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Good morning from the newsroom of the Financial Times.

Today is Friday, June 14th, and this is your FT news briefing.

Crude oil prices surged on Thursday on fears of an escalation of tensions between the US and Iran.

Brussels says Russian sources mounted a disinformation effort during last month's EU Parliament

elections and attention in the UK leadership stakes turns to

the second round after Boris Johnson emerged as the frontrunner to be Britain's next Prime Minister. Plus the Women's World Cup has kicked off in France.

The F.T.'s Shona Jenkins explains why 2019 could be a pivotal year for women's

football. I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you need to start

your day. The price of Brent crude oil jumped as much as 4.5% on Thursday as the US blamed

Iran for attacks in the Gulf of Oman that damaged two oil tankers.

While prices eased back from their highs, the oil benchmark still ended the day up 2.2 percent at more than $61 a barrel.

One of the damaged tankers was Japanese-owned, and the other belonged to a Norwegian group.

As of Thursday night, no one had claimed responsibility for the attacks, but U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo singled out Iran.

Iran is lashing out because the regime wants our successful maximum pressure

campaign lifted.

No economic sanctions.

Entitled the Islamic Republic to attack innocent civilians,

disrupt global oil markets, and engage in nuclear blackmail.

But a spokesperson for the Iranian mission to the UN said it rejected the claim

that it was responsible for the attacks. Japanese Prime Minister

...