Morning Briefing — May 26, 2026

World News

US conducts 'self-defense' strikes on Iran amid fragile ceasefire talks — The US military carried out what it called self-defense strikes targeting Iranian missile launch sites and boats around the Strait of Hormuz, hours after Iranian negotiators met Qatari mediators in Doha. The two sides are working toward a memorandum of understanding, but disputes over Iran's nuclear program and sanctions have held up a deal. CNN

US and Iran agree to broad principles of deal, Trump official says — A senior Trump administration official said there is broad commitment on the principles of a deal between Washington and Tehran, with the administration feeling positive about the state of negotiations. The announcement comes as the three-month-old war between the two countries enters a delicate phase. CBS News

US strikes targets in Iran, citing threats posed to American troops — The United States launched new 'self-defense' strikes on Iran, citing threats posed to American forces in the region. The strikes around the Strait of Hormuz came as oil markets remained volatile and ceasefire talks continued. Washington Post

Trump pushes Abraham Accords expansion as part of Iran deal — Iran and the US played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough in the three-month-old war, while President Trump called on several countries to join the US-led Abraham Accords as part of efforts to reach a deal with Iran. CBC

California chemical tank emergency forces 50,000 evacuations — A California town declared a state of emergency and ordered 50,000 people to evacuate as a malfunctioning chemical tank at an aerospace plant overheated, with crews working overnight to prevent a potential leak or explosion. Officials in Orange County later said the threat of explosion had been eliminated. NPR

Netanyahu warns Israel will 'intensify the blows' against Hezbollah — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will intensify its operations against Hezbollah as the Iran-backed group has been firing fiber optic drones at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. Israeli sources say preparations are underway to expand attacks, including in Beirut. NBC News

China launches Shenzhou 23 with three astronauts to space station — China launched the Shenzhou 23 spacecraft carrying three astronauts headed for its Tiangong space station, continuing the country's expanding human spaceflight program. CBS News

Business

Stocks rise as investors weigh US-Iran tensions against deal hopes — US equity futures extended gains and Treasuries rallied as investors remained hopeful that fresh American strikes on Iran won't derail talks to end the conflict. S&P 500 futures rose 0.5% after climbing 1% on Monday, while Europe's Stoxx 600 pulled back 0.2%. Bloomberg

Oil rebounds as US launches new strikes on Iran — Brent crude climbed 3.3% to $99.4 a barrel in early trade, reversing some of Monday's 7% loss when markets had bet on an imminent US-Iran agreement. Analysts said optimism for an eventual deal remains elevated despite the renewed military action. CNN

US ambassador warns Canada won't be exempt from Trump tariffs — US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said the president has imposed tariffs on the whole world and Canada shouldn't expect to be an exception. The comments come as renewed discussion of Canada's Online Streaming Act adds to cross-border tension. CBC

Canadian businesses face preparedness gap as easy US trade ends — A new report finds that Canada's era of easy, proximity-based trade with the United States has come to an end, exposing a massive preparedness gap among Canadian businesses as tariffs and trade frictions continue to mount. BNN Bloomberg

USMCA talks open in Mexico City without Canada at the table — US and Mexican officials are meeting in Mexico City for the first formal round of USMCA talks, notably without Canada present. The exclusion adds to a growing list of Canadian trade frustrations under the Trump administration. Globe and Mail

Hungary close to deal with EU on frozen funds, PM Magyar says — Hungary's prime minister Magyar said his government expects to reach an agreement with the European Union on frozen funds by May 28, in a possible breakthrough on years-long disputes over rule-of-law conditions. Bloomberg

China tightens controls on overseas stock trading — Beijing is moving to tighten controls on overseas stock trading by mainland investors, a step that could affect capital flows as the yuan faces pressure from carry-trade exits. Analysts at Macquarie said the currency could weaken toward five per dollar. Bloomberg

Technology

AMD, Broadcom and Google intensify anti-Nvidia offensive in AI chips — Major rivals including AMD, Broadcom and Google are accelerating efforts to penetrate the AI infrastructure sector long dominated by Nvidia. Broadcom's AI semiconductor revenue is projected to climb to $10.7 billion in its second quarter, while AMD plans to invest more than $10 billion in advanced packaging capacity. The Economy

Nvidia unveils Nemotron 3 Nano Omni multimodal AI model — Nvidia unveiled Nemotron 3 Nano Omni, an open multimodal model designed to handle vision, speech and language tasks within a single system. The company says it addresses the inefficiency of AI agent systems that currently juggle separate models and lose context passing data between them. NVIDIA Newsroom

Alphabet closes market cap gap on Nvidia as AI competition intensifies — Alphabet has closed the market cap gap with Nvidia to approximately $150 billion, putting Google's parent within reach of overtaking the GPU maker as Wall Street's most consequential AI stock. Several of Nvidia's top customers are now developing their own AI chips, potentially threatening its premium pricing power. Motley Fool

Pope Leo warns AI's main challenge is staying 'profoundly human' — In his 'Magnifica Humanitas' encyclical, Pope Leo cautioned that as civilization grapples with the rising power of artificial intelligence, the central challenge is for humanity to remain 'profoundly human.' The document marks one of the Vatican's most direct interventions on AI ethics. CBS News

OpenAI passes $25 billion in annualized revenue, eyes IPO — OpenAI has surpassed $25 billion in annualized revenue and is reportedly taking early steps toward a public listing, potentially as soon as late 2026. Rival Anthropic is approaching $19 billion in annualized revenue, signaling that advanced AI models have become one of tech's fastest-growing markets. AI Weekly

Google launches Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite at $0.25 per million tokens — Google introduced Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite, an efficiency-focused model delivering 2.5× faster response times and 45% faster output generation than earlier Gemini versions. The release reflects an industry-wide push to make capable AI more affordable for startups and enterprises. AI Weekly

