European ministers to hold talks with Iran as US says it is still deciding whether to join war
Good morning.
Foreign ministers from the UK, France and Germany will meet their Iranian counterpart in Geneva on Friday as they try to forge a path back to diplomacy amid its war with Israel.
Their meeting with Abbas Araqchi comes a day after President Donald Trump said he would decide within two weeks whether to join the war on Israel's side. The White House said Trump would 'make a decision on whether to attack Iran within two weeks' and that communications with Tehran were ongoing.
It also follows Israel openly calling for regime change in Iran, with its defense minister, Israel Katz, saying Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 'can no longer be allowed to exist'.
While attention has shifted to the Israel-Iran war over the last week, Israel's assault on Gaza continues. Al Jazeera reported that at least 23 Palestinians had been killed after Israeli forces shot aid seekers in central Gaza – a report that is impossible for the Guardian to independently verify as Israel bans foreign journalists from Gaza.
Unicef said that just 40% of Gaza's drinking water facilities remain operational, warning: 'Children will begin to die of thirst.'
What has Iran said about negotiations with the US? Araqchi has ruled out talks with the US as it is a 'partner to Israeli crime against Iran'.
Follow our live coverage.
The Los Angeles Dodgers said on Thursday they blocked US immigration enforcement agents from accessing their stadium's parking lot that day.
The baseball team made the statement in a post on X – but Ice responded to say that its agents 'were never there'. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the DHS, said in a statement that 'this had nothing to do with the Dodgers. CBP vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement.'
A source told the Los Angeles Times that agents met near the stadium for a briefing but left when photos of their meeting began to spread online.
Why might the LA Dodgers be targeted? Since Ice ramped up enforcement in Los Angeles, rumors have spread that authorities will focus on the stadium because of its large Latino fanbase.
The office of the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, reportedly requested 'a passive approach to Juneteenth messaging' amid Donald Trump's attack on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
The Rolling Stone exclusively reported that the Pentagon's chief of public affairs said that the office was not preparing to publish web content related to Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free.
What has Hegseth said about DEI? He told a Senate hearing this week: 'DEI is dead. We replaced it with a color-blind, gender-neutral, merit-based approach, and the force is responding incredibly.'
How long has Juneteenth been a federal holiday? Joe Biden made it a federal holiday in 2021.
Prosecutors have dismissed charges against a Los Angeles protester who was accused of assaulting border patrol agents, while the demonstrator said he himself was attacked by officers.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has rejected Nato's plan for member states to spend 5% of their GDP on defense.
A judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from tying Democratic-led states' access to funding for transportation funding to their cooperation with immigration enforcement.
Developing countries desperately need 'more debt relief' in order to provide education and health services, a report has found. The need is particularly acute in Africa, where some 57% of the continent's population – 751 million people, including nearly 288 million living in extreme poverty – live in countries that spend more on servicing external debt than on education or healthcare.
A Ukrainian marine has spoken to the Guardian about his three years in Russian captivity, where he endured hunger, beatings and torture. Dmytro Chorny, who was released in a mass prisoner exchange in April, shares how he tried to cope while inside: 'The very first rule is to forget that you were once a citizen. Forget about your girlfriend, forget about your grandparents, completely separate yourself from your past. That is, you have never been there, you were born in captivity, you live in captivity … But, of course, you dream.'
This week, a landmark deal creating the world's first visa in the context of the climate emergency came into force. The agreement, signed in 2023, allows 280 Tuvaluans to migrate to Australia each year and obtain permanent residency. And while it has offered hope to many young Tuvaluans, some fear it will create labor shortages in the country of just 11,000, as well as lead to a loss of cultural knowledge.
