aid workers. And in 2024, HumAngle documented cases in which fishermen around Lake Chad were reportedly misidentified during military operations.

Farmers in Kumalia are aware of this history. It sits alongside the warnings from ISWAP, the distance from town, and the inadequacy of their shelters. It is part of what they weighed before they went.

The price of survival

Every morning before sunrise, Esther Danjuma sets up her stall on the roadside outside the Divisional Council Church (DCC) Internally Displaced Persons’ camp in Shuwari, Maiduguri. She heats cooking oil, prepares her bean paste, and waits for the first customers. By the time most people in Maiduguri are awake, she is already working. 

The 26-year-old was displaced from Amuda in Gwoza LGA years ago. Until recently, she measured time by farming seasons, not calendar months. Before the warning reached Chabbal, a farming community in Magumeri LGA where she and thousands of others from the DCC displacement camp cultivate each season, she grew sorghum, sesame, and groundnuts. Last year, she harvested five bags each of sorghum and sesame and three bags of groundnuts. This year, she planted nothing.

“I never thought I would sell kosai,” she told HumAngle. She earns at least ₦3,000 daily. This helps her care for herself and her elderly grandmother at the camp, she said.

A few shelters away from Esther lives Andrawus Yakubu. While Esther replaced farming with a small business, Andrawus has replaced it with whatever work presents itself each day. On some days, he works at construction sites. On other days, he digs pits, cuts logs, or takes on manual labour wherever opportunities arise. The work is irregular and physically demanding, but Andrawus says he cannot afford to be selective. “I will do whatever legal thing that my strength can do,” the father of nine told HumAngle.

For years, Andrawus supplemented his household income through farming in Limanti, a rural community in Konduga LGA. Like many displaced residents of the DCC Shuwari camp, he relied on the farming season to feed his family and reduce their dependence on the market. Last season, he cultivated four hectares of land, harvesting five bags of millet, 12 bags of groundnuts, and eight bags of beans. This season, however, the farming restrictions have forced him to abandon farming. 

Others have chosen to leave Borno altogether. In Auno, Aja Bukar said the killing of a farmer earlier this year convinced many residents that remaining in the area was no longer worth the risk. Some households, including his, have since relocated to Damaturu in neighbouring Yobe State, hoping to find safer opportunities elsewhere.

These different responses – the roadside stall, the day labour, and relocation to another state – all lead back to the same question: what can replace a harvest, if anything?

Agriculture remains the backbone of rural livelihoods across Borno and the wider North East. In Borno, farming is not only an occupation but also a source of sustenance for families; it is how they feed themselves, pay school fees, buy medicine, and prepare for the long dry season. Yet years of conflict have steadily eroded that foundation, limiting access to farmland, disrupting markets, and deepening food insecurity.

When farmers abandon their fields, the consequences ripple far beyond the households directly affected: Harvests decline, local markets receive fewer supplies, and children and other vulnerable groups bear the greatest nutritional burden. The effects are felt not only in the villages where cultivation stops, but across communities that rely on those harvests for food and trade.

The region has been here before. In 2023, HumAngle documented how repeated attacks on farming communities forced many residents to abandon cultivated fields, leaving crops worth millions of naira to wither or be destroyed. A year later, the trend persisted, contributing to worsening food insecurity and malnutrition among vulnerable households, particularly children.

What is unfolding this season is not unique to Borno. Across the North West and North Central, terror groups have used similar tactics to control access to rural farmland, taxing farmers, threatening communities, and displacing those who resist. In Zamfara, HumAngle reported in June that farmers were displaced despite paying millions in levies. Another report the same month showed that 17 farmers were killed in Maradun while working their fields. In 2024, Reuters reported from Katsina that attacks on farmers were driving up food prices. According to SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy, 1,356 farmers have been killed across Nigeria since 2020.

The scale of what is at stake is significant. UNICEF estimates that around three million children may require treatment for severe wasting in 2026, with conflict-affected northeastern states carrying a disproportionate share.  

Across Borno, people are making decisions whose consequences they cannot yet fully see.

THERE’S been a new plea to suspend the new passport checks this summer amid fears of even more chaos this summer.

So far, some airlines have had to leave passengers behind and there are already queues of up to six hours at border control.

