WORLD

• Iran's economy nearly stagnated in 2025, recording a marginal growth rate of only 0.2% while non-oil GDP experienced a contraction. • The slowdown is attributed to a series of conflicts, including a 12-day war with Israel in the summer and a 40-day conflict involving the U.S. and Israel in the winter, alongside January's nationwide protests. • Long-term structural crises, including severe international sanctions, chronic corruption, mismanagement, and declining investment, have further crippled economic activity.

• The conflict in Iran has exposed the severe vulnerabilities of Asia's energy dependence, transforming a fragile situation into an economic emergency. • The Asian Development Bank warns that if oil prices remain around $96 per barrel for the year, GDP growth could drop by 0.7 percentage points in 2026. • The crisis has caused significant damage to household budgets, government finances, and overall economic growth across the region, with inflation projected to rise to 5.2 percent.

• Iran and the United States have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to end the conflict in West Asia and ensure the Strait of Hormuz remains open. • As part of the agreement, fighting in Lebanon is set to cease to address the escalating humanitarian crisis in the region. • Following the deal, eleven India-bound ships have successfully transited through the Strait of Hormuz, restoring critical maritime trade routes.

• A new book titled "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump" reveals that a former cabinet member referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a "special needs child for the Europeans." • The comments reportedly surfaced during a meeting focused on discussing a proposed minerals deal between the United States and Ukraine. • This disclosure highlights the contentious nature of the Trump administration's internal views toward Ukrainian leadership and its allies in Europe.

• On June 23, 2026, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian declared that Iran will not engage in negotiations regarding its ballistic missile program. • This stance comes amidst an ongoing conflict involving the United States and Israel, signaling a hardening of Tehran's position on its strategic weaponry. • The refusal to negotiate is significant as it removes a key potential lever for diplomatic resolution or ceasefire agreements between the warring parties.

• President Donald Trump has dismissed claims that no visits are scheduled for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, insisting that Iran has already agreed to increased nuclear inspections. • This diplomatic tension occurs alongside ongoing military conflict, as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon continues despite a renewed ceasefire agreement reached on Friday. • The situation highlights a critical juncture in international security, balancing the monitoring of Iran's nuclear capabilities with the volatility of Middle Eastern regional warfare.

In this week’s newsletter: As the EU consolidates,​ t​he UK faces renewed debate ​over the long‑term shape of its relationship with the continent• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe morning of 24 June 2016, the day after Britain voted to leave the EU, dawned grey and overcast in Brussels, after a stormy night. As the Guardian’s correspondent in the city, after a few hours’ sleep, I hurried to a breakfast briefing with Conservative MEPs at a smart hotel in the EU quarter. Large trays of eggs, sausages and beans were barely touched, as MEPs fielded questions they couldn’t answer: What happens now? When would the UK leave? Would David Cameron resign? A few hours later he did.In the EU institutions officials broke down in tears. A few top British EU civil servants prepared to resign. Anti-EU populists were jubilant. European leaders feared a domino effect of withdrawals. Sadness, shock and anger swirled on that humid day. The then-president of the European parliament, Martin Schulz, told me that EU lawyers were studying whether it was possible to speed up the triggering of article 50, the then-obscure and untested EU exit clause. Then European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker declared he would like to get Brexit negotiations started “immediately”. The idea of hurrying Britain out the door was soon dropped, but those statements reflected the febrile mood. Continue reading...

Jonathan Anderson’s golden touch is on display in Paris with mix of metallics, brooches and ripped jeansFashion brands were tuned to the weather forecast in Paris in the run-up to the menswear shows this week – and aware temperatures would reach 40C on Wednesday. This weekend a decision was made – the Christian Dior show, originally scheduled for the afternoon, would be moved to 9am, to avoid the heat of the day.The change in time certainly made the experience more palatable – as did (in possibly a fashion-week first) the cool towels handed to guests on arrival, umbrellas to block out the sun and personalised fans on seats. Taking place in the grounds of the grand Musée Nissim de Camondo, which is under renovation to reopen in 2030, those in the garden even had the benefit of the occasional breeze. Continue reading...

Makerfield MP considering northern base for PM’s office as part of measures to devolve power away from LondonUK politics live – latest updatesAndy Burnham is planning to move parts of the No 10 operation to Manchester as part of measures to devolve power away from London.The Makerfield MP will say next week he wants to transfer parts of the prime minister’s office to the north should he become prime minister later this year. Continue reading...

