Crude oil futures held steady on Friday as mixed U.S. economic news offset worries the European Union's latest sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine could reduce oil supplies.

Through sanctions and intimidation, the United States and Israel are chipping away at their foundations and attacking their representatives.

The 27 EU member states have agreed an 18th sanctions package targeting Russia for invading Ukraine after being blocked for weeks by Slovakia. The sanctions are intended to further reduce Russian revenues from the export of oil to non-EU countries and impact the Russian financial sector.

Secretary Rubio and European foreign ministers set an August deadline for Iran's nuclear deal, which could trigger the snapback mechanism reimposing all U.N. sanctions.

Kaja Kallas, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs, during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on July 15, 2025. YVES HERMAN/REUTERS After six weeks of debate, the 27 EU member states reached agreement on Friday,

In a coordinated move with the United States and the Israeli regime, European foreign ministers issued threats against Iran over the nuclear issue, despite years of failing to uphold their own commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

France, Britain and Germany told Iran on Thursday that they wanted Tehran to resume diplomacy immediately over its nuclear programme and warned if there were no concrete steps by the end of the summer they would restore U.

A U.S. diplomat briefed U.N. member states on a recent report by an international North Korea sanctions monitoring team at the U.N. in New York on Thursday, focusing on military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang,