The briefing for Saturday, June 13.

Pakistan announced Friday that the United States and Iran have reached agreed text to end their war, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif saying peace 'has never been this close.' Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also said a deal had 'never been closer,' and President Trump shared the statement while announcing that details would be released shortly. However, Trump later disputed Iranian media reports about the agreement's terms, calling them 'dishonorable' leaks that 'bear no relation to the truth.'

The conflicting accounts highlight remaining tensions even as both sides signal progress. Iranian media reported terms including lifting the US naval blockade and at least $300 billion in payments to address war damage, along with suspension of oil sanctions before final negotiations begin. US officials described a different framework: no funds released until Iran meets American demands, destruction or removal of nuclear material, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and cessation of funding to groups like Hezbollah. Vice President JD Vance emphasized that 'Iranians are not receiving any cash' simply for signing an agreement.

Despite optimistic statements, key Trump administration objectives remain unfulfilled. The president initially aimed to 'destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground,' but Iran demonstrated this week it still has missile capabilities by attacking three Gulf allies. While US strikes have degraded Iran's military and killed senior leaders, the country continues to pose threats. The war, which began February 28 with US and Israeli strikes, has severely disrupted global oil supplies and driven inflation worldwide, making any agreement critical to economic stability.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since April 7, though the US and Iran exchanged fire intermittent times including twice this week. Trump threatened new attacks Thursday before canceling them, citing progress in negotiations. US stocks rallied 1.8% Thursday on hopes a deal could reopen Persian Gulf oil flows, with crude prices falling over 2%. The talks, mediated primarily by Pakistan, aim to extend the ceasefire and begin negotiations on Iran's nuclear program, though Israel is not involved in the discussions.

The US Department of Justice approved Paramount's $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery on Friday, marking a pivotal moment in the media industry consolidation. The DOJ said its 'rigorous' investigation found the deal 'not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers' and would instead 'increase competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem.' The approval allows the merger to proceed despite opposition from California officials and Hollywood creators.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has expressed concern that the takeover would 'further consolidate and limit competition' in an entertainment industry already experiencing layoffs and cuts. Bonta said in late February he was reviewing whether to take legal action to block the merger, and a spokesperson told the BBC that review 'remains under investigation.' More than 1,400 Hollywood actors, directors, and filmmakers signed an April letter opposing the deal, warning it would mean 'fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences.'

The combined entity will become one of the most powerful forces in Hollywood, with Paramount adding CNN, HBO, TBS, TNT, TCM, DC Studios, and New Line Cinema to its existing portfolio of Paramount Pictures, CBS, Showtime, and Nickelodeon. Skydance merged with Paramount in 2025 and cut about 10% of its workforce in the process. The deal has drawn scrutiny partly because Paramount leader David Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, a major Trump donor, and because of controversial programming decisions at CBS News including firing long-time staff and journalists. Warner Bros had initially reached an $82 billion deal with Netflix before Paramount made a higher bid that Netflix declined to match.

AI company Anthropic suspended its most advanced artificial intelligence models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, on Friday after receiving a directive from the Trump administration to prevent their use by foreign nationals. The company said it received the order Friday afternoon without specification of national security concerns, calling it a 'misunderstanding' and saying it hopes to restore access 'as soon as possible.' In a statement, Anthropic said the government 'should have the ability to block unsafe deployments' but through a process that is 'transparent, fair, clear, and grounded in technical facts,' which 'this action does not adhere to.'

The export controls mark the US government's most significant step to date restricting access to advanced AI models. Anthropic had released Fable 5 widely earlier this week as a limited version of the even more advanced Mythos 5, to which the company tightly restricted access due to cybersecurity fears. The company said its understanding is that authorities believe they discovered a method of 'jailbreaking' Fable 5 to bypass security protections, though Anthropic reviewed the technique and found it identified only 'a small number of previously known, minor vulnerabilities' that other publicly available models can also discover.

The action comes 10 days after President Trump signed an executive order establishing a framework for vetting national security risks of advanced AI systems for up to a month before public release, though participation was described as voluntary. Anthropic had self-proclaimed its models were 'too powerful to release' before making Fable 5 publicly available, claiming capabilities that 'exceed those of any model we've ever made generally available.' The company has faced increasing scrutiny from the Trump administration, with former Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeling it a 'supply chain risk'—the first time such a designation was publicly given to a US company. Anthropic is currently suing the Pentagon over that designation.

