Editor's Note: Some linked articles may be behind subscription paywalls.
1. Oil prices climb once again as Middle East tensions flare
U.S. President Donald Trump has said the ceasefire deal with Iran is now "over" with a new round of Iranian attacks on the Strait of Hormuz. Predictably, the news sent oil prices once again upward, The Wall Street Journal reports.
“To me, I think it’s over, I don’t want to deal with them anymore,” Trump said at a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
Brent crude jumped 5% on the news of renewed conflict while stock prices dropped in early trading.
2. EU resisted calls to delay biometric screening
Long lines have grown to be the norm at European airports this travel season. Leaders of the European Union have so far not listened to calls to delay the rollout of a biometric screening program pointed to as part of the problem, The New York Times reports.
"The Entry/Exit System, or E.E.S., requires members of the 29-country Schengen open-border area to collect biometrics like face photos and fingerprints from travelers upon arrival and to confirm their identities upon exit," the newspaper reports. "Since the system took full effect in April, airports and airlines have reported widespread chaos — including hourslong security checkpoint lines and confusion over procedures — and have feared the headaches could worsen as peak travel season begins."
3. Hotel companies urged to update cybersecurity training
While all the tech talk recently has revolved around artificial intelligence, Charlestowne Hotels Vice President of Technology Max Spangler said hoteliers need to focus on separating hype from reality, CoStar News' Natalie Harms reports.
"Most of what people hear about AI right now is either too broad or too vague. The useful version is actually much more specific, and it helps with the first version of work — drafting, summarizing, comparing, rewriting, organizing, analyzing and getting unstuck — and that's what we constantly are telling our team member," he said on the latest episode of the "CoStar News Hotels Podcast."
One very real area AI is changing things is the elevation of risk with cybersecurity attacks, and Spangler said hotel companies must up their training in response.
"If you just take phishing emails as an example, the old warning signs are completely disappearing," he said. "We're modifying our training as a result [from just advising] people to look for bad grammar, strange wording, typos, obvious red flags in phishing emails because that advice isn't enough anymore."
4. Three Australian hotels trade in $347 million deal
Redcape Hotel Group has announced a portfolio acquisition of three hotels and four other assets in New South Wales for 500 million Australian dollars ($347.1 million), CoStar News' Terence Baker reports.
The largest hotel involved in the deal is the 104-room QT Newscastle, a luxury property in Newscastle, New South Wales, a coastal city roughly 100 miles northeast of Sydney.
The seller is Iris Capital Properties.
5. Four Seasons' mega yacht experience disembarks in Mediterranean
As more luxury hotel and travel companies look to carve out a piece of the cruise space for themselves, The New York Times reports the Four Seasons' latest offering — the 679-foot Four Seasons I mega yacht — recently set sail in the Mediterranean.
The ships carries roughly 200 passengers with 95 suites, 11 dining venues, four pools and a wellness spa.
The newspaper notes other luxury hotel brands in the space include Ritz-Carlton, Orient Express and Aman.
"While the global cruise industry is experiencing record demand, with 37.2 million passengers in 2025, these companies are initially targeting non-cruisers and counting on brand loyalty to coax hotel guests to sea, with suites that start at $31,000 and go up to over $200,000," the Times reports. "The draw? A familiar, lavish ecosystem that guarantees the comfort of a luxury hotel, far from crowded hot spots on land."