EU could deny new member states veto rights as bloc pushes for enlargement

• Diplomacy between Tehran and Washington has accelerated after weeks of escalation, with regional mediators helping drive a new round of Iran-U.S. talks. • The reporting says the confrontation follows more than six weeks of disruption tied to Iran’s pressure on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and a U.S.-enforced naval blockade.

• The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosted a press briefing previewing the upcoming summit between President Trump and Xi Jinping, with Taiwan expected to be a central issue. • CSIS said Xi highlighted Taiwan as the most important issue in U.S.-China relations during a February 2026 phone call and urged Washington not to provide arms to Taiwan.

Internet monitors unsure if political or technical issues behind delay after access was cut off during anti-government protests in JanuaryMiddle East crisis – live updatesAn Iranian government announcement on Tuesday that an 88-day internet blackout was being brought to an end did not have any immediate noticeable impact, according to internet monitors.It was not clear if technical or political issues were delaying the end of the clampdown, the longest in Iran’s history, which was imposed during brutally suppressed protests in January. Continue reading...

Runoff between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton features ads and legal disputes targeting Texas MuslimsIn the bitter and expensive US Senate runoff between John Cornyn, the incumbent, and Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, the state’s Muslim community has been a frequent target for campaign ads and legal challenges.Both candidates have tried to portray the other as either too soft on the supposed threat of Islam or insufficiently aggressive toward Muslim institutions. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer announces review after three boys were given youth rehabilitation orders for rape of two girlsThe court of appeal will review the non-custodial sentences given to three teenage boys for the rape of two girls, Keir Starmer has announced.The boys, two of whom were 15 and one aged 14 at the time of sentencing, were given youth rehabilitation orders after the judge in the case said he wanted to “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily” and support their reintegration into society. Continue reading...

Vote for Republican nomination is latest test of President’s grip over GOPHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.Texans are voting for a Republican nominee for US Senate in Tuesday’s runoff election, following Donald Trump’s late bid to influence the race in his latest effort to rid the GOP of less devoted leaders.Iran has poured cold water on suggestions that a deal with the US is imminent, pointing to the confusion in US positions and Israeli interference as reasons why an agreement is proving difficult to secure. Speaking at the weekly foreign ministry press briefing, Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s negotiating team, also said future management of the strait of Hormuz was a matter for Oman and Iran to agree on, and that it was not tolls that were being proposed but “fees for navigational services”.By contrast, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that a deal was still possible, adding that the strait of Hormuz would open “one way or another”. “There were some talks going on in Qatar today, so we’ll see if we can make progress. I think it’s a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document,” Rubio told reporters in Jaipur during an official visit to India.A Trump Tower planned for the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, is to be built on land currently part-owned by the son of the US-sanctioned leader of the country, according to official records. The proposed skyscraper, a joint venture between a local consortium and the Trump Organization, which is managed by the US president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, will be on a plot whose current registered owner is the International Charity Fund Cartu.Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said on Monday her government agreed to allow the Iranian national football team to stay in Mexico during the World Cup, adding that the United States did not want to host the team. Sheinbaum said football’s governing body Fifa approached her government after the US said it did not want Iran’s squad to stay in the country throughout the tournament, despite Iran playing all three of its group matches there. Continue reading...

Scandal-plagued Ken Paxton has won Trump’s backing – can he defeat John Cornyn in a high-stakes primary runoff? Ken Paxton, the state attorney general, takes on four-term incumbent John Cornyn on Tuesday in the ugliest primary election of the year. The winner of the Republican Senate runoff in Texas will contest November’s general election against Democrat James Talarico.Paxton and Cornyn have spent months coveting the most valuable endorsement in Republican politics: Donald Trump. Last week, scandal-plagued Paxton got it, with the US president describing him as “a true Maga warrior”. Continue reading...

Broadcaster describes Robert Kenyon, who is standing in the upcoming Makerfield byelection, as a misogynist and a ‘cowardly man’ Carol Vorderman has demanded an apology from the Reform UK candidate in the upcoming Makerfield byelection for “disgusting comments” he made about her on social media in the past.The broadcaster and former Countdown numbers expert described Robert Kenyon, who Reform have backed to face Andy Burnham in next month’s vote, as a “cowardly man” for a series of offensive posts made by the Wigan councillor that have since been deleted, along with his account. Continue reading...

Kingfisher, owner of the DIY chain, is top FTSE 100 riser after it says it will stick to full-year profit outlookBusiness live – latest updatesA wet and cold Easter hit sales of barbecues and garden products at the home improvement chain B&Q, but it hopes to make up lost ground during the current heatwave.B&Q owner Kingfisher, which also owns Screwfix in the UK, as well as Castorama and Brico Dépôt across six European countries, said like-for-like sales (at outlets open at least a year) in the UK and Ireland dipped 0.9% between February and April, its first quarter. Within that, B&Q sales fell 4.1% while Screwfix revenue climbed 4.1%. Continue reading...

Five of the deaths were by drowning while two people died competing in sporting eventsSeven people have died in France in an extreme early-summer heat event that is affecting a swathe of western Europe, as France and the UK set record highs for May and temperatures were forecast to rise further on Tuesday.“What I can say today is that there have been seven deaths linked directly or indirectly to the heat,” the government spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, told French television TF1, adding that five of the deaths were by drowning. Continue reading...

Trump campaign accelerating climate crisis as officials move migrants to detention jails and deport them from USUS immigration enforcement flights are producing hundreds of thousands of metric tonnes of climate-damaging carbon emissions as officials shuttle unprecedented numbers of people to detention centers far from home and deport them to countries across the world.Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign has spurred at least an 80% increase in such flights year over year, accelerating the climate crisis by emitting massive amounts of carbon dioxide, according to data analysis shared exclusively with the Guardian. Continue reading...