Middle East Energy and Geopolitical Tensionsactive

Government seeks to shore up Australia’s supply of diesel, fertiliser and other critical goods. Follow today’s news live Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Prime minister Anthony Albanese and foreign minister Penny Wong will visit Brunei and Malaysia this week as the government seeks to shore up Australia’s supply of diesel, fertiliser and other critical goods in the wake of shortages ccaused by the US-Israel war on Iran. Albanese will travel first to Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei on Tuesday for a meeting with the sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, to discuss “energy, food security, and the flow of essential goods between our countries,” according to the PM’s office. Continue reading...

The move sets off a high-stakes war of attrition that will test who has the higher threshold for pain—Tehran or global markets.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was instrumental in taking the U. S. to war with Iran. Now, he is trying to prolong the fighting.

"Drone attacks also originating from the United Kingdom and other countries." Pasdaran (Iranian Revolutionary Guard): "You will end up trapped." Putin offers mediation.

Vice President JD Vance's negotiations in Pakistan with Iran failed to end the war, but progress was reported in building positive relationships.

The U.S. President, Donald Trump, warned this Sunday that he will impose a 50% tariff on imports from any country that helps Iran with shipments of military material, specifically mentioning China as a target of this retaliation. "I've heard reports, although I don't always believe the news, that China is providing shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. I don't know if that's accurate. I doubt they would do that. Maybe they did it at the beginning," Trump stated in an interview with Fox News. "If we catch any country, including China, providing military material to Iran, they will face a 50% tariff," the U.S. President emphasized. Trump also suggested that if China wants oil, it can send its ships to the United States to buy it from them. "As for China, China can send its ships. China can send its ships to Venezuela... We have a lot of excess production, and we would probably sell it to them even for less money," he indicated. In fact, Trump highlighted that he has a "very good relationship" with the Chinese President, Xi Jinping. "We work very well together," he emphasized before arguing that they have been "tough, but fair" with Beijing. He then recalled the tariffs imposed on Chinese cars and argued that if he hadn't done so, it would be like in Europe, where "they are destroying Europe because they are taking a large share of the business from Mercedes, BMW,..."

Will the Iran-US truce lead to peace, or more war?

DUBLIN — Ireland’s government announced more than €500 million in tax cuts on motor fuel on Sunday in an attempt to placate protesters snarling key ports and roadways. Prime Minister Micheál Martin announced the cuts hours after police successfully cleared protesters from the ports of Galway and Foynes in western Ireland as well as on Dublin’s central boulevard, O’Connell Street, which tractors and trucks had blocked since Tuesday. The clearances came a day after police backed by soldiers broke a similar blockade of the country’s only oil refinery at Whitegate in County Cork. But Martin rejected suggestions that the package, worth an estimated €505 million, represented a reward for the wildcat protesters, who had rejected the diplomatic approach advocated by Ireland’s official trucking and farming organizations. Martin stressed he had negotiated Sunday’s benefits in cooperation with those officials — and would not speak directly to “unelected” protest leaders. “It’s beyond comprehension that we were on the precipice of losing oil refining capacity in the country in the middle of an unprecedented global supply shortage of energy,” Martin said. “It makes absolutely no sense what was going on.” But the premier conceded that the package might not end the protests, which have been organized largely on social media apps and platforms. Several scattered road blockades, largely targeting rural motorways, continued Sunday. “We haven’t any guarantees of what protesters may or may not do,” Martin said. The government’s advisory National Emergency Coordination Group warned Sunday that much of the economy and public services, including health care, would face heightened disruption this week even if the protesters end all road obstructions now. Sunday’s package will be subject to the passage of emergency legislation Tuesday — the same day the main opposition Sinn Féin party will bring a motion of no confidence in the government over its handling of fuel taxes and the past week’s street standoffs. The new government plans further excise tax cuts of 10 cents per liter on gasoline and diesel effective midnight Tuesday, Martin said at his press conference. Those reductions come on top of cuts introduced last month — before any street disorder — of 15 cents on gasoline and 20 cents on diesel. Those initial cuts had been supposed to expire at the end of May, but like Sunday’s additional cuts will now run until the end of July — by which time, the government hopes, the current spike in oil prices over the Iran war will have eased. The government also agreed to delay the next scheduled hike in carbon taxes, which are levied on fuel alongside excise charges. The planned May 1 hike now won’t happen until November, Martin said. Foreign Minister Simon Harris, who spoke alongside Martin, said Ireland would seek, and expected to receive, European Commission approval for the temporary higher discount on diesel excise tax. Farmers and truckers have been particularly exposed to higher diesel costs, triggered by the U. S.-Israeli war on Iran and Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial thoroughfare for oil.

“This is not our war.” That phrase, used by some European leaders to explain why they have refused to send forces to join America and Israel in their attacks on Iran, has become notorious in Donald Trump’s White House and has put the future of the transatlantic alliance in fresh danger. The Iran conflict is […] The post Five emerging themes for the Indo-Pacific from Trump’s Iran war appeared first on Asia Times.

Pressure mounts on Californian, who denies rape claims, and on Texan Tony Gonzales, who had affair with staffer who died by suicide Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox A growing number of Congress members from both parties have called for Eric Swalwell, a Democratic US representative and candidate for California governor, to resign his seat this weekend, following reported allegations of inappropriate behavior, sexual assault and rape. Swalwell has denied the allegations, but he may not get the chance to quit before his colleagues expel him. Polarized Congress members appear to be eyeing an opportunity to rid themselves of both Swalwell and disgraced Republican US representative Tony Gonzales of Texas, who acknowledged having an extramarital affair with a staffer who later died by suicide. Continue reading...

During a prisoner exchange, Yevhenii Demchuk, a marine from the village of Lvove in the Kherson region, has returned to Ukraine after spending four years in captivity.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israeli forces had eliminated the threat of an invasion by Hezbollah militants during a visit to troops in southern Lebanon. His visit comes two days before officials from Lebanon, Israel and the United States are due to hold direct talks in Washington. “The war continues, including within the security zone in Lebanon,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office, which showed him wearing a flak jacket and surrounded by masked...

US President Donald Trump on Sunday announced a military blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as Vice President JD Vance’s negotiating team failed to gain the trust of Iranian counterparts, who have been burned by the United States before and are loath to surrender sovereignty over their nuclear program. Trump announced in an early morning post on his Truth Social network […] The post Trump announces closure of Hormuz Strait as Iran talks falter appeared first on Asia Times.

Iranian officials stated that while Iran had approached the negotiations in good faith, the U.S. team had failed to earn the trust of the Iranian delegation.

Iran warns move would breach ceasefire as US president also repeats threats to strike critical infrastructure Donald Trump has said the US will begin blockading the strait of Hormuz in an attempt to take control of the strategic waterway from Iran in the aftermath of failed peace negotiations between the countries in Pakistan. The US president also threatened to bomb Iran’s water treatment facilities as well as its power plants and bridges, repeating an earlier threat, if Tehran did not agree to abandon its nuclear weapons programme – the key sticking point between the two sides. Continue reading...

