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Iran: New Crypto Law Requires Selling Bitcoin Directly to Central Bank to Fund Imports

Gold-plated souvenir Bitcoins. (AFP)
Gold-plated souvenir Bitcoins. (AFP)
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Iran: New Crypto Law Requires Selling Bitcoin Directly to Central Bank to Fund Imports

Gold-plated souvenir Bitcoins. (AFP)
Gold-plated souvenir Bitcoins. (AFP)

Iran has resorted to a new crypto currency regulation that required licensing bitcoin miners to sell their coins directly to the Central Bank for use to fund imports.

Reports published by bitcoins.com said the Iranian government has amended its crypto currency regulation to enable the country’s central bank to fund imports with bitcoin legally mined in the country.

Also, the IRNA news agency reported that the government has introduced those regulations in order to allow crypto miners to redirect their coins to the country’s finance mechanism for international trades.

“The Ministry of Energy is tasked with defining a ceiling for output of authorized crypto units subject to the energy consumed by each unit. Miners’ output should not exceed the ceiling,” the news agency wrote, adding that the central bank will soon announce details of the new law.

Meanwhile, the Mehr news agency quoted Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, deputy head of Iran’s Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (Tavanir) and the spokesperson for the power industry, as saying: “These crypto currencies can be exchanged according to the regulations set by the central bank.”

Presstv, an Iranian state-owned news network, said that miners are supposed to supply the original crypto currency directly and within the authorized limit to the channels introduced by the central bank.

“The legal cap for the amount of crypto currency for each miner would be determined by the level of the subsidized energy used for mining and based on instructions published by the Ministry of the Energy,” it said.

Crypto currency analyst Alireza Shamkhi told ISNA news agency that the new law is vague and ambiguous.

He said it does not state how the central bank will price crypto currencies or the exchange rate between dollars and rials.

Previously, miners could exchange their crypto currencies for dollars, rials or other currencies at market prices.

“The requirement for miners to report their output to the central bank is not seen in other industries, concluding that the new law will likely reduce the industry’s attractiveness and significantly lower miners’ profit margin,” said Shamkhi.

Iran has issued over 1,000 licenses to crypto miners, including one to the Turkish bitcoin mining giant Iminer.

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World

Trump Touts Vance and Rubio for 2028 Republican Ticket

Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters upon arriving on Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)
Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters upon arriving on Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)
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Trump Touts Vance and Rubio for 2028 Republican Ticket

Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters upon arriving on Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)
Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters upon arriving on Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)

US President Donald Trump thinks the two Republicans most likely to jockey to succeed him would make an unbeatable ticket if they run together, he told an interviewer Wednesday.

Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are both widely seen as strong contenders to run for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination -- and as rivals.

"I like them both. I like them together," Trump said on the New York Post podcast "Pod Force One," adding: "I don't know how you beat them if they're together."

The two men would have to agree to it but "they get along really well," Trump mused.

He did not venture to say who should be at the top of the ticket.

Neither man has officially declared his intention to run, and Rubio, 54, has publicly said that the vice president is a friend and insisted that he would not run in 2028 if Vance is a candidate.

Recent polls suggest that Vance and Rubio are nearly tied among Republican voters.

Last month, Rubio attracted buzz for confidently handling a White House press briefing, fielding questions on Iran, Cuba and China with a relaxed style and dashes of humor -- and little of the invective that Trump often unleashes in his briefing room appearances.

World

France Arrests Russian Captain of Moscow-Linked Tanker

A French Navy vessel sails by the Russian oil tanker "Tagor", suspected of flying a false Cameroonian flag and boarded by the French Navy on May 31, 2026, as it arrives in Douarnenez Bay, western France on June 2, 2026. (AFP)
A French Navy vessel sails by the Russian oil tanker "Tagor", suspected of flying a false Cameroonian flag and boarded by the French Navy on May 31, 2026, as it arrives in Douarnenez Bay, western France on June 2, 2026. (AFP)
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France Arrests Russian Captain of Moscow-Linked Tanker

A French Navy vessel sails by the Russian oil tanker "Tagor", suspected of flying a false Cameroonian flag and boarded by the French Navy on May 31, 2026, as it arrives in Douarnenez Bay, western France on June 2, 2026. (AFP)
A French Navy vessel sails by the Russian oil tanker "Tagor", suspected of flying a false Cameroonian flag and boarded by the French Navy on May 31, 2026, as it arrives in Douarnenez Bay, western France on June 2, 2026. (AFP)

French authorities have taken into custody the Russian captain of a seized oil tanker believed to be part of Moscow's "shadow fleet", a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The French navy detained the Tagor on Sunday in international waters with British help on suspicion the ship was flying a false flag and after its captain refused to comply with orders.