The situation is only predicted to get worse with summer holidays on the horizon when millions of Brits including lots of families will be heading abroad.

Passenger numbers are predicted to increase by an extra 40million across Europe in July and August.

As a result, a number of airlines and airports have submitted a letter the president of the European Commission asking to suspend EES checks.

A number of industry groups have said they’ve reached a “critical point”.

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They continued: “Passengers have already been forced to queue for extended periods outside terminal buildings and on exposed aprons because border control facilities cannot process arrivals quickly enough.

“Airlines face half-empty planes at gate closing time, while passengers are stuck in border control queues.”

The groups have asked the authority to allow airports to “completely suspend” the EES when “passenger volumes exceed the operational capacity of border control facilities”.

They’ve said that “immediate intervention” is needed before the situation “deteriorates further during the peak summer travel season”.

There has also been a call for “flexibility’ in September as well.

The Entry Exit System (EES) involves people from third-party countries such as the UK having their biometrics taken to enter the Schengen Area.

The progressive rollout began in October 2025 and has caused a number of problems.

Last month, 150 Ryanair passengers missed their flight from Toulouse to the UK due to queues at border control.

The situation was described as “pure chaos” in queues of up to 500 people.

In another case, passengers returning home from Athens were left stranded when a Ryanair flight left without them.

Up to 50 passengers who were still in the airport queuing through passport control missed their flight to London Luton.

Back in March and outside of the peak travel period, Travel Reporter Alice Penwill queued for three hours to get out of Lanzarote Airport.

An Israeli attack on the al-Mawasi camp in Khan Younis has killed several people, including a mother and her child. More than one hundred tents belonging to displaced Palestinians were also destroyed.

AN ICONIC music festival will host its final line-up this summer – after more than 18 years of hosting performers.

This marks a blow for residents as the county’s biggest festival comes to an end.

Nottingham’s Splendour festival will run for a final weekend next month, as the festival is set to be closed permanently.

The decision comes after organisers said they faced challenges within the current festival market, and have struggled to manage “the cost of staging events”.

Launched in 2008, Nottinghamshire’s biggest festival hosted a number of well-known performers throughout its run, including the likes of Noel Gallagher and Calvin Harris.

It regularly drew in crowds of up to 25,000, and had expanded into a two-day event in 2022.

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Now, the final show will take place from July 18 to 19 in Wollaton Park, with The Wombats, Primal Scream and Snow Patrol performing as headline acts.

George Akins, DHP Family managing director, said: “Like many independent festivals, Splendour has had to navigate a very different landscape in recent years, with the cost of staging events rising sharply at the same time as household budgets have come under pressure and the festival market has become much more crowded.

“After a lot of careful thought, we feel the right thing to do is to make this year a proper celebration of everything Splendour has meant to Nottingham and give it the send-off it deserves.”

Local artists, including Nottingham act Jake Bugg, had often used Splendour as a springboard for their careers.

To mark the final edition, organisers launched a two-for-one ticket offer on general admission day tickets.

Akins added: “Thanks to everyone for your loyalty and support over the years, we couldn’t have done it without you.”

Oman and the U.N. International Maritime Organization (IMO) are sharpening up their plan to evacuate hundreds of ships still stuck in the Persian Gulf since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz after being attacked by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28. The move comes as shipping traffic in this strategic chokepoint is increasing amid tense ongoing peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. However, there is still a very long way to go and many challenges, including the possible presence of mines, to overcome before transits reach pre-war levels.

“The Sultanate of Oman based on its responsibilities toward the Strait of Hormuz, and its importance to the global economy, and in accordance to its continued commitment to the international law and the law of the sea to ensure freedom of navigation in the strait without imposing any tolls, in line with the outcomes and efforts reached by the United States and Islamic Republic of Iran…has worked in coordination with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to provide vessels with the option of a temporary maritime corridor defined by the coordinates announced by IMO and Omani authorities. Ships willing to transit must coordinate with IMO,” Oman’s Maritime Security Center stated Wednesday on X.

“This large-scale operation will be carried out in close cooperation with Iran, Oman, all other coastal States in the region, the United States and the maritime industry,” according to the IMO.

IMO on Wednesday issued additional guidance to what it is calling an “evacuation” plan and noted that there are two routes for ships transiting the Strait. The northern route, close to the Iranian shoreline, is controlled by the Islamic Republic of Iran while the southern route, along the Oman coastline, is coordinated with U.S. authorities.

