Israel has launched an attack on Iran aimed at “dozens” of targets including its nuclear facilities, military commanders and scientists, claiming it took unilateral action because Tehran had begun to build nuclear warheads.
As Iranian officials threatened swift retaliation, the Israeli military said on Friday morning that Iran had launched a hundred drones aimed at Israel and that the country’s defences were focused on intercepted them.
The UN conference on the two-state solution offers an historic opportunity for Britain: to stand against the continued erasure of my people
Husam Zomlot is the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom
Future generations will look back on this moment as a turning point, when an unrelenting campaign was waged to erase the Palestinian people, and ask how this was allowed to happen.
How world leaders, faced with a choice between complicity and courage, enabled genocide. How they denied Palestinians our inalienable right to self-determination and return, and chose to support occupation over freedom, apartheid over equality. Today, after decades of appeasement and impunity, Israel has entrenched one of the longest military occupations in modern history, one that seeks not only to control Palestinian life but to extinguish it.
Husam Zomlot is the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom
Making recognition of a Palestinian state subject to ever more conditions will only reinforce a “deadly status quo” and will be seen as siding with an apartheid regime, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK has said.
Writing in the Guardian, Husam Zomlot made an impassioned plea to the Labour government to fulfil a manifesto commitment by recognising Palestine in the run-up to a high-level UN conference on the two-state solution in New York next week.
The tragic drowning of seven women and girls just metres from the port of La Restinga has highlighted the growing number of female migrants crossing to the Canary Islands from west Africa
The four women and three girls were just metres from the pier in the port of La Restinga in El Hierro, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, when they drowned on 28 May. Rescue teams had begun disembarking the first people early that morning when the vessel capsized.
Photos and videos of the chaotic scenes show the boat partially submerged and completely overturned, with several people struggling to swim around it and others trying to climb on to the wrecked boat. Underneath, about 15 women and girls were trapped and fighting to get to the surface. Seven would not make it.
Exclusive: Charities and service providers say six-week timetable is too rushed in letter to equalities watchdog
More than 20 leading charities and service providers have urged the equalities watchdog to extend a consultation to devise guidance on the landmark supreme court ruling about gender, saying the current timetable is too rushed for proper engagement.
In a letter seen by the Guardian, organisations including Refuge, the UK’s largest charity for women affected by domestic abuse, and the mental health charity Mind, say the six-week consultation risked creating “rushed” guidance.
Work by Elizabeth Peyton from 1996 shows ‘quiet tension’ between Noel and Liam at their Oasis peak, expert says
“Where you gonna swim with the riches that you found?” Oasis asked in All Around the World. Maybe in the art market, buying a portrait of Noel and Liam Gallagher at the height of their fame for a possible £2m.
Sotheby’s has announced that a 1996 painting of the brothers by Elizabeth Peyton is to be part of its June contemporary art auction in London.
Video games are the closest you can get to trying a new body for a bit, and when I played as the androgynous Link, I felt subversive and empowered
Growing up steeped in the aggressive gender stereotypes of the 1990s was a real trip for most queer millennials, but I think gamers had it especially hard. Almost all video game characters were hypermasculine military men, unrealistically curvaceous fantasy women wearing barely enough armour to cover their nipples, or cartoon animals. Most of these characters catered exclusively to straight teenage boys (or, I guess, furries); overt queer representation in games was pretty much nonexistent until the mid 2010s. Before that, we had to take what we could get. And what I had was Link, from The Legend of Zelda.
Link is a boy, but he didn’t really look like one. He wore a green tunic and a serious expression under a mop of blond hair. He is the adventurous, mostly silent hero of the Zelda games, unassuming and often vulnerable, but also resourceful, daring and handy with a sword. In most of the early Zelda games, he is a kid of about 10, but even when he grew into a teenager in 1998’s Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64, he didn’t become a furious lump of muscle. He stayed androgynous, in his tunic and tights. As a kid, I would dress up like him for Halloween, carefully centre-parting my blond fringe. Link may officially be a boy, but for me he has always been a non-binary icon.
Ahead of her new film – in which she fights, dives and wrangles horses – the Oscar-winning actor discusses sunburn, age-gaps and hanging from helicopters
Julianne Moore has played some right mothers in her time. There was Amber Waves in Boogie Nights, whose pornography career and cocaine addiction costs her access to her child. Or Maude, the outre artist – “My work has been commended as being strongly vaginal” – whose determination to conceive drives much of in The Big Lebowski. Moore was the infernal, domineering mother – the Piper Laurie role – in the 2013 remake of Carrie, and a lesbian cheating on her partner with the sperm donor who fathered their children in The Kids Are All Right. In May December, the most recent of the five pictures she has made with her artistic soulmate, the director Todd Haynes, she became pregnant by a 13-year-old boy, then married and raised a family with him after her release from prison. Shocking, perhaps, but then she had already played a socialite with incestuous designs on her own son (Eddie Redmayne) in Savage Grace. Imagine that lot as a Mother’s Day box set.
Her latest screen mum is in the jangling new thriller Echo Valley. She has a lot of heavy lifting to do as Kate, a morally compromised rancher whose farm is falling apart, along with her life. Some of that lifting is emotional: Kate left her husband for a woman (“I’m the one who ‘ran off with the lesbo ranch hand’,” she sighs) who then died. To add to her woes, Kate’s daughter (Sydney Sweeney), who has addiction problems, calls on her for help after accidentally throwing away $10,000 worth of drugs belonging to a dealer (Domhnall Gleeson).
It’s made me feel it’s OK to be an artist with a social purpose, though my wife hates the beard
I have spent the first three months of the past six years trying to become the 19th-century designer and activist William Morris. I grow my hair and beard to look like him, while immersing myself in his work.
On 24 March – his birthday – I dress as Morris and finish the quarter with some kind of absurd performance to highlight pressing social issues that he was concerned about, and that I want more people to focus on today.
As Donald Trump deploys more troops to fight protesters in LA, and as plans come together for a military parade in Washington DC on the president’s birthday, journalist Judith Levine tells Jonathan Freedland why she believes the US has entered a new era of authoritarianism
Archive: CBS News, AP, ABC 7 Chicago, ABC News, FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul, FOX 11 LA, NBC News, PBS Newshour
In James Joyce’s Ulysses, the city’s most famous fictional resident was as frustrated by its transport links in 1904 as many of us are today
Ireland’s planning body, An Bord Pleanála, will determine later this year the fate of an ambitious proposal to build the country’s first underground railway. Residents of the Irish capital won’t be holding their breath, however. Since it was first proposed 25 years ago, MetroLink has been cancelled, revived and rebranded. The latest version of the plan, which involves just 18.8km of track, has been subject to delays, costs that have spiralled to five times the original estimate, and fierce opposition from homeowners, heritage bodies and businesses.
A wide-awake city of tech firms, theatres and tourist attractions, Dublin is one of the EU’s richest metropolitan areas; it is also the only large western European capital without a metro. No Dubliner would have been more frustrated with the situation’s absurdities, and MetroLink’s slow progress, than Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Olorato Mongale, allegedly killed by man she went on date with, is latest victim of violence against women
A wave of anger and frustration has gripped South Africa after the murder of 30-year-old Olorato Mongale, allegedly by a man she went on a date with. It is the latest in a series of high-profile cases of violence against women and children in the country.
Friends of Mongale, a former journalist who had been studying for a master’s degree in ICT policy, raised the alarm when she stopped checking in with them while on a date in Johannesburg on 25 May. Her body was found that day.
As Israeli jets struck targets in Iran on Friday morning, the US moved quickly to distance itself from Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to target Tehran in an escalation that threatens an all-out war in the Middle East.
The unilateral strikes indicated a collapse of Donald Trump’s efforts to restrain the Israeli prime minister and almost certainly scuttled Trump’s efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran that would prevent the country from seeking a nuclear weapon.
The film, about a women who dies and whose spirit returns by possessing a vacuum cleaner, explores power and political oppression in Thailand
When Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke became the first Thai director to win the Critics Week’s Grand Prize in May, he paid an unusual tribute. “I would like to dedicate this award to all the ghosts in Thailand,” he told the audience.
Ratchapoom’s film, A Useful Ghost, tells the story of a man whose wife dies after falling ill from dust pollution, and whose spirit returns by possessing a vacuum cleaner. It is a quirky story full of symbolism and dark humour that explores power and political oppression in Thailand.
Iran state media said five people had been killed and 20 wounded.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the attack, dubbed Rising Lion, would take “many days” and was aimed at “rolling back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival”. He suggested the operation could be long and difficult, saying “Israeli citizens may have to remain in sheltered areas for lengthy periods of time.”
Netanyahu said one target was the Natanz nuclear facility, a key site for uranium enrichment.
The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, announced a “special situation” in Israel after the country launched the strikes and said Israel expected retaliation.
Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport was closed until further notice, and Israel’s air defence units stood at high alert.
Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami has been killed in the strikes and the unit’s headquarters in Tehran had been hit. The Revolutionary Guards said Israel will pay a heavy price for its attack.
State TV is reporting that nuclear scientists Fereydoun Abbasi and Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi were also killed.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Israel will receive a harsh punishment after its attack on Iran early on Friday. He confirmed that several commanders and scientists were killed in the attacks – and warned that Israel had “prepared a bitter fate for itself.”
Iran’s foreign ministry said the US – as Israel’s main supporter - will be held responsible for the consequences of “Israel’s adventurism.” In a statement, the ministry said the Israeli attack “exposes global security to unprecedented threat” and calls on the international community to condemn it.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nationshas said Israel has an ongoing dialogue with the United States but its determination to strike Iran was an independent Israeli decision.
Donald Trump has said that Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and that the United States was hoping to get back to the negotiating table, in an interview with a Fox News following the start of Israeli airstrikes on Iran. “Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and we are hoping to get back to the negotiating table. We will see. There are several people in leadership that will not be coming back,” Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin quoted Trump as saying in a post on X.
Trump will attend a national security council meeting on Friday morning, in the wake of the strikes.The meeting will be held at 11am (1500 GMT) on Friday, the White House said.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said the US was not involved in the strikes. “Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defence.”
The UN nuclear watchdog confirmed Friday that Israeli strikes were targeting an Iranian uranium enrichment site, saying it was “closely monitoring the deeply concerning situation”.
Oil prices jumped more than 7% on Friday, hitting their highest in months after Israel said it struck Iran, dramatically escalating tensions in the Middle East and raising worries about disrupted oil supplies.
World leaders have voiced concern over the strikes. New Zealand’s prime minister, Christopher Luxon, said that the Israeli airstrikes on Iran was a “really unwelcome development”. Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the government was “alarmed”.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel had launched Operation Rising Lion, a 'targeted operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival'. Declaring that Iran had recently take steps to weaponise enriched uranium, Netanyahu said Israel had targeted its leading nuclear scientist and main nuclear enrichment and weaponisation facilities. 'This operation will continue for as many days as it takes.'
Ukrainian forces ‘pushing back the occupiers’ says president but prevailing assessments show Russian gains. What we know on day 1,206
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukrainian forces are pushing back against Russian forces in theborder Sumy region where they have established a foothold in recent weeks. “Our units in Sumy region are gradually pushing back the occupiers,” said Ukraine’s president in his nightly video address. “I thank you! Thanks to every soldier, sergeant and officer for this result.”
The Ukrainian president provided no further details and offered no proof of Ukrainian advances in the area, and the claim contradicts prevailing assessments of continued Russian gains in Sumy. Russia has seized over 190 sq km (73 sq miles) of the Sumy region in less than a month, according to pro-Ukrainian open-source maps. They have captured more ground in the past days, advancing to around 20km from the city of Sumy’s northern suburbs and rendering it vulnerable to long-range artillery and drones.
The number of displaced people arriving in Sumy city is increasing, said Kateryna Arisoi, head of Pluriton, an aid organisation running shelters. “So far evacuation has been ordered in more than 200 settlements,” she said. Last week, a Russian rocket attack on Sumy city killed three people and injured 28, including three children, while also damaging several buildings.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said there had been a concentration of Russian men and equipment in Sumy region because of months of military operations across the border in Kursk region. He advised caution to establish details of the situation on the ground. “I think [Ukraine’s] military has the situation under control and I think we shall see a different picture in the coming days.”
Ukrainian police said two people were killed and six were injured in the past 24 hours in the eastern Donetsk region, the focus of the Russian offensive. One person was killed and 14 others were also injured in the southern Kherson region, which is partly occupied by Russian forces, police said. The authorities in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, said 18 people including four children were injured by Russian drone attacks over Wednesday night.
Boris Pistorius on a surprise visit to Kyiv said Germany was not planning to deliver Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine that could allow it to strike deep into Russian territory. Instead, the German defence minister announced €1.9bn in additional military aid. Pistorius underscored that Germany would help Ukraine build its own long-range missile systems and help it finance purchases of homemade material. “The first systems should be available in the coming months,”
Russian has exceeded a million troops killed or wounded in its Ukraine war, according to the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces and western intelligence estimates. The UK defence ministry also announced the figure on Thursday. The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington has called it “a stunning and grisly milestone”.