A crucial government surveillance tool known as Section 702 expired Friday after Congress failed to pass a temporary extension in bipartisan fashion. The program, part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, grants American spy agencies sweeping powers to collect and examine communications of foreigners outside the United States without first obtaining a warrant. Officials across administrations of both parties have warned that without the law, the government cannot collect crucial intelligence overseas, and it has been credited with helping disrupt terrorist attacks, investigate ransomware attacks, and contribute to the 2022 killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

Despite the formal expiration, there is not expected to be an immediate drop-off in intelligence collection. A court order from March certified that government surveillance powers under the law could remain in effect for another year, providing a buffer period. The lapse comes as President Trump nominated Jay Clayton as national intelligence director—a choice more palatable to both Republicans and Democrats than his initial pick—though it remains unclear how soon lawmakers, who are set for recess, would be able to revive the program.

The program's renewal has historically been contentious, with privacy advocates and civil liberties groups expressing concerns about potential abuse of surveillance powers against Americans. Section 702 was originally passed in 2008 as an effort to codify key aspects of a predecessor spy program created by the George W. Bush administration. The program's expiration represents a significant setback for intelligence agencies that have relied on it as what they describe as an invaluable national security tool, though the existing court order provides temporary continuity for ongoing operations.

President Trump announced Friday that a US military strike killed Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, leader of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, in what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as a 'swift and lethal kinetic' operation earlier this week. Trump said the strike was 'coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well,' and Venezuelan authorities confirmed their participation in the joint operation that took place in the southeastern state of Bolivar. The State Department had offered rewards up to $5 million for information leading to Guerrero Flores' arrest.

Tren de Aragua has been labeled by the United States as a terrorist organization, with Guerrero Flores charged in New York federal court in December with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes spanning more than a decade. US Attorney Jay Clayton, whom Trump nominated Thursday as director of national intelligence, said at the time that the gang is responsible for 'countless acts of violence, extortion and drug trafficking in North America, South America and Europe.' Trump posted unclassified video shot from above showing a small building with a green roof exploding, writing that terrorists 'no longer have safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else.'

The gang originated over a decade ago at an infamously lawless prison in Venezuela's central state of Aragua, with Guerrero Flores transforming the facility into a system controlling the entire inmate population through force and extortion. Tren de Aragua expanded in recent years as millions of Venezuelans migrated to other countries, and now operates in at least eight countries by forming alliances with local criminal organizations. The Trump administration has taken extraordinary actions against the gang, including strikes on boats accused of drug smuggling that have killed at least 207 people since early September, though the Pentagon has not provided evidence the attacked vessels were carrying drugs or smugglers, raising questions about the operation's legality.

The Treasury Department moved Friday to enlist banks more deeply in President Trump's immigration crackdown by expanding data-sharing rules and issuing guidance that lets banks rapidly share information about suspected customers. The changes include allowing banks to share information with one another in real time and more freely, while also widening the variety of reasons to share such information to include flags historically tied to immigration status, such as customers having individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITINs) disproportionately used by undocumented immigrants.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told bankers at a Houston conference that the information 'can help stop a cartel financier, disrupt a money laundering network, uncover labor exploitation, or protect taxpayers from fraud,' framing the actions as a crackdown on fraud and crime rather than explicitly about immigration. The changes build on the Patriot Act's existing framework for banks to share customer information when they suspect money laundering or fraud, part of post-9/11 efforts to combat terrorism. Bessent said the guidance 'does not ask banks to become immigration officers' but rather to 'know their customers, identify risk, recognize suspicious patterns, and report illicit activity.'

The administration is pursuing these measures without explicitly mandating that banks collect citizenship information, which the banking industry lobbied against for months. Banks have been wary about sharing customer information for immigration enforcement, as they never historically collected citizenship data and any such effort would require massive undertaking and significant paperwork. The White House has framed the effort on premises of combating fraud and reducing risk to the financial system from borrowers who could be deported, though it's difficult to quantify the actual risk since banks haven't collected citizenship data. One study estimated only 5,000 to 6,000 mortgages were issued to customers with ITINs, a tiny fraction of overall mortgage lending.