US president Donald Trump has threatened to charge tolls for ships passing through the strait of Hormuz after Iran claimed to have closed the vital waterway over Israel’s “relentless violation” of a ceasefire in Lebanon, reports the Times. It continues: “The agreement signed by Trump and Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, on Wednesday appeared to be hanging by a thread before peace talks on Sunday, after both sides traded barbs on the strait’s status. The Islamic Republic claimed it had closed the strait on Saturday, while US Central Command said it ‘remained intact’ and that 55 ships had transited.” In a post on Truth Social, Trump threatened imposing a “guardian angel” toll on the strait after the 60-day ceasefire period, the newspaper notes. Talks in Switzerland between the US and Iran “were still ongoing” yesterday, says Bloomberg, “despite Iranian media reports that negotiators had left the venue”.

Despite a “rocky start”, another Bloomberg article says that oil prices dipped – after initially rising – “following signs of progress” at the talks. According to a statement issued by mediators Qatar and Pakistan, the US and Iran “have agreed on a roadmap toward reaching a final deal in 60 days and technical talks will continue for the remainder of the week”, the outlet says. Bloomberg reported on Friday that Iran has “sought to assert control over the strait of Hormuz by saying that ships need its permission and mandatory insurance in order to cross, even as the US said that 20 ships had quietly sailed through overnight via a route along Oman’s coast”. Reuters says that oil shipments had “picked up on Friday”, despite “concerns over conditions set by Tehran for using the vital waterway”. The region’s oil producers now “face a new test”, says the Wall Street Journal – “how fast they can clear shipping bottlenecks and turn stockpiled crude into exports”.

MORE ON IRAN CONFLICT

• Bloomberg: “Iran war fuels renewables interest, multilateral lender says.”
• Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has pledged almost $300m to help renewable energy industry associations “counter a well-financed oil lobby”, reports the Financial Times.
• As the world is “emerging from the war in Iran with depleted oil supplies”, Chinese state-owned stockpiles “remain nearly full”, says the New York Times.
• The Financial Times: “Iran war supercharges electric vehicle uptake in Africa.”
• In an essay for the New York Times, author Edward Fishman says that “Iran’s success at the strait of Hormuz may set off a different kind of arms race – one in which every country searches for choke points to convert into money and power”.
  

A “punishing heatwave” sweeping across much of Europe has “prompted a partial alcohol ban in France, ‌nationwide warnings in Germany and the closure of a soccer fan zone in Spain”, reports Reuters. With temperatures approaching 40C, French prime minister Sebastien Lecornu called a “crisis meeting” and ⁠”pre-emptively banned alcohol consumption on Sunday at the annual Fete de la Musique festivals”, the newswire says, adding that “heat alerts were declared in most of Germany, with temperatures approaching 38C”. BBC News and CBS News also have the alcohol “ban” story, while it makes the frontpage of the Daily Telegraph. France was hit by train delays as the rail network was “strongly impacted” by high temperatures that risk damaging overhead power lines and expanding tracks, says Reuters. Temperatures hit 40C in Spain, says Reuters. The Guardian reports that the UK may see 38C heat this week, while the Observer says that “tropical nights” – where temperatures stay above 20C – are likely for the UK.

Agence France Presse notes that the latest extreme weather comes less than a month after a “heatwave that set records in several European countries”. It adds: “Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming.” The heatwave is “being fuelled by a dome of high pressure over continental Europe, which raises temperatures as sinking air compresses toward the ground”, says Bloomberg. A meteorologist tells the outlet that the pattern is being reinforced by the developing strong El Niño and a cold pool of water in the North Atlantic. This, the outlet says, is “helping create a dip in the jet stream over the ocean and driving the high pressure over Europe”.

MORE ON EUROPE

• Firefighters in Europe have warned that they are “ill-prepared for a bad wildfire season”, says Bloomberg.
• The Guardian: “How Europe’s EV makers shrank their product to challenge the bloated SUVs.”
• A fall in European gas prices “has done little to improve the economics of storing fuel for winter”, says Bloomberg.
• Euractiv: “Europe’s power grid breaks apart as Brussels rulemaking fails to keep pace.”
• According to a leaked draft of the European Commission’s sustainable livestock strategy, the EU is “considering an overhaul of how it measures methane emissions from livestock”, says Grilled.
• Mail on Sunday: “Rolls-Royce eyes nuke deals to wean Europe off Russia.”