FIFA President Gianni Infantino may be the only person left on earth who thinks he can reconcile the competing interests of Tehran and Washington. As American and Iranian leaders abandoned failed peace negotiations in Islamabad, Infantino is already weeks into his own shuttle diplomacy between the two warring nations. The head of soccer’s governing body is attempting to navigate between a country that doesn’t want to play on United States soil and a co-host that says he “doesn’t care” if the team does. Iran was among the first nations to win a spot in the tournament to be held across North America but since President Donald Trump began waging war against the country one month ago, its leaders are openly questioning whether their national team will participate. The country’s sports minister has demanded matches scheduled for Los Angeles and Seattle be relocated to sites in Mexico, a request that FIFA denied this week. “Gianni’s going to have to do two things,” said a North American soccer official granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters within FIFA. “One: Convince Trump that it’s fine for Iran to play. And two: Convince Iran to be comfortable playing in the United States. The other options create a lot of dominos that would fall afterwards.” The standoff represents the biggest geopolitical challenge yet for Infantino, who has worked industriously to cultivate a close relationship with U. S. leadership at the potential expense of his support from FIFA’s 210 other member nations. Some within FIFA, including Secretary General Mattias Grafström, already found Infantino’s strategy to personally woo Trump excessive, according to two people familiar with the dynamics at the highest levels of the soccer governing body. “FIFA has consistently stated that it is looking forward to all teams participating at the FIFA World Cup 2026 to compete in a spirit of fair play and respect,” said a FIFA spokesperson who refused to be named. “The FIFA President and FIFA Secretary General are fully aligned on relations with the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply false.” Now Infantino’s hard-earned ties to Trump are clashing with some of his organization’s core principles. Seeing a team that qualified on sporting merit not play in the tournament because of political tensions would be a severe blow to FIFA’s credibility — and to its leader personally. “There are several football associations that I’m sure are putting pressure on him to make sure that Iran participates. FIFA has important relationships with countries like Russia and China that are also powerful and important for Gianni Infantino to keep a good relation with,” said Miguel Maduro, a former Portuguese government minister who chaired FIFA’s Governance Committee. “So that explains why he’s trying desperately to find a way to guarantee that Iran will participate.” The security question Iran claimed its World Cup spot in March 2025 by finishing first in its Asian qualifying group. The fans of “Team Melli,” one of Asia’s most accomplished soccer nations, began preparing to cheer on their team in the five-week tournament whose matches will be spread across the U. S., Mexico and Canada. But Trump’s political agenda interfered. In June, Iran was among 12 countries covered under Trump’s most expansive ban on foreign visitors, which — while explicitly exempting players and team staff — would likely prohibit all spectators traveling from Iran. (The full travel ban was later expanded to 19 countries, including World Cup competitor Haiti.) When Iranian sports officials prepared to go to Washington for the tournament’s lottery draw in December, the State Department did not approve all of the delegation’s visa requests. After Iran responded by threatening to skip the ceremonial event altogether, FIFA stepped in to mediate between the White House, State Department and the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran, a FIFA member. A small Iranian delegation, including the head coach, Ardeshir Amir Ghalenoei, ultimately attended the event at the Kennedy Center, where Infantino presented Trump with a novel “FIFA Peace Prize.” As tensions rose between Washington and Tehran, FIFA maintained contact with both countries and their soccer federations while largely avoiding public discussion of the changing dynamics. The Trump administration emphasized that security concerns would drive the administration’s decisions about what kinds of exceptions it would make to the travel ban, including for government representatives and others in an official delegation. “We want this to be a safe and secure World Cup,” White House FIFA Task Force executive director Andrew Giuliani said in a January interview. “So yeah, of course, we want the teams to be here and to play…but it’d be foolish, in understanding what Iran is going through right now, to expect that we would just open our borders.” On February 28, the United States began attacking military, governmental and civilian sites across Iran in coordination with Israel. Iran responded with its own strikes on regional neighbors, several of which are also participating in the World Cup: Iran, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Giuliani publicly celebrated the airstrikes, which killed numerous Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on social media. “My heart is with the thousands of American service members’ families who were victims of the Ayatollah’s ‘Death to America’ mission. The head of the snake spreading that vile message has now been cut off, and I pray the Iranian people will seize their liberty,” he wrote. “We’ll deal with soccer games tomorrow — tonight, we celebrate their opportunity for freedom.” Days later, Trump was asked by POLITICO in an interview whether he wanted Iran to send a team to the United States for the World Cup.“I really don’t care” whether Iran competes, Trump responded. The remark reverberated across the global soccer community, given the expectation that the host nation should be committed to welcoming all qualified teams. Infantino rushed to the White House to clarify the administration’s position. He and Trump spoke about the fact that Iran had qualified to participate in the tournament, and that FIFA expected to proceed as planned. Infantino struck an optimistic tone afterward, posting on Instagram late that night that Trump had reaffirmed Iran would be welcome. But by the next morning, Trump had reversed course once more. “The Iran National Soccer Team is welcome to the World Cup,” he wrote on Truth Social, “but I really don’t believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety.” Trump’s comments came as he was pushing the Australian government, including in a conversation with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, to facilitate asylum claims by Iranian players who had been labeled “traitors” by Iranian state media for refusing to sign the national anthem before a Women’s Asian Cup match in Queensland. Most did not ultimately accept the offer to remain in Australia. Trump’s “for their own life and safety” comments stunned FIFA officials, raising questions about Iran’s participation in the tournament. The president of the country’s football federation said Tehran would “boycott the United States, but not the World Cup,” according to remarks reported by the state-affiliated Fars news agency. Sports minister Ahmad Donyamali warned that Iran would participate in the World Cup only if FIFA agreed to relocate the country’s matches out of the United States. His deputy, Alireza Rahimi, instructed Iranian athletes and artists to form a human chain around critical infrastructure to protect the facilities from U. S and Israeli attacks. A Dallas cliffhanger Iranian players, coaches and support staff are scheduled to arrive at the Westward Look Wyndham Grand Resort Spa in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert foothills by June 10 for training at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson. The team will travel from there over the following two weeks to Los Angeles, home to the world’s largest Persian diasporic community, for matches against New Zealand and Belgium, and to Seattle, where they will face Egypt. Donyamali has proposed that FIFA relocate the country’s matches to Mexico, an unprecedented disruption in a tournament calendar that has been set since December. Mexican government officials have expressed their openness to such a solution. “Yes, Mexico maintains diplomatic relations with every country in the world,” Sheinbaum said at a March 17 press conference. “We will wait to see what FIFA decides.”Publicly, FIFA has maintained that it expects all qualified teams to participate as planned. Privately, however, Infantino and FIFA officials have been scrambling to contain the fallout. Infantino traveled to Turkey on March 31 to meet directly with Iran’s national team ahead of a friendly match against Costa Rica in the coastal town of Antalya. To be there, Infantino missed the day’s most dramatic match: a European playoff in which former World Cup champion Italy failed to qualify for this year’s tournament by losing to the 66th-ranked Bosnia-Herzegovina. Over fruit and cookies, Infantino spoke to Ghalenoei — along with senior officials from the country’s national soccer federation, including vice president Mehdi Mohammad Nabi — in an effort to show his support. “Iran will be at the World Cup,” Infantino said at halftime of the friendly match in Antalya. “That’s why we’re here.” But as the war continued to escalate, Donyamali reiterated his country’s request to move venues, arguing on April 5 that “the security of any national team participating in the World Cup abroad should be guaranteed by FIFA,” according to Turkish outlet Anatolu. Two days later, Trump threatened the death of “an entire civilization” hours before his Tuesday deadline for Iran to strike a deal with the U. S. After previously expressing her openness to hosting Iran’s matches in one of the three Mexican cities that will host World Cup matches, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that FIFA has decided against relocating them from the United States. The logistics of a move to Mexico would be complicated. The most straightforward route, according to a soccer official like others permitted to candidly discuss tournament mechanics without being named, would be to ask South Korea — the only country with all three of its group-stage matches in Mexico — to effectively swap its schedule with Iran’s. But South Korea has also begun preparing to host its base camp in Guadalajara, and might be wary to start anew at a different location. Even if such a move did work, it would offer only a temporary reprieve. If Iran graduates out of the first round to the knockout phase, the team will have to play its subsequent matches all in the United States. That could produce the most politically fraught match yet on Infantino’s watch. Were Iran and the United States to both finish second in their first-round groups — a plausible scenario based on each team’s quality and current performance — the hostile nations would face off on a field in Dallas on July 3. “Trump will want that event to be a success, too,” said Maduro, the former FIFA governance-committee chair. “Because the success of Infantino on the World Cup in the U. S. is the success of Trump.”