It is the fourth ship that France has seized since September on suspicion of belonging to the "shadow fleet", which Russia is accused of using to circumvent Western sanctions.

The tanker arrived in a harbor in Brittany on Tuesday.

The captain was arrested on Tuesday and faces up to one year in prison and a 150,000-euro ($174,000) fine, said the prosecutor in the northwestern city of Brest, Stephane Kellenberger.

The owner of the vessel, currently being identified, may be subject to the same penalties, he added.

The Russian embassy in France said it had demanded "consular access be granted to the captain immediately", in a post on Telegram. It rejected what it called "baseless accusations" and urging the captain to be released "as soon as possible".

The Kremlin has likened the seizure to "international piracy".

The Tagor is suspected of carrying Russian or Iranian oil despite international sanctions. It is linked to shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, according to open-source database Opensanctions.org.

Shamkhani is the son of Ali Shamkhani, who was a security adviser to the former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. They were both killed on February 28, the first day of the US-Israeli attacks that started the Middle East war.

According to French authorities, the Tagor was on its way from Murmansk in northwestern Russia when it was boarded.

It was falsely flying a Cameroonian flag and was heading toward Limbe, a seaside city in the west of the African country, they added.

France previously detained two tankers in the Mediterranean, the Deyna in March and the Grinch in January, but they were freed after paying fines.

In another case, a French court in March issued a one-year jail sentence in absentia and a 150,000-euro ($177,000) fine against the Chinese captain of a tanker, the Boracay, for failing to comply with orders to stop in September last year off the coast of Brittany.

Several Western countries have imposed sanctions on hundreds of vessels believed to be part of Russia's "shadow fleet" over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Nearly 600 ships suspected of belonging to the fleet are subject to European Union sanctions.

World

Zelenskiy Says Strikes on Russia Let Ukraine Negotiate as Equals

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte after talks, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 3, 2026. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte after talks, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 3, 2026. (Reuters)
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Zelenskiy Says Strikes on Russia Let Ukraine Negotiate as Equals

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte after talks, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 3, 2026. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte after talks, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 3, 2026. (Reuters)

Ukraine's stepped-up strikes deep inside Russia enable Kyiv to negotiate the end of the war on an equal footing, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, just after one of the barrages struck an oil terminal and naval base hundreds of kilometers away.

For months, Kyiv's troops have been conducting attacks on Russian fossil fuel industry sites, at times daily, aiming to cut Moscow's main funding source for the war and pressure the Kremlin for talks.

"Thank God that today we ‌have security guarantees ‌that allow us to end this ‌war ⁠on equal footing with ⁠the Russians in any format of diplomacy," Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv, speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Zelenskiy said it was "only a question of time" for Ukraine to increase the scale of the strikes, which forced some of the Russian refineries to suspend operations and ⁠boosted morale among Ukrainians, who have lived under ‌constant threat of Russian drones ‌and missiles for more than four years.

As Ukraine has ramped ‌up long-range attacks on Russia, Kyiv's troops on the ‌battlefield appear on their best footing in years, analysts say.

Russia's spring offensive is sputtering, partly a result of Ukrainian counterattacks that have kept its gains minuscule, they said.

Zelenskiy said he was ‌ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Kyiv has long insisted was the only ⁠way ⁠to resolve the main stumbling block in so far stalled talks -- the issue of eastern Donbas. Russia failed to fully occupy the area during its full-scale invasion and has demanded Ukraine pull back troops in the region that it still controls.

"I am ready for direct talks with Putin to bring this war to an end, rather than waiting for when all will resolve every conflict in the world before our turn finally comes," Zelenskiy said, in an apparent reference to the US-brokered talks and current US focus on its war on Iran.