Zelenskyy said he hoped to press Donald Trump at the G7 summit this weekend to step up sanctions against Russia. The US president said at the White House on Thursday that “I’m very disappointed in Russia, but I’m disappointed in Ukraine also, because I think deals could have been made”. Two weeks ago, Trump indicated he would do something by now if it turned out Putin had been “tapping him along”, but the US president has so far failed to follow through. The US Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, is pushing what he calls a bipartisan “bone-breaking” bill to introduce a 500% tariff on countries buying Russian oil and gas – mostly targeting China and India.
Video appears to show Ryan repeatedly striking horse with whip
The 66-year-old says the incident was part of a ‘rescue mission’
Australian Olympian, Heath Ryan, has been suspended from national and international equestrian competition after a video emerged that appears to show him repeatedly striking a horse with a whip.
Ryan, who represented Australia in dressage at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, acknowledged the video in a post on his Facebook page on Thursday. The 66-year-old defended the incident in his statement as part of a “rescue mission” in rehabilitating a problem horse.
Netanyahu says Iran’s main enrichment facility targeted; Iran state media says five dead in Tehran; IDF reports 100 drones launched toward Israel from Iran
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed the nation, saying the IDF had targted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb.
He said that Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz had been targeted.
This operation will continue for as many days as it takes … We are at a decisive moment in Israel’s history.
Spaun ends with one-stroke lead over Thriston Lawrence
There was a Thursday spell where it felt like Oakmont had poked the bear. Rory McIlroy was two under par, he had fired a drive 392 yards; it seemed the Masters champion had his mojo back. McIlroy has been in uncharted, strange psychological territory since completion of the career grand slam at Augusta National in April.
Oakmont and the US Open then jabbed back in the manner only Oakmont and the US Open know. By the time McIlroy walked from the ninth green, his last, he had taken 74 shots including a second half of 41. He took a double-bogey five at the 8th. McIlroy’s demeanour showed he still cares.
Emergency meeting held with athletes over decision
Decision leaves LA without major meeting this summer
Michael Johnson cancelled the final leg of the new Grand Slam Track series in Los Angeles before an emergency meeting with athletes on Thursday night, leaving the host of the 2028 Olympics and the country’s second-largest city without a major track meeting this summer.
Johnson raised around $30m to launch Grand Slam Track this spring, promising a new way of doing track – involving a group of runners under contract racing twice over a weekend and focusing more on where they finished than actual times. Among the top athletes he signed were Olympic champions Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas, though two other American track stars, Sha’Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles, did not race in the league.
Batter confident despite 218-run deficit in WTC final
Pat Cummins hails ‘brilliant’ Alex Carey for rescue act
The destiny of the mace may still be in the balance but David Bedingham admitted Australia’s bowlers had already “shown they’re the best in the world” in bowling South Africa out for 138 on the second day of the World Test Championship final. Pat Cummins claimed six wickets to put his team in the ascendancy but on a whirligig day of constantly oscillating fortunes, the Proteas promptly bowled themselves back into contention, with Australia reaching stumps on 144 for eight, nursing a lead of 218.
“It’s an amazing chance, and we’re all excited about the opportunity to win,” said Bedingham. “It could go either way but us as a team are very, very excited and there’s a lot of belief in the dressing room. We’re very confident. When they started batting in their second innings we would definitely have taken this score. So very confident, there’s massive belief in this team.”
Video shows Padilla being restrained and ejected as he tries to question homeland security secretary at press event
Alex Padilla, a Democratic California senator and vocal critic of the Trump administration’s immigration polices, was forcibly removed and handcuffed as he attempted to ask a question at a press conference held by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, in Los Angeles on Thursday.
In video taken of the incident that has since gone viral on social media, Padilla is seen being restrained and removed from the room by Secret Service and FBI agents.
In a week that England’s senior side have hardly covered themselves in glory, perhaps the under-21s could make it another memorable summer? While Lee Carsley has played down his youthful squad’s chances of emulating Dave Sexton’s back-to-back triumphs in becoming European champions in 1982 and 1984, a convincing and mature victory over a boisterously backed Czech Republic team hinted that it may not be beyond the realms of possibility.
Goals from Harvey Elliott and Charlie Cresswell sandwiched by another from Jonathan Rowe were enough to allow England to take a commanding position in Group B after brief hopes of a comeback from the Czech Republic. Victory over Slovenia, who were beaten 3-0 by Germany in their opening match, on Sunday would assure a place in the quarter-finals.