François Picard is pleased to welcome Jad Shahrour, journalist and Spokesperson at the Samir Kassir Foundation. Amid Israeli military operations across Lebanon, international negotiations and a ceasefire with Iran does not extend to Lebanon. The Lebanese territory remains an active battlefield. He highlights three core dynamics: the fragmentation of international narratives, the asymmetry between state authority and non-state actors within Lebanon, and the profound humanitarian and psychological toll of relentless violence, particularly on civilians, especially children.

A superpower cannot issue ultimatums, threaten the destruction of civilization, and then settle for a temporary resolution based on the adversary's own demands.

Exclusive: Ministers planning new legislation for alignment without full parliamentary scrutiny if in national interest Ministers are planning to fundamentally reshape Britain’s relationship with the European Union, with new legislation that could result in the UK signing up to EU single market rules without a normal parliamentary vote. In a major development in the prime minister’s push for closer ties with the continent after the Iran war, the Guardian understands ministers are bracing to face down opposition to “dynamic alignment” with the EU from those who “scream treason” over the powers in a new EU-UK reset bill. Continue reading...

The Democratic Party secretary stated: "Significant investments in renewable energy are needed" to prevent natural gas from "determining the price of electricity bills."

More than a hundred Chinese workers protested this Sunday in the Russian city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur (Russian Far East) due to unpaid wages at a refinery belonging to Rosneft, the largest Russian oil company, which is sanctioned by the United States and the European Union. In a video published by the Komsagram website, the workers can be seen holding banners, appealing for help from Russian President Vladimir Putin and the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin. After the protest march, the Chinese workers sat down on the sidewalks and grass of a central avenue in the city, which has a population of just over 200,000, according to the Ostorozhno Novosti Telegram channel. Police and national guard officers arrived at the scene in vans and buses, but no arrests were made, despite the fact that the march had not been coordinated with local authorities. The mayor himself, Dmitri Zaplutayev, approached the protesters and stated that the purpose of the protest was to draw attention to the unpaid wages, a complaint that is already being investigated by the prosecutor's office, according to The Moscow Times. This is not the first time that Chinese workers at this refinery have protested against unpaid wages and demanded their repatriation to Asia due to their dissatisfaction with working conditions. Chinese and North Korean workers are employed in various regions of the Russian Far East and Eastern Siberia, in areas such as trade, factories, construction sites, and logging. Despite the increase in…

The enemy treacherously shelled the village administration building in Staraya Zbruyevka and a single-family house in Zhelezny Port the region’s governor Vladimir Saldo said

Republicans call on Trump to ‘finish the job’ while top Democrats warn against resuming hostilities Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox The failure of negotiations to end the US war with Iran has unleashed a barrage of starkly partisan political responses, with leading Republicans making hawkish calls for Donald Trump to “finish the job” while top Democrats warned that it would be disastrous for the president to resume hostilities. The former UN ambassador during Trump’s first presidency, Nikki Haley, led the Republican charge. She told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that the current two-week ceasefire was a test of nerves. Continue reading...

Significant damage to equipment.

The Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sultan Al Jaber, stated this Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz has never been the property of Iran, and therefore, Iran cannot close it or restrict navigation through it. "The Strait of Hormuz has never been the property of Iran, so it cannot close it or restrict navigation through it," Al Jaber wrote on his official X profile. He is also the Director General and CEO of ADNOC. In a brief message, the Emirati minister stated that "any attempt to do so is not merely a regional issue, but rather a disruption of a vital global economic artery and a direct threat to the energy, food, and health security of all nations." "This behavior is illegal, dangerous, and unacceptable, and the world cannot afford to tolerate it or allow it to happen," Al Jaber added. The Emirati minister stated that since February 28, when the United States and Israel began a war against Iran, at least 22 ships have been attacked, 10 crew members have died, approximately 20,000 sailors are stranded and unable to transit safely, and around 800 commercial ships are stranded, including nearly 400 oil tankers. Today, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced that his country will take control of the Strait of Hormuz "with immediate effect"...

Central bankers and economists prepare to meet in Washington to assess conflict’s damage

President Donald Trump on Sunday announced that he is imposing a naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) stated this Sunday that it maintains "total control" of the Strait of Hormuz, amid growing tensions with the United States following the failure of bilateral negotiations. "All traffic is under the total control of the armed forces," the naval commander of the Iranian military body stated in a post on the social media platform X, after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a naval blockade of the strategic waterway. In this vein, the IRGC warned that "the enemy will be caught in a deadly whirlpool in the strait if it makes a wrong move," a direct message in response to the decision announced by Washington. The statements come after the negotiations between the United States and Iran, held in Islamabad, concluded without an agreement. The talks lasted for more than 20 hours and represented the highest-level contact between the two countries since 1979. Following the failure of the talks, Trump stated that Iran will return to the negotiating table and that he seeks for Tehran to completely concede on its demands. "I predict they will come back and give us everything we want," he said in an interview with Fox News. The president also defended his previous statements against Iran and asserted that the pressure exerted by the United States was crucial in bringing Iranian authorities to the negotiating table. In this context, Washington announced the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, arguing...

Apart from that, according to Reuters, Iran refused to completely open the Strait of Hormuz and halt its financial support for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis from the Yemeni rebel Ansar Allah movement

President Trump said Sunday that the U.S. Navy will "clean out" the Strait of Hormuz, just a few hours after he announced that the military branch will block ships from entering the passageway. "We're going to clean out the strait," Trump told host Maria Bartiromo on Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures." The president also said…

According to the US leader, Washington is capable of destroying all the bridges and power plants in Iran in half a day.

Once a novelty, drones are now being flown by more than 5,000 large and small law enforcement agencies across the nation.

President Donald Trump’s plan to blockade the Strait of Hormuz would halt the nearly 2 million barrels a day of Iranian oil that’s been passing through the waterway, further squeezing global supply and cutting off a vital lifeline for the Islamic Republic.

Former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Sunday indicated that she won’t seek the party’s nomination in 2028. “I will not,” she responded to CNN’s Dana Bash on “State Of The Union” when asked if she would consider another White House bid. Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U. S. ambassador to the United Nations,…

America strikes back against China’s patient challenge to the U. S. currency’s supremacy.

President Donald Trump has a new series of threats for Iran after ceasefire talks in Islamabad, Pakistan failed

The billionaire's fortune has risen by 15% since Donald Trump appointed him special envoy for peace, historian Jean-Pierre Filiu observes in his column.

François Picard is pleased to welcome Aaron David Miller, former State Department Middle East negotiator, and Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Miller has spent decades working in diplomacy, and he does not see a coherent strategy playing out here, just improvisation shaped by pressure, personality, and shifting leverage. The current negotiations surrounding Iran, Israel, and Lebanon are not driven by trust or a shared vision of resolution, but by tactical necessity and asymmetric perceptions of advantage. According to Miller, the United States is seeking an exit from a conflict it chose to enter, while Iran perceives itself as strategically ascendant and therefore in no rush to compromise, despite widespread damage from relentless airstrikes. The diplomatic architecture being assembled, through intermediaries, informal envoys, and unclear mandates, reflects not strength, but fragmentation within decision-making processes. Progress will not emerge, Miller argues, from symbolic gestures or improvised channels, but from direct, disciplined negotiation grounded in an understanding of history, geography, and the legitimate interests of all actors involved.

