Financial Times: “Two years ago, Donald Trump’s family business said the $500mn luxury hotel and golf resort it was jointly launching in Oman would elevate the Gulf nation’s ‘status as a premier global destination.'”

“Fast forward to last week, and the U.S. president was threatening to bomb the country.”

“Initially, some in Muscat believed Trump had misspoken, and must have meant Iran, before the US state department posted a video of him warning Oman to ‘behave like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up.'”

“The extraordinary outburst against a longtime U.S. ally that has served as a regional mediator for years was fuelled by Trump’s suspicion that the Gulf nation supported Iran’s push to levy charges on vessels navigating the Strait of Hormuz.”

“Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz showed how a country can weaponize an economic pinch point to seismic effect,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The question now is what governments decide to do about it.”

Wall Street Journal: “International businesses are abandoning Cuba, delivering another blow to the island’s collapsing economy as the Trump administration ratchets up pressure on Havana.”

“Mastercard and Visa transactions by non-U.S. foreign visitors will be suspended on the island starting Saturday, according to Cuba’s central bank. Americans were already prohibited from using their cards in Cuba.”

“The U.S. and Iran have spent weeks struggling to forge a preliminary deal to end the war. One major reason why they are stuck: Tehran wants early access to cold, hard cash, and it is politically hazardous for President Trump to agree,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“For Trump, a decision to free Iran’s assets upfront would inevitably generate comparisons to his own attacks on the Obama administration for flying cash into Tehran in the hours after the nuclear accord was implemented in January 2016. Trump vowed this spring to negotiate a ‘FAR BETTER’ deal than that one, which he spent years lambasting and later pulled out of, partly because it provided cash to Tehran.”

Wall Street Journal: “Russia’s elite have been forced to adapt since the start of the war, but Western sanctions haven’t done much to crimp their globe-spanning lifestyles. They have traded places like London, the French Riviera and the Swiss Alps for new destinations such as the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Azerbaijan.”

President Donald Trump said the war with Iran will end “one way or the other” while speaking with Wisconsin farmers, NewsNation reports. 

Said Trump: “We’re going to come out of Iran very quickly — one way or the other, whether it’s a piece of paper or the very tough way. The very tough way may be the easier way.”

“The Pentagon is increasingly concerned about Israel ramping up its spying on the U.S., recently raising the counterintelligence threat level from America’s top ally in the Middle East to the highest level,” NBC News reports.

“The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency in recent weeks issued the new counterintelligence threat assessment amid rising tensions between Israel and the U.S. over the way forward in the war with Iran.”