Hamilton: ‘There is no question as to where my head is at’
40-year-old is 115 points off lead in world championship
Lewis Hamilton insisted he will be in Formula One for several years as he moved to defend the disappointing start to his Ferrari career. Hamilton described the recent Spanish Grand Prix – where he was ordered by Ferrari to move aside for teammate Charles Leclerc and was then passed by Sauber driver Nico Hülkenberg in the closing laps – as one of the worst races he has ever experienced.
Hamilton is 23 points behind Leclerc, and 115 adrift of the championship leader, Oscar Piastri, before this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix. But speaking on the eve of the race in Montreal, the 40-year-old, who is in the first of a two-season deal with Ferrari, said: “I have literally only just started with this team. I am here for several years and I am in it for the long haul.
Dane joins from Brentford after almost seven years there
He replaces Ange Postecoglou, who was sacked
Tottenham have confirmed the appointment of Thomas Frank as their new manager. The 51-year-old Dane joins from Brentford on a contract that runs until 2028, and succeeds Ange Postecoglou, who delivered Europa League glory to end Spurs’ 17-year trophy drought but was sacked because of dismal results in the Premier League.
Spurs moved to line up Frank before dismissing Postecoglou last Friday, holding talks via intermediaries and plainly keen to avoid a protracted search for the person to lead them forward after a season in which they finished 17th with 38 points. Only once in club history have they had a worse league record – in 1914-15.
Israel has threatened to destroy Tehran’s nuclear programme before, ultimately holding back in absence of Washington’s support
The withdrawal of non-essential US personnel from parts of the Middle East and the anonymously sourced US reports in the past 24 hours that Israel is on the brink of an all-out attack on Iran are all deeply alarming, but they are also familiar.
The Israeli government has approached the same precipice, of a war to destroy Tehran’s nuclear programme, several times in the past two decades, going as far as honing detailed plans and conducting practice air sorties.
Witnesses at a hospital near the impact site described parts of the plane landing on a canteen building as 200 people ate inside
At 9.48am on Thursday, Air India flight 423 took off from New Delhi bound for Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat state, 600 miles south-west. It was an entirely normal day – although hotter than usual for the time of year in north India – and an entirely normal flight, except for the fact that the plane, an 11-year-old Boeing Dreamliner, landed 20 minutes early.
After more than two hours on the tarmac parked at Terminal 2 of the sprawling Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel international airport, captain Sumeet Sabharwal, an experienced pilot, taxied on to the single runway and prepared for takeoff.
Proposals this week to weaken EPA restrictions will help tiny group of owners while ‘the American people will breathe dirtier air’
Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claimed on Wednesday that its plan to eviscerate power plant pollution standards will save the US about $1bn a year. In reality, though, this represents a starkly uneven trade-off, experts say.
The savings for “Americans” will go entirely to power plant operators who won’t have to cut their pollution, while at the same time climate and health benefits for all Americans that are 20 times larger in dollar terms will be deleted.
Russian-born scientist Kseniia Petrova was charged with smuggling after detention at Boston airport in February
A judge released a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos into the US on Thursday, freeing her on bail after a brief hearing.
Kseniia Petrova, 30, who was brought into court wearing an orange jumpsuit, had been in federal custody since February. She was seen walking out of the courthouse laughing and hugging supporters.
With the innocence of a child and the vision of a god, his craft was astonishing. From Jessica Pratt to Jim James and Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil, top musicians explain why he was like no other
For all the sophistication that everyone talks about, Brian never loses the thread of the song: the emotion. They have this childlike quality. These days we’d probably say he’s on the spectrum – there’s a sort of Asperger’s type innocence. He makes the lyrics and the melody speak. It’s so welcoming and without edge; it’s not part of a cynical adult world.
CBP claims in statement that they are ‘providing officer safety surveillance when requested by officers’
Customs and Border Protection is flying surveillance drones over the Los Angeles protests, the agency confirmed in a statement on Thursday. The drones in question are MQ-9 Predators, some models of which are equipped with technology that would enable high-altitude surveillance. In a statement to 404 Media, which first reported the presence of the drones, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the drones were deployed to support “our federal law enforcement partners in the Greater Los Angeles area, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with aerial support of their operations”. Ice conducts raids and arrests, activity that has ramped up under Donald Trump’s administration and against which protesters in Los Angeles have been demonstrating.
CBP also said in a statement that its air and marine operations were “not engaged in the surveillance of first amendment activities”, but that they are “providing officer safety surveillance when requested by officers”.
