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Why this matters:

• While Bessent is talking about billions of dollars in bond buybacks, the Treasury market is so large that even purchases at that scale may not have much impact. History shows that government interventions in the bond market have limited effects.

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WORLD NEWS

US ramps up Cuba sanctions and detentions of Americans returning from the island

The Trump administration is imposing more economic penalties on industries in the heavily sanctioned socialist country and broadening enforcement of laws that bar Americans who visit the island from dealings with government-owned or affiliated businesses. Read more.

Why this matters:

• The administration has steadily ratcheted up pressure on Havana, threatening it with potential military intervention even when mired in a conflict against Iran, while also boosting economic sanctions designed to cut off funding for the Cuban government. An oil blockade that the U.S. imposed on Cuba after the American military raid that ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, whose country provided Cuba with subsidized oil, has plunged the already economically crippled island into full-blown crisis.

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• More than 2,300 Mexicans sent to Guatemala and Honduras as Trump ramps up third-country deportations

• US has sent deportees to many African countries, the latest one being Liberia. Here’s why

WORLD NEWS

Trump warns of ‘economic D-Day’ against Iran, but Tehran is well acquainted with sanctions

Nearing the six-month mark of the Iran war and facing diminishing stockpiles of key weapons, the Trump administration is touting a crushing financial campaign against a country that has so far withstood nearly five decades of punishing American sanctions. Read more.

Why this matters:

• With sparse details, President Donald Trump announced this week that the U.S. would be imposing an “unprecedented” level of economic warfare and isolation on Iran, aiming to force its leadership to cave to demands to end its nuclear program and fully reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz to oil and natural gas tankers. The president is refocusing America’s might on bringing Iran to its knees through an accelerated sanctions campaign against one of the most economically penalized countries in the world.
  
  

• Iranian officials and analysts have accused the Republican president of flip-flopping with his latest pivot to economic pressure against Iran. Trump has long derided past leaders who used sanctions to limit Iran’s ability to pay for its military and nuclear development. In a post last week on X, Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, wrote that Washington’s pattern of retreating to sanctions when it doesn’t want to pursue diplomacy has proven to be futile.