Thousands gathered at Barcelona’s port as the largest ever Global Sumud Flotilla prepared to depart for Gaza.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, expressed his willingness to mediate between Iran and the United States to advance towards a diplomatic solution to the conflict in the Middle East. This occurred during a telephone conversation held this Sunday with his Iranian counterpart, Masud Pezeshkian. According to a statement from the Kremlin, Putin reaffirmed Moscow's desire to contribute to a negotiated solution in order to achieve "a just and lasting peace in the Middle East," amidst a tense situation following the failure of talks between Iran and the United States in Islamabad this weekend. In this context, Pezeshkian informed Putin about the results of the negotiations held on Saturday and Sunday in Pakistan, which concluded without an agreement after 21 hours of discussions. During the call, the Iranian leader thanked Putin for his stance aimed at "de-escalating the situation in the Middle East," as well as for the humanitarian aid provided in recent weeks. In addition, both leaders discussed strengthening bilateral cooperation and relations between Moscow and Tehran. However, the negotiations failed to resolve the main differences, which centered on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the release of frozen Iranian funds, and Tehran's nuclear program. From Iran, the Speaker of the Parliament, Mohamad Baqer Qalibaf, attributed the failure of the dialogue to Washington and stated that...

The longer the Strait of Hormuz remains shut, the higher oil and natural gas prices will rise, the more severe the energy crisis in the EU/UK will become, and the longer the recovery period will be, Kirill Dmitriev said

As the U. S. and Iran meet over the negotiating table in Pakistan this weekend, the outcome of Operation Epic Fury remains deeply uncertain. But one thing is clear: The war with Iran has offered a remarkably revealing snapshot of how the Trump administration really operates — inside the West Wing, across Washington and around the world. The picture that emerges is not a pretty one for President Donald Trump. The conflict has proved messier and more complex than Trump expected. The resulting energy shocks have damaged the domestic economy and alienated allies. The already-limited political support for the war at home has rapidly eroded, even among some of Trump’s erstwhile supporters. And the prospects for reaching a negotiated resolution that could satisfy both parties’ demands are far from certain. To help decipher this moment, we convened a roundtable of POLITICO reporters who have been closely covering the conflict: White House reporter Diana Nerozzi, senior Congress reporter Meredith Lee Hill, defense reporter Jack Detsch, national security reporter Daniella Cheslow, White House energy reporter Scott Waldman and senior politics reporter Liz Crampton. Here’s what our reporters have learned about Trump just over a month into the conflict — and what it suggests about where the conflict and the MAGA movement might go from here. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Our panelists Diana Nerozzi White House reporter, POLITICO Liz Crampton Senior politics reporter, POLITICO Jack Detsch Defense reporter, POLITICO Daniella Cheslow National security reporter, POLITICO Scott Waldman White House energy reporter, POLITICO’s E&E News Meredith Lee Hill Senior Congress reporter, POLITICO Let’s start with some top-line takeaways from everyone: Briefly, what’s the most important thing that we’ve learned about President Donald Trump and/or MAGA from the war with Iran? Daniella Cheslow: TACO Tuesday lives on! We learned that while he has the stomach for short, targeted operations in Venezuela and last year, in Iran, he does not have the appetite for long-term intervention in Iran. That’s certainly not something MAGA would be interested in — although I was surprised that some of his supporters were OK with him striking Iran alongside Israel in the first days and weeks of this operation. Diana Nerozzi: We’ve learned just how deep the fissures are in the MAGA movement on foreign conflicts. Some, like former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent, quit the administration, while other previous loyalists like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens got into a fiery exchange with Trump, worse than we’ve ever seen before. This shows that a faction of the GOP is realigning itself, or at least is wavering, and that may have consequences for the future of the party. Jack Detsch: We learned that despite the “no foreign wars” pledge, this is a hard-power president who is keen to use the tactical power of the U. S. military to go after tough targets that have vexed other presidents. He’s willing to buck the MAGA movement — or bet the farm that they’ll ride along. Whether Trump can tie together military campaigns in Iran and Venezuela into larger U. S. strategic objectives, that’s another problem. Liz Crampton: In terms of politics, Republicans should not bank on the 2024 coalition that brought Trump back to the White House being permanent: Important blocs are angry with the GOP, particularly young men, and that makes it harder to keep them in the fold in the midterms and in 2028. There’s a much bigger appetite for anti-interventionism in the GOP, and that will determine which candidates will be able to surge in the next presidential election. Scott Waldman: For years, Trump has tied the success of his policies to gas prices and cutting energy costs. He’s learning now that one quick way to start splintering the coalition that carried you back to the Oval Office is to take actions that cause those prices to spike. Gas prices still have more climbing to do, particularly diesel, which is already near its record high set under Biden. Even the MAGA coalition is reeling from this energy shock and appears to be staying home in some recent primary and special elections. Meredith Lee Hill: We learned that the vast majority of Republicans in Congress will continue to show deference to Trump on the war and have no interest in serving as a check on Trump’s use of military force abroad. Most publicly argue he’s within his rights as commander-in-chief. Fascinating — let’s dig into some of this. Diana, it’s been reported that Trump was persuaded to join the war by several figures outside the White House — chiefly Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose case for the war was apparently decisive in persuading Trump to act. Does that align with what you’re hearing? Nerozzi: The White House has tried to keep the influences under wraps, but reporting suggests that there were voices either pushing or putting doubt on the strikes. Trump himself has said Joint Chiefs chair Gen. Dan Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were more in favor, while Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were more skeptical. The New York Times had a lengthy report showing that Netanyahu was a leading figure, as he was in the Situation Room and told Trump about the positives of the strikes, as well as the feasibility and wins it would bring the U. S. —everything Trump likes. What about Marco Rubio? Nerozzi: Rubio’s domain has been mostly in the Western Hemisphere, and we’ve seen him less on Iran. He was definitely one of the people advising Trump, and from my sense, gave a more down-the-middle assessment on what would happen if Trump went ahead with the strikes. He is not going to Pakistan for the peace talks despite being Secretary of State, showing again that he’s not at the forefront of those trying to get in the mix on the war. Meredith — as you mentioned, congressional Republicans seemed largely content to let Trump do Trump here. What are you hearing about the mood among Republicans now? Is there any second-guessing of Trump’s instincts? Lee Hill: We’ve seen some reticence from a sliver of Hill Republicans, including some younger GOP lawmakers who have served in the military and campaigned on the promise that Republicans wouldn’tpursue endless wars. Rep. Eli Crane, a Republican from Arizona who is deeply MAGA-aligned, told me his biggest concern is this turning into another long Middle Eastern war. He’s a former Navy SEAL who served five wartime deployments. And he noted that a lot of supporters and members of Congress are concerned about the idea of troops on the ground in the region. A lot of these younger Republicans, especially those who are at risk of losing their seats this fall, came to power raging against the war machine — and now I think they’re grappling with the fear that they’re becoming part of it. Other concerns I’ve started to hear is over the ceasefire negotiations — and how worried some Hill Republicans are if Iran starts tolling oil and fertilizer shipments long-term, which would be a “worst-case” scenario, one House Republican told us. Are there any signs that those younger, war-wary Republicans are prepared to act on their concerns in any way? Lee Hill: I think we’d only see those wary Republicans break with Trump if he deployed troops on the ground in Iran or in a significant way nearby. The real deadline for many of them is not for several more weeks — when the conflict hits the 60-day mark. That’s when at least a small group of them have said they would consider making the rare break with Trump to defy him on a war powers vote. What about the Democrats, Meredith? Are they unified in pushing back against the war, or are we seeing divisions in their response? If so, who has the upper hand? Lee Hill: Democrats now are pretty unified in their pushback of the war. We did see some early splintering among a group of moderate House Democrats who opposed an earlier war powers resolution to rebuke Trump’s initial strikes against Iran. But now that the war is lasting longer than they expected, those Democrats are now backing an effort by Rep. Gregory Meeks, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffriesand others to force another war powers vote in the House next week. Scott, the severity of the energy shock from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz seems to have caught the administration on the back foot. What does your reporting indicate about how prepared, or not, they were for the consequences of closing the strait? Waldman: The administration has consistently said for the last month that they were prepared for all possible outcomes and, in particular, the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. The military has conducted exercises wargaming the potential closure of Hormuz for many years, across different administrations. Before the war, Caine did warn the president about the likelihood that Hormuz would be closed. But we’re clearly seeing that the Iranians are now using control of Hormuz as their primary lever of power. All the experts I’ve talked to have said that Iran didn’t fully appreciate how much global economic pain they could cause by closing the strait, and they expect that this will be Iran’s main deterrent going forward rather than nuclear weapons. While the administration insists that they were fully prepared to deal with the closure of the strait, the fact remains that it’s basically still fully closed and there’s no clear indication as to when it will reopen despite the fragile ceasefire. Iran has stated that they will enact a toll going forward. Trump has urged the owners of oil tankers and other countries to use the strait, but has thus far refused to send any U. S. vessels through it as a demonstration of its openness. Pentagon team — any thoughts on this? Cheslow: This brings us to one of the major tension points between Trump and NATO allies. Trump has urged these allies to use force to open the Strait. But this is not something they are interested in. We have been seeing some very sharp words from France and from Spain, for instance, on the closure of the strait. By and large, European countries don’t want to secure the strait during active conflict. You do see some eastern European countries being more open to helping the U. S., but the three largest European economies — the UK, Germany, France — have been a lot colder. Scott, there seems to be a real possibility that the war will backfire on Trump’s anti-renewable energy agenda by convincing other countries that they need to transition even faster away from oil and gas. Are you seeing any preliminary indications of that happening? Waldman: The shift to more clean energy is already being talked about by a number of world leaders, particularly in Asia and Europe, where the government is asking people to work from home in some countries and gas stations are running out of fuel. The Philippines is fast-tracking 1.4 gigawatts of renewables, which is a roughly 40 percent increase in the country’s wind and solar capacity. Some European leaders are calling for the need to ramp up nuclear energy as well as solar and wind. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said recently that relying too much on fossil fuels puts the country at risk. Last year, Trump told world leaders gathered at the United Nations that their countries would be ruined by what he calls “the green new scam” of more clean energy. The war in Iran is proving him wrong in the eyes of a growing number of world leaders. Jack, what has this taught us about where power really resides in the Pentagon? Detsch: Hegseth is running the show, but he has typically been deferential in administration debates and has never bucked the president. Caine has been somewhat skeptical of U. S. interventions in the Middle East �…