SpaceX leads trio of mega tech IPOs expected this year — Elon Musk's SpaceX is set to be the first in a hat-trick of mega IPOs this year, followed by OpenAI and Anthropic. Musk merged SpaceX with xAI in February, creating a combined entity he valued at $1.25 trillion. CNBC

Renewable Energy

Wind and solar saved UK £1.7bn in gas imports since Iran war began — Carbon Brief analysis shows wind and solar have beaten fossil fuels in Great Britain for a record 15 consecutive months. Since the start of the Iran war, wind and solar have generated twice as much electricity as fossil fuels, saving the UK from substantial gas imports. Carbon Brief

New coal plants hit 10-year global high in 2025 but power output still fell — New coal-plant capacity additions around the world reached a 10-year high in 2025, yet total coal power output still declined as wind and solar expanded faster. Carbon Brief's analysis suggests the energy transition continued to outpace the build-out of fossil capacity. Carbon Brief

China's clean-tech exports surge 70% year-on-year — China's exports of the 'new three' clean-energy technologies – solar cells and panels, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries – surged 70% year-on-year in March 2026, reaching $21.6bn. Analysts cited the Iran war, a domestic policy deadline and falling silver prices as key drivers. Carbon Brief

Renewables overtake coal as world's largest electricity source — Renewable energy overtook coal to become the world's largest source of electricity in 2025, according to thinktank Ember. Wind and solar alone met 99% of the growth in electricity demand last year, with fossil-fuel generation falling 0.2%. Carbon Brief

Pentagon delays 165 land-based wind projects citing national security — The Pentagon is slow-walking reviews of 165 land-based wind projects, according to the American Clean Power Association, citing national security risks to military readiness. The move extends the Trump administration's broader effort to delay wind energy buildout after earlier targeting offshore projects. CNN

Ocean Winds delivers first power from floating offshore wind farm in France — Ocean Winds began producing electricity at its 30 MW Éoliennes Flottantes du Golfe du Lion (EFGL) project off the south of France, its first floating offshore wind farm in the country. The pilot is expected to generate around 110,000 MWh per year and is the world's first nature-inclusive floating wind farm. Ocean Winds

Trump's $2 billion offshore wind buyouts criticised as bad deal for US energy — The federal government is reportedly paying three offshore wind developers, including TotalEnergies, Golden State Wind and Bluepoint Wind, to halt permitted projects and redirect funds to fossil fuels. Researchers argue the buyouts will cost taxpayers far more than the headline price as the US faces a looming energy shortage. The Conversation

Global battery storage additions jump 46% as solar hits new records — Global battery storage capacity additions reached an estimated 247 gigawatt hours in 2025, up 46% year-on-year, enough to shift about 14% of daily solar generation to other hours. Solar generation itself grew by a record 636 terawatt hours, meeting 75% of global electricity demand growth. Carbon Brief

Soil Science

USDA projects smallest US wheat crop since 1972 as Plains drought bites — US farmers will harvest their smallest wheat crop since 1972 as severe drought in the Plains slashes hard red winter wheat by 25%, the USDA said. Soaring fuel and fertilizer costs tied to the Strait of Hormuz closure have driven grain production costs sharply higher. Reuters / AgWeb

Fertilizer squeeze and drought reshape 2026 farm margins — The Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index has climbed for a third straight month to the highest level since November 2023, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and extreme weather hit fertilizer-intensive crops. Farmers from Asia to Australia and the US are grappling with converging Iran war and drought pressures on staples from bread to cooking oil. Farm Progress

FAO advances mid-infrared spectroscopy training to monitor soil fertility — The FAO/IAEA Joint Centre in Seibersdorf, Austria launched a three-week training on mid-infrared spectroscopy for soil monitoring. Specialists from Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya and Zambia are being equipped under the SoilFER programme to generate high-quality soil data for sustainable management and fertilizer decisions. FAO

FAO: 1.7 billion people experience lower crop yields due to land degradation — FAO's State of Food and Agriculture report finds that 1.7 billion people face lower crop yields due to land degradation driven by deforestation, overgrazing and unsustainable cropping. Reversing just 10% of human-induced degradation on existing cropland could restore enough production to feed an additional 154 million people every year. FAO

Soil compaction emerges as major driver of global land degradation — FAO highlights soil compaction as a major and growing driver of land degradation worldwide. An international symposium on the issue will be held in Aarhus, Denmark in September 2026 to bring together policymakers, researchers and practitioners. FAO Soils Portal

Regenerative cover-cropping could cut UK farm emissions by up to 27% — New soil organic carbon turnover modelling for Great Britain suggests cover-cropping and ley-arable rotations could mitigate 16–27% of greenhouse gas emissions across arable land. The review highlights persistent barriers including large-scale cover-crop implementation and nitrogen requirements for optimal carbon accumulation. PMC / Frontiers

USDA regenerative ag pilot called 'greenwashing' by sustainable food advocates — USDA's new Regenerative Pilot Program will divert $400 million from EQIP and $300 million from the Conservation Stewardship Program for Fiscal Year 2026. Critics including Friends of the Earth argue the loosely defined program risks greenwashing while diverting resources from organic transition that has stronger evidence for soil health benefits. Beyond Pesticides

Global food prices climb as drought and Iran war tighten supplies — The FAO Food Price Index averaged 128.5 points in March 2026, up 2.4% from February, with wheat rising 4.3% on US drought concerns and reduced Australian planting. Vegetable oils rose 5.1% month-on-month while sugar surged 7.2%, deepening cost-of-living pressures globally. FoodFacts

Cover photo by Eugene Zhyvchik on Unsplash.