“President Donald Trump, who criticized his predecessor for allowing new wars to break out on his watch, is increasingly listening to a small group of Iran hawks who have been pushing to go tougher on Tehran,” Politico reports.

“Trump has become more receptive to arguments by those advocating more military engagement, including Gen. Michael ‘Erik’ Kurilla, who leads Central Command, as well as Republican senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Tom Cotton of Arkansas.”

President Trump said that Iran “still wants to negotiate with the U.S. and even proposed sending a delegation to the White House, Axios reports.

But Iran denied it in a statement: “No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House. The only thing more despicable than his lies is his cowardly threat to ‘take out’ Iran’s Supreme Leader. Iran does NOT negotiate under duress, shall NOT accept peace under duress, and certainly NOT with a has-been warmonger clinging to relevance.”

“The governor of China’s central bank outlined a plan on Wednesday for a global financial system that relies on several major currencies, not just the dollar, as Beijing steps up its campaign to weaken the U.S. dollar’s primacy,” the New York Times reports.

“On Sunday evening, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney took to a comfy sofa to chew the fat over glasses of wine with European Group of Seven leaders at their hotel bar in Kananaskis, the Rocky Mountain resort hosting this year’s summit,” Bloomberg reports.

“The unplanned gathering started when UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer bumped into German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, with Carney, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron joining. The topics were meaty — including a discussion of escalating tensions in the Middle East. But the atmosphere was relaxed, with one G-7 official describing it as a drink among friends. US President Donald Trump had yet to arrive.”

“For Carney, the summit was an exercise in trying to keep the annual gathering of the most powerful western leaders relevant. Ultimately, it exposed how fractured the forum has become — with Trump forging a lone path and leaving his counterparts from the other six nations to wonder what his next move will be.”

“President Donald Trump has been presented with a range of options by his national security team related to Iran,“ ABC News reports.

“The president is considering the options, which include the potential use of American military assets to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.”

Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech that the Islamic Republic “will not surrender” and threatened that if the U.S. takes military action against Iran, “it will undoubtedly cause irreparable consequences to them,” Axios reports.

New York Times: “Overnight, the ayatollah had issued a defiant call to arms, saying in a post on social media that ‘the battle begins.”