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) criticized President Trump for withdrawing the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran during his first term. "This is not going to be an easy negotiation because the last negotiation that led to a control of Iran's nuclear program, the U.S. made the decision to tear it…

Exiled Iranian cartoonist Mana Neyestani has a huge following back home for his biting humour. And one of his recent sketches sums up the "dilemma created by the regime" over the US-Israel bombing of his homeland and how it divides Iranians.

The announcement comes just hours after U.S. Vice President JD Vance left Islamabad following the failure of several attempts to reach a peace agreement with Tehran.

John Brennan says the president who made inflammatory remarks about destroying Iranian civilization "is clearly unhinged." The former Central Intelligence Agency director, John Brennan, has joined the growing chorus calling for the president to be removed from office, arguing that he is unfit for the job. He claims that the US Constitution's 25th Amendment, which addresses involuntary removal from office, was "written with Donald Trump in mind." Brennan, who served as the head of the intelligence agency during Barack Obama's presidency, told MS Now on Saturday that Trump's recent inflammatory remarks about destroying Iranian civilization and the danger he poses to so many lives warrant his removal from the Oval Office.

One of the world's leading AI companies has built a model so powerful that it refuses to fully release it publicly just yet, prompting urgent talks from Wall Street to financial regulators in the UK.

Reopening the critical waterway is a sticking point in negotiations as oil supply bottlenecks prompt a global energy crisis

President Donald Trump on Sunday announced a U. S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and threatened to destroy “the little that is left of Iran” after peace talks in Islamabad fell apart overnight. In a pair of Truth Social posts, Trump said the U. S. military would begin blockading ships entering or leaving the strait, and would also intercept any vessel that has paid tolls to Iran to transit it safely. He also said that any Iranian who fires on the U. S. military or other, peaceful vessels will be “BLOWN TO HELL” while the Navy works to de-mine the strait. “THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION,” Trump wrote in one of the posts, “and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted.” The weekend talks, which were brokered by Pakistan and represented the highest-level engagement between an American official and Iranians since the 1979 Islamic revolution, were aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz and resuming the flow of roughly a fifth of the world’s oil through it. Reopening the strait has become an economic imperative for Trump, whose approval ratings have sagged amid spiking oil prices and growing anxiety about the war’s toll on an already turbulent global economy. But the talks ended early Sunday morning without movement on the question Trump said rendered the rest of the discussion moot. “They have chosen not to accept our terms,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters in Islamabad before departing for Washington. “The simple fact is that we need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon.” A U. S. official, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said that no members of the negotiating team remain in Islamabad, including Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff or members of the technical teams. The announcement of the blockade, which Trump said would begin “shortly,” also comes a day after CENTCOM confirmed that two U. S. destroyers transited the strait as part of a mine-clearing mission, the first such passage since fighting began six weeks ago. Iran declared the move a ceasefire violation and has separately moved forward with its plans to charge ships $1 per barrel of oil for safe passage through the strait. Vance did not say whether the United States and Israel would resume strikes on Iran or escalate them to target civilian infrastructure, like power plants and bridges. Still, the president sought to frame the meeting as a productive one, saying that “the points that were agreed to” were better than the U. S. carrying out its plans to, as Trump has said, bomb Iran into the “stone ages.” Already, some of the president’s allies are already arguing that the blockade represents a negotiating tactic — not an end to the fragile two-week ceasefire the president announced last week. “I think he’s calling Iran’s bluff,” Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday morning. “This is a game of chicken. It’s who caves first. The Iranian regime is hoping that Trump will cave. Today, he showed he’s not.” Cheyanne Daniels contributed to this report.

The U.S. "failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation" in the failed peace talks in Pakistan, Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday. In a statement on X, Ghalibaf said that his country had entered the talks "with the necessary good faith and will" and had proposed "forward-looking initiatives." But he added that "due to the experiences of the two previous wars, we have no trust in the opposing side." "The opposing side ultimately failed to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation in this round of negotiations," Ghalibaf said. Marathon talks between Washington and Tehran in Islamabad reached a dead end late Saturday, with U.S. Vice President JD Vance saying Iran had "chosen not to accept our terms." Vance said U.S. negotiators had sought confirmation that Iran would not seek a nuclear weapon. President Donald Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that Iran was "very unyielding" to this "single most important issue." In a separate post, Trump said that the U.S. would shortly "begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz," threatening that "any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!" Trump downplayed the importance of the ceasefire negotiations on Saturday, claiming that reaching a peace deal "makes no difference." Speaking to reporters outside the White House, the president claimed military victory against Iran…

PM tells Guardian Australia Hezbollah should cease reprisals and confirms Australia’s military surveillance aircraft will remain in region Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has urged Israel to stop its attacks on Lebanon and raised concern over its intensified military campaign on Beirut and the country’s south after the ceasefire in the Middle East. Albanese also called on Hezbollah to cease attacks on Israel, reiterating his government’s belief that the Middle East ceasefire must include Lebanon. The prime minister also confirmed Australia’s military surveillance aircraft would remain in the region for at least another month beyond its initial deployment. Continue reading...

A Chinese company has tried to use AI analysis to track US aerial refuelling missions to detect the strike patterns of bombers over Iran. MizarVision, a private geospatial intelligence firm, published a report earlier this month analysing the activities of US KC-135 and KC-46 tanker aircraft during Operation Epic Fury. The report detailed critical links between known tanker movements and strikes against Iranian targets. Analysts said the tankers could be tracked through Automatic Dependent...

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the U. A. E., some of America’s best customers for weapons systems, now are looking to South Korea, the U. K. and Ukraine to restock defenses against Iranian drones and other munitions.

Iran and the U. S. failed to strike a deal Sunday to end the war in the Middle East, but there was no immediate return to hostilities.