The southern route is clear of mines and is the preferred route, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center.

Regardless of which route ships prefer, IMO is cautioning them to “remain in their current position and await further instructions.”

Vessels have to wait to “allow safe sequencing, avoid congestion, and mitigate risks related to mines and degraded navigation conditions,” IMO added. “Movements will only begin once vessels are contacted through the coordinated mechanism involving IMO, UKMTO, and MICA Center, followed by coastal State coordination.”

As for current mine clearance operations, CENTCOM would not offer details about how they are being carried out.

“I won’t go into specifics for operational security reasons,” Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, CENTCOM’s spokesman, told us Wednesday morning. “We’ve been at this for a number of weeks and we’re making progress, as demonstrated by the safe passage currently available to commercial vessels and enabling traffic flow to pick up.”

All this comes after tensions surrounding the Strait erupted again last week, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps saying it was being closed again after Israeli attacks on Lebanon and CENTCOM maintaining it was open.

Trump on Wednesday took to Truth Social to dispel what he claims are inaccurate media accounts about the Strait.

“Iran has informed the U.S. that, despite troublemaking Fake News reporting to the contrary, there are ‘NO TOLLS, NO INSURANCE COSTS, & NO OTHER CHARGES OF ANY KIND BEING SOUGHT OR RECEIVED BY IRAN ON SHIPS TRAVELING THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ,’” Trump proclaimed. “If this is false information, negotiations would end, immediately!”

Trump: Iran has informed the U.S. that, despite troublemaking Fake News reporting to the contrary, there are “NO TOLLS, NO INSURANCE COSTS, & NO OTHER CHARGES OF ANY KIND BEING SOUGHT OR RECEIVED BY IRAN ON SHIPS TRAVELING THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ.” If this is false information,… pic.twitter.com/3bYur1t71o

— Polymarket Intel (@PolymarketIntel) June 24, 2026

TWZ cannot independently confirm any of these statements; however, ship tracking organizations on Wednesday say commercial vessels have been transiting the Strait at increasing rates, though far from what they were before the war.

“Vessel activity through the Strait of Hormuz has rebounded sharply across two consecutive weekends, pointing to a clear shift in traffic patterns through one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints,” the MarineTraffic website stated on X Wednesday. “According to #MarineTraffic data and Kpler data, confirmed crossings rose from 32 vessels between 12–14 June to 93 vessels between 19–21 June, an increase of 61 crossings week-on-week.”

The biggest change came on Saturday, MarineTraffic noted, “when crossings jumped from 3 to 42 compared with the previous weekend. The recovery has been supported by recent diplomatic developments and a temporary OFAC general license, which has helped ease immediate compliance uncertainty around approved Hormuz transits until 21 August.”

When it comes to oil, at least 20 tankers carrying 35 million barrels have exited the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Iran agreed to open the sea lane, according to data provided by Kpler.

Strait of Hormuz traffic remains active, but recovery stays cautious

Confirmed vessel activity through the Strait of Hormuz remained steady on 23 June, with 31 verified crossings recorded across commercial and energy-linked vessels. According to #MarineTraffic data, west-to-east… pic.twitter.com/dz3o9OWRJx

— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) June 24, 2026

Still, two major shipping companies we spoke with remain cautious about transiting the Strait.

Maersk referred us to a statement they gave TWZ last week saying that the announcement about the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding “is a welcome and positive development, but publicly available details are still limited, and it is too early to assess how it will impact logistics and maritime operations in the Middle East. At this stage, there are no changes to our operations in the region.”

On Wednesday, a company spokesman told us Maersk still has five ships stuck in the Persian Gulf.

Hapag-Lloyd is also taking a wait-and-see attitude.

“Our vessels are ready for a transit, but we will only sail through the Strait of Hormuz when it is safe to do so,” a company spokesperson told us, declining to say how many ships it still has in the Gulf.

Meanwhile, the Royal Navy’s RFA Lyme Bay and two German warships have transited the Red Sea in case they are needed to help remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz. The Lyme Bay, “now configured as an Afloat Forward Support Base for mine countermeasures, transited the Suez Canal on 19th June and then passed south through the Red Sea,” the Royal Navy (RN) noted. 