Following Andy Burnham’s byelection win last week, there is increasing speculation around the government he would form were he to become prime minister. Much of the coverage focuses on a potential role for energy secretary Ed Miliband as chancellor. Politico says that Miliband is “frontrunner” for the job and that he and Burnham are “close”. However, it adds, a “potential source of tension is…the future of North Sea oil and gas”. The Times reports that unnamed “cabinet ministers” have warned Miliband is “not pro-business enough and will undermine the confidence of the markets” as chancellor. The head of one of the UK’s biggest unions, Sharon Graham, tells the Observer that Miliband would be a “noose around the neck” of job creation, while the Sunday Times reports further criticism from Graham. The Financial Times says that Burnham’s camp is “divided” on who to pick as chancellor, but that Miliband’s chances have “ebbed in recent days”.

The reporting on Burnham has ramped up as the Financial Times reports that Keir Starmer is “on the brink of resigning as prime minister”. It says that “colleagues expect Starmer to agree to an ‘orderly’ timetable for a transition of power”, although “Downing Street insiders insisted Starmer had yet to make a final decision”. The Financial Times looks at the potential successors to Starmer. BusinessGreen carries past quotes from Burnham, in which he argues that net-zero is “crucial”. A Guardian “exclusive” reports on a new policy paper – by a Labour group that supports Burnham – laying out plans to “reverse 40 years of privatisation with a long-term plan to take over failing utilities in administration”. In further coverage of Miliband, climate-sceptic newspapers keep up their attacks on the energy secretary, while political rivals have called on Burnham to sack him outright, according to the Sunday Express.

At the same time, there is continued reaction to the byelection win for the Conservatives in Aberdeen. Party leader Kemi Badenoch described the victory – in a city billed as Europe’s oil and gas capital – as winning a “referendum on oil and gas”, reports the Times. It says she called for the Jackdaw and Rosebank developments to be given the go-ahead and said the UK needed to “drill our own oil in the North Sea, not take oil from Russia”. The Independent, BBC News, Sun and Daily Express all cover her quotes. The chief executive of the biggest independent oil and gas operator in the North Sea has also called for new production to go ahead in the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields, says the Times.

MORE ON UK

• A government projection suggests a third runway at Heathrow would boost the UK’s economy by just 0.05%, a 10th of the level forecast by the airport, reports the Financial Times. The Guardian also has the story.
• A Sky News “exclusive” reports that “backtracking on the UK’s electric vehicle plans would blow the government’s much feted climate target by 13% in a worst-case scenario”.
• The Press Association: “Britain boosts wildfire defences with £97m investment for firefighters and climate threat.”
• The Daily Telegraph: “The hidden reality behind Britain’s homegrown nuclear age.”
• Hydropower stations and batteries are “repeatedly reselling electricity and then being paid not to deliver it” because the UK’s grid cannot accommodate the power, reports the Financial Times. 
• The climate-sceptic Daily Telegraph has articles on a “£400m bill” for UK airlines to hit green fuel targets, a claim the UK will need “£240bn of net-zero upgrades” to the grid, the “boost” to rice production from high CO2 levels and how heat pumps will “push up energy bills” [described as “simply untrue” by a government spokesperson].
  

Extreme heat and dry, windy conditions have “fuelled” multiple wildfires in the western US, prompting evacuations over the weekend, reports the Associated Press. Around 300 fire personnel were fighting an “unconstrained” blaze in Arizona, says the outlet, while there were six fires burning in Utah. It adds: “Officials warned that the prolonged dry, hot weather and relatively low humidity increased the risk of fire danger.” One of the evacuated areas was the small city of Eureka in central Utah, says the New York Times. The “Iron” fire has burned more than 5,000 hectares, it says. There were “red flag” fire warnings across northern California, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Arizona over the weekend, says Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, three hikers died from apparent heat-related illnesses in the Grand Canyon on two separate days in the past week, reports the Associated Press. The hikers were on trails in the inner canyon, “where officials said temperatures in the shade could reach 109F [43C] around midday”, notes USA Today. At the World Cup, analysis by the Guardian shows the two matches held in US cities during the group stage have been played in “severe heat”. 

MORE ON US

• The Guardian says that datacentres are driving “unprecedented growth” in the US clean-energy industry, while Politico reports on how datacentres are being “pulled into California’s water wars”.

Governments at the annual oceans summit reaffirmed commitments to protect key marine ecosystems including the high seas and coral reefs, reports Climate Home News, but “observers said funding barriers and polluting projects are hampering progress on putting them into practice”. The outlet says campaigners at the Our Ocean Conference in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa last week “said the overall picture was positive”. It continues: “Oceans are gaining more visibility in international climate discussions: from blue carbon ecosystems such as mangroves, to coastal adaptation, marine biodiversity, ocean finance and the High Seas Treaty.” However, it adds, “John Kerry, former US climate envoy and founder of the Our Ocean Conference, warned that the conversations and commitments on ocean protection will mean little if implementation continues to lag behind action”.

In other ocean news, there is widespread coverage of the emerging El Niño event. The New York Times looks into the scientific debate around whether climate change is “supercharging” El Niño. An article in the Economist says this El Niño “could make history”. Inside Climate News reports on how the event will have “big consequences” for global weather. The Guardian says El Niño is “back with a vengeance” and the Independent says it poses a “critical threat to 500m of the world’s farmers”.

China’s exports “surged an unexpected 19.4%” in May, partly driven by “robust” electric vehicle (EV) shipments, reports financial news outlet Caixin. It adds that China’s exports of “new three” sectors – EVs, batteries and solar panels – showed “diverging fortunes”, with shipments of EVs and batteries rising 54% and 37%, respectively, while solar cells dropped 7%. EV-focused news outlet Electrive says that the EU is planning to impose additional tariffs on Chinese-made plug-in hybrids once again “in the coming weeks”, citing German publication Handelsblatt. Following a “rare summit debate about Beijing” on Thursday night, the European Commission was “instructed” by national leaders to come up with “new trade weapons” to “defend its interests and de-risk” amid “economic threat posed by China”, reports the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. The summit “exposed divisions” within the bloc over how to deal with cheap imports from China, with European leaders opting for “dialogue rather than immediate action”, reports the Financial Times.

MORE ON CHINA

• Xinhua reports that China’s two main grid operators have completed the country’s first “transmission rights trade”. BJX News says that with the market-based trading of transmission rights now in place, regional mismatches between electricity supply and demand will be addressed.
• Columnist David Fickling argues in a Bloomberg comment that China’s “oil demand has peaked” amid factors including EV adoption and shifts in the chemicals sector.
• Dialogue Earth says China’s oil and gas engagement in Belt and Road countries in 2025 shifted from securing resources to “construction-led industrial infrastructure”.
• Beijing News publishes an article discussing the impact of China’s latest energy-saving and carbon-reduction action plan.

There is widespread commentary around the two byelections last week and the implications for the UK’s government. In the Times, columnist Sonia Sodha says that if Burnham succeeds Starmer, he “faces an awesomely difficult set of governing circumstances”, including: “an anaemic economy blighted by a lack of investment, two decades of stagnant living standards, a creaking public infrastructure, an ageing population and an unstable world that demands more defence spending, and in which another global economic shock is always just around the corner”. Sodha says “there is a lot to learn from Starmer’s mistakes”, arguing that: “Burnham needs a pragmatic chancellor who will send a clear signal to the markets that his government will be fiscally disciplined and prioritise growth and jobs, for example through drilling in the North Sea even if that does mean a slower path to net-zero.”

Multiple outlets comment on Miliband as potential chancellor in a Burnham government. A Times editorial says that Labour “must change course if the ratchet of higher spending and borrowing is to be curbed”, which should “immediately disqualify Ed Miliband”. A Mail on Sunday editorial says “our economy is in deep enough trouble without Miliband at the helm”. Jeremy Warner, assistant editor of the Daily Telegraph, warns of the reaction by the bond market “vigilantes” to Miliband as chancellor. A Sun editorial criticises Miliband and claims that Burnham has “no mandate for his programme of using taxpayers’ cash to nationalise energy, water and much else”. And, in the Sunday Times, commentator Jason Cowley says: “With its rigid climate targets, cult of net-zero and pious, hectoring style, Starmer’s government has been an exercise in joylessness.” 

In reaction to the Aberdeen byelection, a multitude of newspapers and their commentators argue that the result shows that the UK should open up the North Sea for new oil and gas drilling. [They do not mention how little is left.] These include a Sunday Times editorial, a Sunday Express editorial, a Sun editorial (which also attacks the “net-zero madness of Ed Miliband”), shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho in the Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Express, columnist Alex Massie in the Sunday Times, columnist Alan Cochrane in the Daily Telegraph and David Williamson, chief political commentator of the Sunday Express. Writing for BBC News, polling expert Sir John Curtice says the government’s energy policy “could well now find itself in the midst of a serious political storm”. And a Guardian analysis article says the “question for Badenoch is whether the appeal of her pro-North Sea drilling position will translate in other seats away from the north east of Scotland, which is heavily reliant on the oil and gas industry for tens of thousands of local jobs”. 

MORE COMMENT

• In the Guardian, a group of climate scientists warn of the risks of geoengineering.
• Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas: “Europe is becoming a little too addicted to American gas.”