Iran and the United States held several rounds of talks in Islamabad on April 11

US President Donald Trump has announced a sweeping naval operation targeting the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil transit chokepoints. “Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said in a social media post on Sunday. He added that “at some point, we will reach an ‘ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT’ basis”. “I…

Oil prices and borrowing costs are expected to rise this week as tankers remain stranded in Persian gulf Middle East crisis live – latest updates The failure of the US and Iran to reach a peace deal after marathon negotiations has put markets on alert for further oil and gas price rises. With large numbers of oil tankers remaining stuck in the Persian gulf, the US vice-president, JD Vance blamed the collapse of the talks on Tehran’s refusal to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, while Iranian sources hit back at “excessive” demands from Washington. Continue reading...

The US Navy will “shortly” begin a blockade of ships entering and leaving the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post.

⁠Iran's ⁠Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad ​Baqer Qalibaf ​said Sunday that Iran raised "forward-looking" ​initiatives ‌during talks ⁠in Islamabad ‌but that the US failed ⁠to "earn" the trust of the Iranian delegation. US Vice President JD Vance said earlier that 21 hours of peace talks had failed to produce a deal to end the war. The latest updates with our France 24 correspondent Hoda Abdel-Hamid in Doha, Qatar.

The world waits for Trump's verdict after the talks failed to yield a deal, writes the BBC's Lyse Doucet.

President has long been a fan of mixed martial arts Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr also at event Donald Trump and US secretary of state Marco Rubio attended a UFC event in Miami night on Saturday as peace talks with Iran failed on the other side of the world. Trump entered the Kaseya Center shortly after 9pm alongside several members of his family and UFC chief Dana White, who has been a supporter of the president since his first term. Seated nearby was Rubio as well as US ambassador to India Sergio Gor, the rapper Vanilla Ice and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino. Continue reading...

The war in Iran is not just a regional crisis. It is reshaping global energy flows, disrupting shipping routes and forcing governments to reassess the vulnerability of their supply chains. For China, the conflict has exposed an increasingly urgent problem: the risks of heavy reliance on maritime energy imports from the Gulf. The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most critical chokepoints, carrying roughly a fifth of global oil and gas under normal conditions. Any sustained disruption –...

Police broke up a blockade in the centre of Dublin by fuel protesters who have brought much of Ireland to a standstill during the past week, as the government on Sunday prepared to approve cost-cutting measures they hope will end the six days of disruption over soaring costs at the pump. As tractors and trucks that had blocked O’Connell Street were rolling out of the capital, protests continued elsewhere, with police on the other side of the country clashing with demonstrators at the Galway...

Here are the key events planned by the ruling coalition as they attempt to regain momentum after the Prime Minister's recent address to Parliament. Zelensky will be in Rome on Wednesday.

Vice President JD Vance said the U. S. and Iran did not reach an agreement to end the war after meeting on Saturday. Control over the Strait of Hormuz remains a flash point in the war.

Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla asks journalist Jeremy Scahill who will benefit from the US-Israel war on Iran.

The failure of the weekend US-Iran peace talks in Pakistan has left US President Donald Trump with a tough choice on resuming strikes, according to Chinese analysts. With midterm elections looming, further conflict would be unpopular in the United States but no military action would mean a continued stalemate over access to the Strait of Hormuz. The strait and Iran’s nuclear issues were among the main points debated during 21 hours of talks in Islamabad, according to Iranian officials. Those...

With the U.S. and Iranian delegations having left Islamabad and the ceasefire remaining uncertain, Pakistan is facing its own economic and diplomatic challenges.

Israel’s campaign targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon has been a source of tension in the U. S.-Iran cease-fire. Israeli and Lebanese officials plan to meet for rare talks in Washington this week.

Israeli army raids across the occupied West Bank overnight

Danhao Wang died on March 20 after reportedly falling from a building on campus.

However, Putin emphasized that military must stay alert for possible acts of provocation, Peskov noted

Iran sees American demands as reaching far beyond what it achieved in war. Tehran is gambling that it can withstand further bombardment more than Washington is willing to sustain economic chaos, experts say.

It's likely that the drone was launched by an American battery deployed to defend Israel during one of the recent Iranian attacks, and that it crashed to the ground, remaining largely intact, due to some kind of malfunction. The Pentagon must prevent one of its most advanced military assets from falling into enemy hands.

The county, named Cenling, is located near the Karakoram mountain range and close to the borders with PoK and Afghanistan.

Vance added that he was also in constant consultations with Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Scott Bessent, and Admiral Brad Cooper.

ATHENS — To get a grip on a deadly animal plague — and save Cyprus’ famous Halloumi cheese — the country’s farmers are willing to do whatever it takes, including slaughtering entire herds. But only if the Turkish Cypriots who share the island are willing to do the same. For the virus driving a highly contagious outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, the 180-kilometer demilitarized zone that has separated the Republic of Cyprus from the Turkish-controlled north since 1974 is completely irrelevant. However, approaches to reining it in vary depending on which side of the so-called Green Line you’re on: The Republic of Cyprus imposes EU regulations and orders the culling of entire herds if even one animal in one unit is infected. The Turkish north is not obliged to do so. Agricultural organizations and authorities say that coordinated action with the Turkish Cypriots is the only way to successfully contain the disease. “Cyprus is a single entity; it is a pastoral entity; the environment, the sun and the air cannot be divided, they are all one,”said Panikos Chambas, president of Cyprus Cooperative Company. “We are a single yard and the same rules should apply to everyone.” The disease threatens to wipe out the island’s entire livestock sector and jeopardizes the production of Cypriot Halloumi cheese. With annual production exceeding 45,000 tons, of which 42,000 are exported, it’s Cyprus’ second-largest export product, valued at €345 million last year. Production crisis Halloumi production was already under pressure. Some 80 percent of the milk produced in Cyprus is used to make Halloumi cheese. The firm, salty and spongy-textured delicacy is traditionally made from a mixture of sheep and goat milk — a recipe affirmed in a recent Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status meant to boost value by ensuring authenticity of EU goods. The industry was already in a production crisis, according to the producers. Cheesemakers are struggling to find enough sheep and goat milk to satisfy the high demand, often resorting to cow’s milk (an adjustment discouraged by the PDO rules, but nonetheless permitted). For now, Cypriot authorities and cheesemakers say that Halloumi exports do not appear to be affected — if the spread of foot-and-mouth disease is contained. The virus carries no risk to the safety of the cheese. What is causing concern is the number of animal culls, according to Michalis Koullouros, representative of the Cypriot Cheesemakers Association. “If a large number of animals are culled, we will lose the milk, and Halloumi production will inevitably be affected,” he said. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) affects cloven-hoofed animals, including cattle, sheep, pigs and goats. It causes blister-like lesions to appear on the mouth and feet. Although it poses no threat to humans, it can have devastating consequences for cattle, sheep and pig populations, resulting in significant economic losses. The U. K. farming industry was devastated by an outbreak of the disease in 2001, with over 2,000 farms affected and more than six million animals slaughtered. The first case on the island appeared in the Turkish north on Dec. 16, and Cypriot authorities believe it jumped to northern Cyprus from neighboring Turkey. The disease appeared in the Republic of Cyprus on Feb. 20 and, since then, it has affected around 5.5 percent of the livestock population. Vaccinate vs. cull With the disjointed approach, Cypriot farmers expect that number to grow. Cyprus has been divided into a Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south since Turkish forces invaded in 1974 in response to a coup backed by Greece. Ankara does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus, which is an EU member country recognized internationally as the sole sovereign authority over the whole island. The Turkish Cypriot north is recognized only by Ankara. More than half a century later, the dispute is playing out in conflicting rules for handling the animal disease outbreak. Turkish authorities have opted to use vaccination alone to manage the outbreak. But immunization doesn’t fully prevent the spread, and EU guidelines say it should only be used while waiting to eventually cull animals that might have been exposed. “Almost half of the island is handling the virus completely differently from us, with vaccinations,” said Thomas Thoma, Nicosia district secretary of the Cypriot Farmers’ Union. “Neither we nor the EU have control over this.” Both sides of the island say they want to cooperate — and blame the other for not getting on board. “When the FMD emerged, we shared information transparently and did not conceal anything,” Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman said in a statement. Officials on the north side had even delivered vaccines to the south, he added. “We expect the same approach to be adopted in the south, with the committees composed of relevant officials, regular information sharing ensured, work results-oriented and daily issues resolved free from political considerations.” An official from the Turkish north said mass culling is not off the table, but it is still under consideration. Brussels firm on culling The Cypriot government asked Brussels to ease the culling requirement, given that it only applies to half the island. The request has been denied. “If we don’t act, and allow the disease to spread, the entire island could become infected — and that would mean losing all its livestock. We cannot allow that,’ said Animal Welfare Commissioner Oliver Várhelyi during a recent visit to the island, maintaining that culling of potentially exposed herds is the only solution. The EU does have some leverage in the Turkish-controlled area: The community is eligible for some €30 million from the EU budget annually (and has already received some €728 million since 2006). “Brussels has to step in and force them to implement EU regulations,” Christos Papapetrou, president of the Pan-Agricultural Union of Cyprus. “Once Cyprus is cleared and new vaccinated animals arrive, the virus will still be present and we’ll become infected again from the north.” Yet, perhaps ironically, Brussels’ most visible assistance to the north has been in the form of vaccines that it does not consider sufficient in the south: In February, the Commission sent 500,000 vaccine doses to Cyprus for use in the Turkish-controlled area. Farmers in the Republic of Cyprus have resorted to protests. Last month, for example, farmers gathered outside the presidential palace with a coffin. “We demand an end to the slaughter of healthy and asymptomatic animals,” the breeders wrote in a letter to the president. “The blind application of protocols that send entire herds to the slaughterhouse when the animals are not even ill constitutes an economic and ethical crime.” Ketrin Jocechová contributed to this report from Brussels.

