U.S. proposes identity rules for stablecoin issuers.
Today's events
Stablecoin ID rule.
Five U.S. financial regulators — led by Treasury's financial-crimes bureau — proposed a joint rule requiring issuers of payment stablecoins to verify customer identities, extending bank-style anti-money-laundering checks to dollar-pegged crypto tokens.1Jun 22 · TreasuryU.S.–India trade.
Trade Representative Greer travels to New Delhi to advance an interim U.S.–India trade agreement with Commerce Minister Goyal, then to Tashkent for talks with Uzbekistan's president on “fair, balanced, and reciprocal” trade.2Jun 21 · USTRColombia call.
Secretary of State Rubio phoned Colombian President-elect Abelardo De La Espriella to congratulate him on his runoff win, pledging closer cooperation on regional security, migration, and trade with the incoming right-leaning government.3Jun 21 · StateConcrete merger.
The Justice Department sued to block Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement's $712 million purchase of Vulcan Materials' ready-mix concrete assets, then settled: its U.S. unit must divest three San Diego plants to a rival buyer.4Jun 22 · DOJChina refrigerant duties.
Commerce locked 24 Chinese makers of the refrigerant R-134a into the 167 percent “China-wide” antidumping rate after none qualified for a separate margin, sustaining steep duties on the auto- and cooling-sector chemical.5Jun 22 · CommercePower-export rule.
The Energy Department finalized a rule simplifying the process for companies to apply to export electricity to a foreign country, removing application requirements it deemed unnecessary under the Federal Power Act.6Jun 22 · DOECancer drug pulled.
The FDA withdrew approval of Epizyme's lymphoma and sarcoma drug TAZVERIK after a confirmatory trial showed an increased rate of second cancers; the company, owned by France's Ipsen, requested the withdrawal.7Jun 22 · FDAAir-rule repeal.
Acting under a congressional resolution the President signed, the EPA formally erased its 2024 air-toxics standards for rubber-tire manufacturing — the first federal emissions limits on the rubber-processing step, now void.8Jun 22 · EPAAI-server zone.
Super Micro asked the Foreign-Trade Zones Board to assemble AI server systems, graphics chips, and liquid-cooling gear at its Silicon Valley plants under trade-zone status — components that can carry Section 301 China tariffs.9Jun 22 · Commerce
This week
The Iran war ends in a deal.
The White House on June 18 defended the agreement Trump signed this week, which bars Iran from building a nuclear weapon and reopens the Strait of Hormuz to free navigation under a 60-day clock toward a final accord. It closes a war that had run for months and dominated the spring briefs; the energy-supply shock it caused still surfaces in the Fed's inflation read below.1Jun 18 · WHA general lands in Caracas.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Dan Caine, made the first official U.S. military visit to Venezuela's capital on June 18, endorsing Trump's three-phase transition plan and meeting the interim government. The trip put the hemisphere's largest proven oil reserves on a U.S.-aligned track — the clearest sign yet that Washington's months-long Venezuela campaign has shifted from pressure to political transition.2Jun 18 · Joint ChiefsA $35 billion cartel, indicted.
The Justice Department on June 18 unsealed an antitrust indictment of four major shipping-container makers and seven Chinese executives for fixing prices across roughly $35 billion of global trade. The cartel controlled about 95% of the world's standard containers — the steel boxes nearly all seaborne goods move in — making it one of the broadest price-fixing cases the Antitrust Division has brought.3Jun 18 · DOJA trade tool aimed at an ally.
The U.S. Trade Representative on June 19 opened a Section 301 investigation into Germany's underpayment for innovative drugs, arguing it forces American patients to fund a disproportionate share of global pharmaceutical research. The same statutory weapon Washington usually points at China is now aimed at a NATO ally — one prong of a wider push, alongside a June 16 proposed Medicare price-negotiation rule, to cut what Americans pay for medicine.4Jun 19 · USTRTwo centuries of lithium.