The ship carries uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) with towed sonar arrays and AI automatic target recognition that can “filter and refine vast amounts of data allowing operators to speed up the process of classifying and neutralizing mines,” according to the RN.

Lyme Bay also has “Video Ray Defender-Viper portable mine disposal submersibles, capable of locating, identifying and destroying mines.”

There are also mine warfare, diving and explosive ordnance disposal specialists on board to assist the mine clearance mission.

Lyme Bay was accompanied by the German command and support ship FGS Mosel and minehunter FGS Fulda.

However, those vessels “detached from the task group on 23 June to head for Djibouti for resupply and further preparation,” according to Navy Lookout, an independent publication focusing on the Royal Navy. “They currently operate under the European Union mission Operation Aspides, which has the sole aim of defending merchant shipping against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.”

We have reached out to the German Bundeswehr and Aspides for additional insights.

Amid the renewed flow of traffic through the Strait, oil prices have plummeted in recent days. As of Wednesday morning, Brent Crude was trading at just under $74 a barrel, according to OilPrice.com. That’s down from a high of more than $114 per barrel at the height of U.S.-Iran tensions in early May.

U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 6.1 million barrels last week, pushing stockpiles to 412.1 million barrels—7% below the five-year average. Despite the bullish draw, oil prices fell sharply as traders focused on easing Middle East supply risks. #Oil #CrudeOil #EIA…

— OilPrice.com (@OilandEnergy) June 24, 2026

How long oil prices continue to fall is an open question as the U.S. and Iran continue to express disagreements over the terms of a final Iran-U.S. peace deal following the MoU signed last week.

In addition to the aforementioned confusion over the status of the Strait, there is ongoing discord over whether Iran has agreed to allow inspection of its nuclear facilities. Trump and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) both say Iran has agreed to let inspectors in while the Iranians say that isn’t the case.

President Trump said Iran agreed that it will “never have a nuclear weapon” during his visit to a Pennsylvania’s Mack Truck facility on Tuesday. He also said “19 million barrels of oil flowed out of the Strait of Hormuz” on Monday, which he said is “the most oil in the history of… pic.twitter.com/ycsILtZRpq

— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 23, 2026

Meanwhile, both sides have issued bellicose threats against the other as the often acrimonious negotiations for what is essentially an extension of the ceasefire continue. 

As we have noted in the past, there is tremendous global and domestic pressure on Trump not to resume the war. The world economy is only beginning to recover from rising oil prices while Trump’s Republican party faces a midterm election in November made challenging by the unpopularity of this conflict. In addition, forces have now been deployed for many months and will have to be rotated out in the coming weeks.

Regardless, while getting vessels finally out of the Persian Gulf is still a priority, when robust two-way transits will return is still unclear, which will be critical to stabilizing the situation economically and geopolitically.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

The clock is running down on the most consequential deadline the crypto sector has faced in Europe.

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From the start of July, the transitional window under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) closes for good, and companies that have not secured authorisation must either stop serving European customers or wind down altogether.

MiCA is the EU’s first comprehensive law for the crypto industry, bringing exchanges, brokers and digital wallet providers under the kind of formal oversight that has long applied to banks and other financial firms.

It replaces a fragmented mix of national rules with a single rulebook spanning all 27 member states: a company licensed in one EU country earns a “passport” to operate across the bloc, but in return it must meet standards on how much capital it holds, how it is run, how it safeguards customers’ funds and how it prevents money laundering.

“What emerges is a genuine single market replacing the old patchwork of 27 national regimes,” Yamal Kalaf, co-founder of MiCAR Whitepapers Europe, which advises crypto businesses on MiCA authorisation, told Euronews.

Since the core rules took effect at the end of 2024, existing operators have been allowed to keep operating under older national registrations, but that concession was temporary.

Crypto firms need European licences but many are behind

The scale of the looming shake-out is striking.

According to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which confirmed in April that there would be no extension, only around 210 firms had obtained full authorisation by May, out of more than 1,200 that previously held national crypto registrations across the EU.

That points to a conversion rate of well under a fifth, leaving the vast majority of the old market without a licence as the cut-off arrives in a few days.

