Trump signals tougher stance as US-Iran deal talks intensify

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar held a joint press availability at the State Department in Washington on May 25, signaling continued high-level US-India engagement. • The meeting comes as Washington and New Delhi manage trade, security, and Indo-Pacific coordination, with the two governments seeking to keep diplomatic channels active on strategic issues.

Figures raise questions over ministers’ plans to raise qualifying period for settled status from five years to 10Higher-earning immigrants are less likely to remain in the UK long-term and could be further deterred from staying by the government’s planned crackdown on settlement rights, analysis has revealed.A report from the Migration Advisory Committee’s , Who Stays, Who Leaves?, follows about 900,000 journeys between 2014 and 2024. Continue reading...

Alan Milburn, who is leading review commissioned by government, says current strategy ‘going in wrong direction’Labour has failed to tackle soaring youth unemployment and must launch a “system reset” involving a fresh attempt to overhaul health and disability benefits, a report commissioned by the government is to warn.Alan Milburn, who is leading a review into why almost a million young people are not in education or work, said ministers had so far responded with a series of disjointed jobs programmes. Continue reading...

Tom Kopke, from Germany, out-tumbled local hero Chris Anderson to win his third roll on hot day in GloucestershireIt was billed as the great cheese-off; a helter-skelter, bone-jarring downhill race between the all-time champ and a young upstart.After the hype and hyperbole, youth won out, as the 24-year-old German YouTuber Tom Kopke beat 38-year-old local hero Chris Anderson at the annual cheese-rolling event in the English West Country. Continue reading...

Region adapting to diminished US power after Washington fails to land knockout blow on Tehran or safeguard alliesMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe shock of the Iran war and its fallout has driven rivals in the Middle East to get behind a peace deal, pushing the Trump administration to accept a tentative agreement in the face of furious opposition from Israel and its supporters in Washington.The diplomatic efforts come as the region is reshaping to adapt to diminished US power after Washington’s inability to land a knockout blow on Iran, force the opening of the Strait of Hormuz or safeguard its Gulf allies. Tehran has few friends in the region, but the regime’s survival has meant that its neighbours have had to find an accommodation. Continue reading...

Tehran says ‘contradictory statements’ from US and Israeli interference hindering negotiationsIran 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 key factors in why a complete 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 reach agreement on, and that it was not tolls that were being proposed but “fees for navigational services”. Continue reading...

US officials hope damaged tank at California aerospace site will relieve pressure and avert blast riskA damaged chemical tank in southern California cracked over the weekend, which authorities were hopeful would relieve pressure and reduce the risk of an explosion.Some 50,000 residents in Garden Grove, a city of roughly 170,000 about 40 miles (60km) south of downtown Los Angeles, have been evacuated and are waiting for a resolution. Continue reading...

Scientists say record-breaking heat is a reminder of how climate crisis is affecting livesThe fierce heat sweeping Europe over the bank holiday weekend has beaten the UK’s all-time temperature record for May, with highs of up to 35C still to come on Monday afternoon.A temperature of 33.5C was recorded at London’s Heathrow on Monday lunchtime, according to provisional data from the Met Offfice, beating the previous May record that was set in Camden Square in 1922 and reached again in Tunbridge Wells and Regent’s Park in 1944. Continue reading...

Brent crude futures down 5.5% to lowest level in two weeks and stock markets riseOil prices have fallen below $100 a barrel and stock markets have risen on hopes that the US and Iran are inching closer to a peace deal.Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, were down 5.5% to just below $98 a barrel, the lowest levels in two weeks, with hopes that an agreement to end the US-Israeli war on Iran can be struck. Continue reading...

Links between Trump Organization and Ivanishvili family for Tbilisi skyscraper raise new conflict of interest concernsA 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. Continue reading...

Ever-growing influence of social media and AI means such ideas spreading at faster rates than before, experts sayHantavirus and Ebola outbreaks carry with them familiar attendants in the US: extreme conspiracy theories about a planned pandemic, or “plandemic”, designed to upend midterms elections or push new vaccines or any one of a myriad of wild ideas.Ebola, which the World Health Organization warned Friday is spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and poses a “very high” risk at the national level. In the upside-down world of conspiracy theories it could be a bioweapon, a financial plot, or a scheme to extract national resources. Continue reading...