A U.S. Geological Survey study released June 18 estimated 1.43 million metric tons of recoverable lithium oxide in the southern Appalachians — roughly 200 years of current U.S. imports. The find matters because China dominates global lithium processing, so a large domestic source is exactly the supply-chain hedge the administration chased all week, from cobalt recycling at Sandia to a $500 million chip-materials award.5Jun 18 · USGSGovernment takes a chip stake.
The Commerce Department on June 17 signed a $500 million CHIPS award to SandboxAQ for AI-driven discovery of materials like rare-earth-free magnets — taking an equity stake — and pledged up to $50 million to Coherent for data-center photonics. Both target materials and components where China holds leverage, extending the week's running theme of buying down dependence on Chinese-controlled supply.6Jun 17 · Commerce
Allied Governments
Colombia border closures.
Britain's Foreign Office updated its Colombia travel advice for the June 21 presidential runoff, noting border closures with five neighbors through June 22 and renewing warnings against travel near the Venezuela frontier.aJun 20 · UK FCDO
Voices
“This result reflects the will of the Colombian people and their commitment to democracy.”
Spokesperson Tommy Pigott, State Dept. · Jun 213
“Ready-mix concrete is a key input for construction and infrastructure projects across the country that are critical to strengthening the American economy.”
Acting AAG Omeed A. Assefi, DOJ Antitrust · Jun 224
“This final rule will simplify the application process for authorizations to transmit electric energy to a foreign country, as required by the Federal Power Act.”
DOE Office of Electricity, final rule · Jun 226
“Ambassador Greer will conduct each of these meetings with his counterparts to discuss achieving fair, balanced, and reciprocal trade with the United States.”
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative · Jun 212
“Distribution of Epizyme's TAZVERIK (tazemetostat) tablet, 200 mg, into interstate commerce without an approved application is illegal and subject to regulatory action.”
FDA, Notice of Withdrawal · Jun 227
“Congress passed, and the President signed, a joint resolution of disapproval of the 2024 Rubber Tire Rule.”
EPA, final rule (CRA revocation) · Jun 228
Sources
- Federal Register (Treasury / FinCEN, OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, NCUA), “Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuer Customer Identification Program” (joint proposed rule), June 22, 2026. federalregister.gov/…/stablecoin-issuer-customer-identification
- Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, “Ambassador Greer to Travel to India and Uzbekistan,” June 21, 2026. ustr.gov/…/ambassador-greer-travel-india-and-uzbekistan
- U.S. Dept. of State, “Congratulating Colombian President-Elect De La Espriella,” June 21, 2026. state.gov/releases/…/congratulating-colombian-president-elect
- U.S. Dept. of Justice, Antitrust Division, “Justice Department Requires Taiheiyo Cement Corporation and CalPortland Company to Divest Assets…,” June 2026. justice.gov/opa/pr/…/taiheiyo-cement-calportland-divest
- Federal Register (U.S. Dept. of Commerce), “1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane (R-134a) From the People's Republic of China: Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2024-2025,” June 22, 2026. federalregister.gov/…/r-134a-china-antidumping-final
- Federal Register (U.S. Dept. of Energy), “Application for Authorization To Transmit Electric Energy to a Foreign Country” (final rule), June 22, 2026. federalregister.gov/…/transmit-electric-energy-foreign-country
- Federal Register (Food and Drug Administration), “Epizyme, Inc.; Withdrawal of Approval of New Drug Application for TAZVERIK (Tazemetostat) Tablet, 200 Milligrams,” June 22, 2026. federalregister.gov/…/tazverik-withdrawal
- Federal Register (Environmental Protection Agency), “Congressional Review Act Revocation of 2024 Amendments to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Rubber Tire Manufacturing,” June 22, 2026. federalregister.gov/…/rubber-tire-cra-revocation
- Federal Register (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Foreign-Trade Zones Board), “Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) 18, Notification of Proposed Production Activity; Super Micro Computer, Inc.,” June 22, 2026. federalregister.gov/…/ftz-18-super-micro-computer
- UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, “Foreign travel advice: Colombia,” June 20, 2026. gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/colombia