Last year’s drop may reflect rising unemployment and improved right to request flexible working, experts say The number of workers in Great Britain taking their bosses to employment tribunals over remote working fell last year for the first time since Covid hit, with a tightening labour market making some more reluctant to leave roles despite return-to-office mandates. There were 54 employment tribunals decided in England, Scotland and Wales in 2025 that cited remote working, according to an analysis of records by the HR consultants Hamilton Nash: down 13% compared with 2024. Continue reading...

Exclusive: closures are part of pledge by Labour to end all use of hotels for asylum seekers by end of this parliament The Home Office is to announce the closure of 11 asylum hotels this week as part of its pledge to close all hotels by the end of this parliament. The use of hotels to house asylum seekers has been controversial since it became widespread at the start of the Covid pandemic. Anti-migrant protesters have staged demonstrations outside the hotels, claiming asylum seekers are living a life of luxury in the hotels. Continue reading...

Iran and the US reached an understanding on a number of issues, but views diverged on two or three important issues, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei stated

A second flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza was due to set sail on Sunday from the Spanish port of Barcelona to try to break the Israeli blockade. About 30 boats planned ‌to leave the Mediterranean port city laden with medical aid and other supplies on the Global Sumud Flotilla, and more vessels are expected to join along the route towards Palestine. The Israeli military halted the roughly 40 boats assembled by the same organisation in October last year as they attempted...

The escalation of the conflict with Iran is experiencing a period of truce. Following a Tuesday threat from U.S. President Donald Trump, who warned that "an entire civilization will die tonight" if Iran failed to reach an agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz, negotiations – mediated by Pakistan – resulted in an agreement for a two-week ceasefire. This temporary respite is far from stable, and it has prompted questions about what each country involved has gained from these 40 days of confrontation. In the case of the United States, there is no evidence to suggest that it has achieved two of its objectives: a change in the Iranian regime – even though Israel eliminated the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – and preventing the country from developing the capabilities to create a nuclear weapon. As we explain in these pages, the conflict has further damaged Trump's credibility, and his actions in Iran have caused severe economic repercussions worldwide, with soaring oil prices and a consequent impact on inflation. We saw this just this week in Chile with the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI), which showed an increase of 1% in the last month. Despite this, negotiations between the countries continue, although recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon constantly threaten to derail them. Meanwhile, in our country, it has been a month since José Antonio Kast assumed the presidency. He has focused his efforts on an agenda to combat violence in schools, prioritizing it over the "Law of R..." (the text is incomplete here).

In a televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to appease domestic critics who argue that the war failed to achieve its objectives.

Neither side wants its rival to gain dominance. And the competition could become even more intense.

The world’s two superpowers are waging an information war to influence the minds of Africa’s young and media-savvy demographic, with articles pitched by the United States and China designed to show each other in an unflattering light. On March 31, Africa Defence Forum magazine, a publication of the US Army’s Africa Command, ran an article called: “China’s floating fish factories plunder Guinea Bissau’s resources”. It detailed illegal operations by Chinese fishing trawlers in the West African...

Republican donor Stephen Ross argues housing affordability is ‘going to be the biggest issue’ in US