Speaking to Euronews, Roshan Dharia, CEO of distressed-investment firm Echo Base, explained that “the low conversion rate suggests that a meaningful portion of the market has concluded that obtaining and maintaining a MiCA licence is not economically viable within its current operating model.”

National regulators have warned that firms operating beyond the deadline without the new licence face enforcement action. France’s markets watchdog has also cautioned that continuing without authorisation could expose companies to criminal prosecution.

ESMA has told unlicensed providers to prepare orderly wind-downs, including transferring customer assets to authorised platforms or self-custody wallets, and to notify clients in advance so they can move funds safely.

“What we will see after 1 July is a smaller, more institutional market with real passporting. That is not a market in retreat. That is a market growing up,” Miguel Zapatero, Head Counsel at Crossmint, told Euronews.

Crossmint is a crypto infrastructure provider whose licensed rails let developers build wallets, custody and payment products.

A market reshaped around licensed rails

Plenty of familiar names have already cleared the bar.

Coinbase has been authorised in Ireland and Kraken in Ireland and Luxembourg. At the same time, the banking app Revolut secured its licence from Cyprus’s regulator late last year, allowing it to offer crypto services across the EU.

For these firms, the new rules promise a reward as unlicensed rivals retreat, the survivors stand to absorb their departing customers.

“MiCA is a genuine regulatory identity shift, not a registration exercise,” Gal Arad Cohen, partner at law firm S. Horowitz & Co, told Euronews.

The most prominent casualty so far may be Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange.

According to Reuters, which cited two people familiar with the matter, Binance is set to lose permission to serve EU clients because its licence application to Greece’s market regulator, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission, is poised to be rejected.

Without approval in any member state, the exchange would be unable to operate across the bloc from July onwards.

Speaking to Euronews, Patrick Mollard, CEO at Fipto, a blockchain-based payments company for businesses, referred to the Binance case by stating that “scale earns you no shortcut to a licence, and that is precisely the point.”

Binance has pushed back, saying it has worked constructively with regulators for 18 months and believes its application met MiCA’s requirements. The company added that it understood the Greek authority had completed its review and found the filing compliant.

The company has promised a further update before 30 June.

The episode has also reputedly taken on a political dimension.

French crypto publication The Big Whale reported, citing unnamed sources, that ECB President Christine Lagarde had opposed Binance’s bid for a Greek MiCA licence.

Euronews could not independently verify the report, and neither the ECB nor the Greek government has publicly commented on the allegations.

The Big Whale also reported that Binance is exploring a potential MiCA application in France after the setback in Greece, a claim that neither Binance nor French regulators have publicly confirmed.

Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Euronews.

A shake-out for smaller crypto firms

Beyond the biggest names, the deadline is expected to push smaller crypto apps and brokers towards licensed custody providers. Rather than building their own MiCA-compliant systems, many are likely to rely on authorised firms to hold customer assets.

“We will see consolidation and transfer of clients as the deadline will not be met by all currently operating entries,” Floortje Nagelkerke, partner at law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, explained to Euronews.

The result, analysts suggest, will be a smaller, more concentrated European market, with fewer players, higher barriers to entry and a clear advantage for those holding a licence, but stronger consumer protections.

“People who hold crypto in the EU after 1 July will, on balance, hold it on safer rails,” Miguel Zapatero, Head Counsel at Crossmint, concluded.

June 23 (UPI) — Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Tuesday that 455 people have been charged in a variety of healthcare fraud schemes totaling $6.5 billion.

Blanche held a press conference to discuss what he called the “2026 national healthcare fraud takedown.” He said 455 people have been charged since June 8 across 56 U.S. attorney’s offices and 45 states and territories.

“These individuals participated in healthcare fraud schemes involving more than $6.5 billion in false claims submitted to Medicare, Medicaid and other healthcare programs,” Blanche said.

Blanche highlighted some of the indictments, including one of a corporate executive in Arizona who was charged for being involved in a $1 billion fraud scheme involving wound grafts.

“This alleged scheme cost Medicare over $1 million per patient,” Blanche said. “In total, our indictment charges 11 defendants for over $2 billion in fraudulent claims in connection to alleged wound care schemes.”

Blanche adds that the money fraudulently claimed in these schemes was used to purchase “multi-million-dollar homes,” cars, jewelry and the construction of a $4.6 million seaside hotel on in the Philippines.