Bahrain Mujagata is just 21 years old and balances taxi driving with university studies and acting classes“I’ve got T-shirts older than you!” The joke draws laughter from a table of black-cab drivers gathered in the Astral cafe on Regency Place in Westminster. Around the table, cabbies swap stories accumulated over decades behind the wheel: picking up the England World Cup hero Geoff Hurst, ferrying senior politicians around London, and navigating the capital long before smartphones and satnavs existed.At just 21, Bahrain Mujagata is an anomaly among them. In late 2025, he became London’s youngest licensed black-cab driver after completing the Knowledge – the notoriously demanding test of the capital’s streets – in just two years and five months. Most candidates take three to four years to qualify, according to Transport for London. Continue reading...

Gen Christopher Donahue, commander of forces in Europe and Africa, is leaving after just 18 months in the jobThe army’s commander of its forces in Europe and Africa – who was famously the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan in 2021 – is unexpectedly stepping down from his post after just 18 months in the job, the Army confirmed late Tuesday.Gen Christopher Donahue, commanding general of US Army Europe and Africa and commander of Nato’s Allied Land Command, will relinquish his command on 2 July, according to an army statement provided to the Associated Press. He is the latest in a line of nearly two dozen top military leaders to either retire or depart their jobs early under the leadership of the defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who has undertaken an effort to thin the ranks of the military’s top brass with the mantra “less generals, more GIs”. Continue reading...

Local sheriff’s office appealed for citizens to keep their eye out for Gracie’s ‘rounded ears’ – to distinguish from any other missing giraffesFor almost two weeks, residents of a rural Texas county have been looking, mostly up, for a missing giraffe called Gracie that wandered off from a private game ranch.On Wednesday, it appeared the free-roaming mammal’s odyssey was over, after it was reportedly found safe a “little farther out than expected” from its hill country home. Continue reading...

Camp owners said total debt exceeds $10m in chapter 11 filing after catastrophic flood last JulyCamp Mystic, the Christian summer camp in Texas where 28 people died in a catastrophic flood last July, has filed for bankruptcy, according to court records.In a Chapter 11 filing, submitted Wednesday in the southern district of Texas, the camp’s owners said that the camp’s total debt “exceeds $10m”. Continue reading...

Miranda and Eisa Davis’s concept album based on the 1979 film is to be realised for the stage, co-directed by Jenny Koons and Hamilton’s Andy BlankenbuehlerLin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis’s concept album based on The Warriors, the cult novel and film about warring New York gangs, is to become a Broadway musical next year.The album, Warriors, was released to critical acclaim in 2024 and followed the eponymous Coney Island clan’s odyssey back to the Bronx after being falsely accused of killing the leader of the city’s biggest gang. The original story was written by Sol Yurick, whose 1965 book was inspired by Xenophon’s ancient epic Anabasis, and it became a Walter Hill action film in 1979. Continue reading...

Woman posed as sex worker and drugged men in order to steal from them with accompliceA woman posed as a sex worker and administered a deadly amount of sedative to two men so that she and an accomplice could steal from them.Adina Mihai, 31, and Madalin Dumitru, 30, admitted the manslaughter of an 80-year-old Gloucestershire man and a 37-year-old from Oxfordshire. Continue reading...

Interim report says other train it hit had halted on line because warning system wrongly caused it to brakeThe train whose driver died in the Bedford rail crash passed a danger signal and was not automatically stopped – while the train it hit had halted on the line because its warning system had wrongly caused it to brake, investigators believe.An initial report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch into the crash, which killed a train driver and injured more than 100 people, said it was not yet clear whether the train’s automatic warning system alerted the driver of the southbound Luton airport express from Corby that he had passed a red signal. Continue reading...

The New York Knicks might have won in five, but the city’s mayor did it in three: a trio of candidates backed by Mamdani appear set to land seats in US CongressUS politics live – latest updatesA man or a movement? That was the question being asked when Zohran Mamdani gambled his political capital on Tuesday’s elections in New York.The answer from voters was emphatic: they prefer Mamdani and his brand of democratic socialism to the Democratic party establishment and its lukewarm version of capitalism. America’s biggest city has swung even further to the left. Continue reading...

Rights activists call UK ambassador ‘morally compromised’ for accepting honour from Bahraini king in apparent breach of Foreign Office rulesThe British ambassador to Bahrain has been accused of breaching government rules over accepting an award by the Gulf state’s king, a move critics suggest signals diplomats and civil servants are “up for grabs”.This week, the ambassador, Alastair Long, received the Order of Bahrain from King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, in recognition of his diplomatic tenure, which human rights activists and politicians say is in “direct breach” of the Foreign Office’s rules on accepting foreign awards. Continue reading...