When the U. S. and Israel launched their war on Iran, it put as many as 1 million Americans living in the Middle East at risk. Many found themselves stranded in an expanding war zone by a government without a plan, much less the personnel and expertise, to rescue them. That’s because the Trump administration fired hundreds of key State Department personnel with the skills needed to safeguard U. S. citizens abroad and usher them from harm’s way, lawmakers say. These foreign service officers — who lost their jobs amid Elon Musk’s purge of the federal workforce — contacted members of Congress last month with dire warnings about the department’s inability to manage the ongoing crisis. “The Department is actively preventing experienced, cleared, available officers from helping American citizens in crisis,” a group of nearly 250 mostly mid-career and senior State Department foreign service officers wrote in a letter sent to lawmakers that was shared exclusively with The Intercept. “The crisis now unfolding in the Middle East is, in part, a foreseeable consequence of this and other short-sighted decisions taken by this administration to undermine the federal bureaucracy by eliminating expertise and politicizing our apolitical workforce.” They added: “The expertise required to manage the current crisis has been systematically removed.” Related Putting Fuel on a Ceasefire: Israel Tries to Kill U. S.–Iran Talks The situation in the Middle East remains dire, even as a fragile ceasefire between the U. S. and Iran has taken hold following a genocidal threat by President Donald Trump. After Trump teased that he was willing to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization” earlier this week, the State Department advised American citizens to reconsider travel across the Middle East due to serious risks to safety and security. Days earlier, the department had urged “citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial flight options remain available” and to flee Iraq via “overland routes” due to fears of “widespread attacks against U. S. citizens.” The FSOs responsible for the letter to lawmakers are among more than 1,300 State Department personnel fired by the Trump administration as part of a purge by Musk’s now-disgraced Department of Government Efficiency last July. Under the rules governing federal employment, they were not immediately terminated but issued reduction-in-force, or RIF, notices, which is the legally prescribed federal procedure for laying off career civil servants. The Bureau of Consular Affairs, whose top priority is to “protect the lives and serve the interests of American citizens” around the world, was especially hard hit, losing 102 personnel — including the entire rapid-response consular officer team. These FSOs, all with Top Secret clearances and who are still being paid, have indicated their willingness to return to service, and include many with experience in the Middle East, crisis management, evacuation operations, or so-called “active conflict/ordered departure environments,” according to the letter. President Donald Trump began his war of choice with Iran on February 28, stating its “objective is to defend the American people.” But it wasn’t until March 2 that the State Department put out an alert for U. S. citizens to “DEPART NOW” from Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen “due to serious safety risks.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on March 3 that stranded Americans should call a State Department hotline for assistance. Those that did were told they were on their own. “Please do not rely on the U. S. government for assisted departure or evacuation. At this time, there are currently no United States evacuation points,” an automated message stated. “At this time, there are currently no United States evacuation points.” The entire Massachusetts congressional delegation, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called out the “failures of the Trump administration and State Department to adequately prepare for the threats to American citizens living in the Middle East” in a March 5 letter and asked Rubio to provide answers to detailed questions about the evacuation failures. A month later, the State Department has yet to reply. “Secretary Rubio has no answers for the failures on his watch, but these brave public servants paint the clearest picture yet of the damage the Trump administration has wreaked,” Warren told The Intercept. “Rubio recklessly purging hundreds of State Department experts has threatened our national security and put U. S. citizens in danger in the Middle East.” The State Department did not provide answers to detailed questions from The Intercept about the fired FSOs. Instead, a spokesperson passed along anodyne talking points. “The RIFs did not have any negative impact on our ability to respond to the developments in the Middle East, our ability to plan, or our ability to execute in service to Americans,” she wrote in an email. “There were no RIFs that affected our overseas operations that are working in the field to assist Americans.” As U. S. citizens scrambled to flee the Middle East last month, nearly 20,000 flights to and from the region were canceled and major travel hubs, including the world’s busiest international airport in Dubai, were shut down for days. Americans found themselves stranded in countries that were quickly engulfed in America’s war, like a family from North Carolina left cowering in a bomb shelter in Jerusalem as missiles exploded outside, and a Philadelphia native living in the United Arab Emirates who described the State Department’s evacuation notices as “absolutely cavalier.” “I saw in the air missiles and lights and all that and everyone got on their knees and started praying,” Evelyn Mushi, who was transiting through the airport in Abu Dhabi with her 82-year-old mother, told NPR. “I’m just very shocked and upset that I see other nations getting their citizens out and we’re just stranded here.” Stuck in a hotel in Doha, Qatar, Odies Turner, a private chef from South Carolina, told ABC News: “I really don’t know what to do. I’ve reached out to the embassy, consulate and airlines. There’s no information on when I will get back home. It’s a mess.” The Trump administration claims that it “has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans worldwide.” But while Gen. Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Operation Epic Fury was the “culmination of months, and in some cases, years, of deliberate planning,” Trump said the administration had no evacuation plans for Americans abroad because “it all happened very quickly.” With Americans stranded and endangered, the State Department sat on its hands, the FSOs allege. On March 5, a former member of the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Rapid Response team with significant crisis management experience volunteered their services but say they were rebuffed. “At this time, there are no opportunities for officers who were subject to the July 2025 RIF to volunteer for the Middle East Consular Task Force,” the FSO was told by the State Department, according to the letter. The State Department did not reply to repeated questions about why the FSO’s offer was rejected. Last month, Foreign Policy reported on a letter from John Dinkelman, president of the American Foreign Service Association, to Michael Rigas, State Department deputy secretary for management and resources, in which he noted that many of those fired in July 2025 had offered to assist in the Middle East evacuation effort. Related No Way Home, Episode One: Life and Death Among the fired FSOs are officers who managed emergency evacuations from Ukraine in 2022; evacuation from Afghanistan — including an officer who led operations responsible for relocating 52,000 Afghans across multiple countries in 2025 and another who processed 8,000 evacuees in under 30 days at a remote site; evacuations from the Middle East during the Arab Spring; the tumult of the Covid-19 pandemic, including an officer who adjudicated tens of thousands of visas from a single overseas post; the 2006 Lebanon evacuation, which was the largest U. S. noncombatant evacuation operation since World War II; and those that managed posts during ordered departures from Bahrain, Ethiopia, and Iraq, among other relevant experience, according to the letter. One officer who shared their story on the condition of anonymity noted they joined the Foreign Service in the late 2000s, serving in South Asia and the Middle East, among other posts. A speaker of Urdu, Pashto, and Arabic, this FSO was one of those who played a major role in the Afghanistan evacuation, helping to process more than 34,000 Afghans, including 900 American citizens, whose identities and case statuses, such as those who worked with the U. S. military and had special immigrant visas, needed to be verified. “I loved my work and gave it my all,” said the officer. “I was on sick leave when I received an email that I was laid off. Shock can’t describe how I felt.” Others offered similar resumes and disbelief at the dismantling of the Foreign Service by the Trump administration. “Collectively, members of our group are prepared to staff multiple crisis task force shifts. We have a deep bench of Middle East experts, consular experience, crisis expertise, crisis communications background, and relevant language skills to immediately deploy to help,” wrote the fired FSOs. “The U. S. Government is not trimming fat. It amputated capability, and Americans are now paying the price.” “The U. S. Government is not trimming fat. It amputated capability, and Americans are now paying the price.” The July 11, 2025 reduction in force terminated 1,346 State Department employees, including 276 Foreign Service Officers — some of whom were later reinstated to correct purported firing “errors” — as well as 1,070 civil service employees. The Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations alone lost 62 personnel, including a senior stabilization adviser embedded with the military who supported evacuation planning. The department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs also lost close to 80 employees between August and December 2025, and the position of the assistant secretary in charge of Near Eastern Affairs remains vacant. The administration’s most recent budget proposed a 40 percent cut to the bureau, although Congress eventually settled on a less dramatic reduction. The cuts are symptomatic of the hollowing out of the State Department, especially in the Middle East. As of March, the United States had no confirmed ambassadors in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Kuwait, Algeria, Libya, or Iraq. Career ambassadors to Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, and Algeria were also dismissed without replacement. The State Department did not respond to a request to confirm that all those positions remain open, nor did the press office address how the lack of leadership in so many key countries has affected diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. The post DOGE Cuts Left U. S. Unable to Help Americans Stranded in Iran War Zone appeared first on The Intercept.

The United States and Iran failed to reach an agreement after a day of highly anticipated face-to-face peace talks, Washington's lead negotiator Vice President J. D. Vance announced on Sunday. (Image credit: Jacquelyn Martin)

Negotiations in Islamabad have failed, according to Vance: "Tehran has made no commitments regarding its nuclear program." The response: "The demands are unreasonable, and there is no rush to hold another round of talks."

The U. S. brings superior size to economic warfare, but China and Iran have fought back through control of critical economic assets.

Iran and the United States failed to reach an agreement to end the war in the Middle East, US Vice President JD Vance said Sunday after marathon talks in Islamabad, adding that he was leaving after giving Tehran the "final and best offer".

Negotiations in Islamabad have failed, according to Vance: "There has been no commitment from Tehran regarding the nuclear issue." The response: "The demands are unreasonable, and there is no rush to hold another round of talks."

Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Office of the President, stated that following the return of 182 Ukrainians, another prisoner exchange is being prepared by the end of next week.

President Donald Trump’s attack on Iran sent gas prices surging, giving Democrats’ focus on affordability more traction if they can get voters to trust them.

China, the U. S., Russia and others have ramped up their contest over artificial-intelligence-backed weapons and military systems. The buildup has been compared to the dawn of the nuclear weapons age.

The firm claims it withheld an AI model for cybersecurity reasons, but skeptics say this was hype intended to attract investment. This week, the AI company Anthropic announced that it had developed an AI model so powerful that, out of a sense of overwhelming responsibility, it would not release it to the public. The US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, summoned the heads of major banks for a discussion about the model, Mythos. The Reform UK MP Danny Kruger wrote a letter to the government urging it to "engage with AI firm Anthropic, whose new frontier model Claude Mythos could present catastrophic cybersecurity risks to the UK." The platform X (formerly Twitter) erupted. Continue reading...

Following a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), the largest opposition party in Taiwan, which is considered "pro-China," China has announced measures that include economic incentives for Taiwan. This move is intended to further increase pressure on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government, which China views as "separatist."

The United States and Iran ended a historic round of face-to-face talks early Sunday without reaching an agreement and the fate of the fragile, two-week ceasefire still unclear. Vice President JD Vance, who led the US delegation during the 21 hours of talks in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, said negotiations finished without a deal after the Iranians refused to accept American terms to refrain from developing a nuclear weapon. France24 correspondent Fraser Jackson shares his analysis from Washington.