“We’re taking back the money, the luxury cars, the jewelry, and these alleged fraudsters will face justice,” Blanche continued.

Blanche said nine task forces, 57 U.S. attorney’s offices and 41 state attorney general’s offices partnered to investigate healthcare fraud schemes.

Blanche also announced the creation of the West Coast Strike Force and the deployment of more federal prosecutors to bring charges against 295 defendants in Medicaid fraud cases.

A TINY island off the coast of Wexford could make for one of Ireland’s most spectacular summer day trips.

The breathtaking Saltee Islands are just a two-hour drive from Dublin — with a short ferry ride from Kilmore Quay bringing visitors straight to Great Saltee.

The islands are famed for their incredible wildlife, with puffin-watching a must for anyone visiting during the summer months.

Day trippers can spend around three-and-a-half hours exploring the stunning island, spotting seabirds, seals and dramatic coastal views.

And with return ferry tickets costing €40 for adults, it could be the perfect seaside escape to kick off the summer.

The islands are located just 5km off Kilmore Quay in Co Wexford — and a 20-minute ferry trip is all it takes to get there.

HIDDEN GEM

Island with only Irish cable car, whales & dolphins near most colourful village

Parking is available at Kilmore Harbour in the free public car park.

However, the little harbour is a busy spot during the summer months.

Visitors are advised to leave plenty of time to get to Kilmore Quay as parking spaces can be limited.

The ferry service picks visitors up at the top of the harbour in Kilmore Quay, beside the boat launching slip.

It brings passengers straight to Great Saltee, as permission to visit Little Saltee cannot be granted due to hazardous landing conditions.

But visitors can only access the island during certain hours each day.

Day trippers are allowed on the island between 11am and 4.30pm, and anyone landing on a boat outside these times will be asked to leave.

The popular Saltee Ferry is a daily service that runs from April to October every year.

A return ticket costs €40 for adults and €20 for children under 12.

Each ferry can carry up to 12 passengers at a time.

Visitors are advised to arrive at the ferry gate ten minutes before the trip.

A smaller transfer boat will meet the ferry just off the shore of the island.

It picks passengers up and brings them on the final part of the journey to Great Saltee.

Once you arrive, you will be given approximately three-and-a-half hours to explore the mesmerising island.

The ferry crew will give you an exact time to be back at the landing area for the return trip to Kilmore Quay.

The ferry trip can be booked in advance online at salteeferry.com.

The Saltee Islands are known as the most famous bird sanctuary in Ireland — and puffin-watching is a must on any trip there.

Puffin season is predominantly between May and June.

There are plenty to spot, so make sure to take lots of pictures.

One visitor said: “The trip of a lifetime. There were hundreds of puffins just a short stroll from the boat. If you sit quietly they’ll wander around you.”

But Discover Ireland chiefs have warned that the puffin population is in a dangerous position, and visitors are advised to keep their distance to avoid disturbing the wonderful birds.

As well as the magnificent puffins, the island is also home to an array of seabirds, from gannets and gulls to Manx shearwaters.

While exploring the picturesque island, you might also come across some friendly sea creatures.

Grey seals are known to breed around the Saltee Islands.

It is one of the very few places in eastern Ireland with a seal population.

Up to 120 animals are present in autumn and up to 20 pups are born annually.

The seals can regularly be spotted resting on the rocks around the island.

The Saltee Islands are among the most ancient islands in Europe.

As long ago as 3,500 to 2,000BC, people were living on the islands.

In December 1943, the Saltees were purchased privately by the late Prince Michael the First.

Since his death in January 1998, the islands have been owned by his five sons and one daughter.

Permission for people to visit the island was granted by the family in recent years — but visitors are asked to respect the island.

When the family is in residence, a flag will be flying at the house — which visitors are asked not to approach.

No one is allowed to stay or camp at the historic spot, but there is no admission fee for a day trip to the island.

But island chiefs have issued a major warning to visitors.

They said: “Please do not approach the nesting birds closer than six metres.

“The footfall is having a devastating effect on the bird population. Should visitors see photographers not obeying the signs, please explain to them that they are killing the birds and to use their lens instead of their feet.

“If things do not improve with the bird population due to the current footfall, we will be forced to close the island to visitors.”