State says it would challenge president’s resolution, setting up a battle over California’s environmental measures
Donald Trump has blocked California’s first-in-the-nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, signing a resolution on Thursday to stymie the state’s ambitious attempt to tackle the climate crisis by pivoting to greener vehicles.
The state quickly announced it was challenging the move in court, with California’s attorney general holding a news conference to discuss the lawsuit before Trump’s signing ceremony ended at the White House.
The resolution was approved by Congress last month and aims to quash the country’s most aggressive attempt to phase out gas-powered cars. Trump also signed measures to overturn state policies curbing tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.
California has some of the worst smog and air quality issues in the nation, and has for decades been able to seek waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency that have allowed the state to adopt stricter emissions standards than the federal government.
Pressure grows for snap election as judge finds ‘firm evidence’ of Santos Cerdán’s possible role in kickbacks
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has apologised to voters but ruled out a snap election after a senior member of his Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) resigned hours after a supreme court judge found “firm evidence” of his possible involvement in taking kickbacks on public construction contracts.
Diplomacy can do more to slow Tehran’s alarming progress than threats from Israel
A year into his first term, Donald Trump pulled the US out of the hard-won international deal that had slowed Iran’s advance towards nuclear weapons, and imposed punishing sanctions. Europe tried to keep the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA) on life support. But the strangling of Iran’s economy, and the US assassination of Qassem Suleimani, the powerful head of its Quds force, undermined the country’s moderates and the progress on non-proliferation.
The fallout of Mr Trump’s Iran policy is still becoming evident. On Thursday, the UN nuclear watchdog found, for the first time in two decades, that Tehran was not in compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Iran vowed to “significantly” increase production of enriched uranium in retaliation, following a pattern of escalation in response to International Atomic Energy Agency criticism. US and European officials say that Israel appears ready to strike its adversary’s nuclear facilities. Fear of the consequences reportedly drove the US decision to withdraw non-essential diplomatic personnel from Iraq, Bahrain and Kuwait.
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After nine years of delay, it was high time that Britain and Europe sorted out the future of the Rock
Nine years ago, Gibraltar voted by 96% to 4% to remain in the European Union. However, the UK’s simultaneous 52% to 48% leave vote meant Gibraltarians were denied their own will. As the only British overseas territory sharing a land frontier with the EU’s border-free Schengen travel area, and as the focus of a territorial dispute with Spain dating from 1713, this change threatened Gibraltar’s position with a new impasse. The economy of the Rock, heavily dependent on the 15,000 mainly low-wage Spanish residents who routinely cross the border to work there each day, faced an existential danger.
Since 2016, officials from Gibraltar, Britain, Spain and the EU have intermittently attempted to resolve the problems. For years, the process was glacial, and occasionally petulant. In Boris Johnson’s rush to leave the EU, the issue was simply ignored. As recently as 2023, a hard border between Gibraltar and Spain was said to be unavoidable. This week, however, a much better deal was finally sorted. Though the detailed text has yet to be published, it appears to offer the kind of frictionless border crossing on which Gibraltar and the surrounding area depend, as well as being emblematic of the pragmatic reset with Europe being pursued by Sir Keir Starmer’s government.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Pam Bondi says state employing policies similar to those used by California amid immigration crackdown
The US justice department said on Thursday that it had filed a lawsuit against New York state, challenging state policies that blocked immigration officials from arresting individuals at or near New York courthouses.
“Specifically, the complaint challenges a law, called the Protect Our Courts Act, that purposefully shields dangerous aliens from being lawfully detained at or on their way to or from a courthouse and imposes criminal liability for violations of the shield,” the justice department said in a statement.
Saudi-backed streaming superpower’s TV deal for Fifa’s global project is next expansionist step towards a world super league
“And what exactly are you doing here, sir?” To be fair, the border guard at Miami international airport made an excellent point. As ice-breakers go, frowning over the passports and visa stickers of the long-haul crowd on matchday minus four of the Fifa Club World Cup, the border guard was at least in tune with the zeitgeist. What is football doing here?
What are Lionel Messi, Trent Alexander-Arnold and the massed engines of the football-industrial complex doing hovering like an alien landing party over this fun, sinking sandbank of a city, a strip of land where the ocean seems to be punching a mulchy green hole in the asphalt every few miles, a place that from the air seems to be made entirely from deep-fried crumb, tropical weed and traffic?
Connexion