As Jaws turns 50, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary and Wendy Benchley look back on the highs and lows of making the iconic blockbuster. The movie was plagued by the mechanical shark, nicknamed 'Bruce', malfunctioning he remembers, with constant announcements on set that: ''The shark is not working. The shark is not working. Repeat. The shark is not working.' And then one day you hear this. 'The shark is working! The shark is working!'' In an admission that is a testament to the movie's power, Dreyfuss says he has never been back into the sea since …
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The Independent
14 minutes ago
- The Independent
Has Iran actually tried to kill Trump? Here's what we know
Days after it was reported that Donald Trump rejected Israel's plot to assassinate Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the president publicly announced that the United States knows his location and is holding off killing him 'for now.' Israeli officials, meanwhile, have openly demanded his death. This week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Khamenei 'can no longer be allowed to exist.' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, turning to Fox News over the weekend to make the case for the United States to join a war with Iran, said Khamenei sees the president as 'public enemy number one.' Israel has sought to justify intervention using allegations of Trump's assassination threats as leverage, while the United States has faced years of blowback in the wake of Middle East wars and the 2020 killing of a top Iranian general. During his first administration in 2020, Trump ordered a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport that killed Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds Force with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, after he had survived several assassination attempts from western, Israeli and Arab states over the past two decades. The strike, which was planned over several months, ignited fierce blowback across the region, denounced by Iran's foreign minister at the time as an act of international terrorism. By 2024, U.S. intelligence officials had collected evidence they believe shows Tehran was seeking ways to kill then-candidate Trump, according to Politico. In September, Trump claimed there were 'big threats on my life by Iran.' Neither of the two assassination attempts against then-candidate Trump in the summer of 2024 have been linked to Iran. One month earlier, a Pakistani national with alleged ties to Iran was accused of seeking to carry out a murder-for-hire plot targeting U.S. government officials, according to federal prosecutors. Asif Raza Merchant was accused of joining a complex plot to carry out assassinations last year, including trying to hire hit men who were undercover officers, according to an indictment. In November, a fugitive Iranian government operative was accused of hiring a pair of New Yorkers he met in prison to carry out an assassination plot against a critic of the regime. He allegedly admitted to FBI agents that he'd also been tasked with finding a hit squad to kill then-President-elect Trump. Farhad Shakeri claimed he was asked by regime officials to 'put aside his other efforts... and focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating' Trump, according to a criminal complaint in Manhattan federal court. In February, Trump, who campaigned against U.S. involvement in foreign wars, said Iran would be 'obliterated' if he was assassinated by state actors. 'That would be a terrible thing for them to do,' he told reporters. 'Not because of me. If they did that, they would be obliterated. That would be the end. I've left instructions: if they do it, they get obliterated. There won't be anything left.' Iran has denied ever targeting the president. 'A new scenario is fabricated,' Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X following accusations against Shakeri. 'The American people have made their decision. And Iran respects their right to elect the president of their choice. The path forward is also a choice. It begins with respect,' Araghchi wrote. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the allegations were part of a 'repulsive' plot by Israel to 'complicate matters between America and Iran.' In January, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stressed that Iran 'never attempted' to kill Trump, 'and we never will.' 'This is another one of those schemes that Israel and other countries are designing to promote Iranophobia,' Pezeshkian told NBC News. 'Iran has never attempted to, nor does it plan to assassinate anyone. At least as far as I know.' Asked whether there have been any plots against the president under Iran, he insisted there have been 'none whatsoever.' On June 15, Netanyahu asked Fox News host Bret Baier whether 'these people who chant 'death to America'' and 'tried to assassinate President Trump twice' should 'have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to your cities.' Baier then pressed Netanyahu about his claim that Iran launched two assassination attempts. 'Through proxies, yes.' he said. 'Through, through their intel, yes, they want to kill him,' he added. 'He's enemy number one.' Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has emerged as a prominent voice across right-wing media against the United States joining Israel's war, told Texas Senator Ted Cruz that the United States would be bombing Tehran if those assassination allegations were credible. 'We should attack Iran immediately if that's true,' he said. Cruz insisted that 'nobody disputes' Iran is trying to kill the president, calling it an 'objective fact' following his interview with Carlson. On Thursday, Trump said he plans to decide on whether to order U.S. warplanes to strike Iranian nuclear facilities within the next two weeks, depending on whether Tehran engages in talks over ending their nuclear weapons program. In a statement relayed through White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump said: 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.' The president's statement followed a week of escalating strikes between Israel and Iran. More than 600 Iranians and at least two dozen Iranians have been killed, according to officials.
The Guardian
27 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Israel and Iran: where is the conflict heading? – Today in Focus extra
The Guardian's senior international correspondent Julian Borger reports from Tel Aviv as the Israel-Iran conflict enters its second week and the world awaits Donald Trump's decision on whether the US will enter the war
Daily Mail
29 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Israel-Iran war, blow by blow: Maps and graphics reveal locations of EVERY strike so far as conflict escalates
Israel began pounding Iran on June 13, in a conflict that has the world holding its breath because of fears it could rapidly escalate and drag Britain and the US in. The IDF's blistering aerial assault – codenamed 'Operation Rising Lion' – has targeted dozens of key nuclear sites, military bases and surface-to-air missile launchers. Oil and gas infrastructure have also been hit, as well as Iran's state news broadcaster, which was struck while live on air. Among the eliminated are nuclear scientists and senior Iranian commanders, including the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – an elite wing of Tehran's military. In a televised address to the nation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack was neccessary to 'roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival'. Iran was thought to be 'closer than ever to obtaining a nuclear weapon'. Iran immediately retaliated with drone strikes, before launching several waves of ballistic missiles aimed at Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as part of its own 'Operation True Promise III'. Israel's largest oil refinery in Haifa was shut down following an attack that severely damaged the facilities. The IRGC claimed their precision-guided missiles struck the headquarters of Mossad, Israel's spy agency, as well as another military intelligence unit known as Aman, near Tel Aviv. Israel's state-of-the-art air defences, including its 'Iron Dome', have been in near-constant action. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, told Israel to prepare for 'a severe punishment'. He has previously called Israel a 'terrorist base' and a 'cancerous tumour' that must 'be removed and eradicated'. Iran has also issued bloodcurdling threats urging the US, UK and France not to rush to Israel's defence, warning that their military bases and ships will be in the firing line should they intervene. Donald Trump has demanded Tehran's 'unconditional surrender', boasting his forces could assisinate Khamenei. Posting on social media on June 17, he said the Ayatollah was an 'easy target' but remained safe 'for now'. Actual US strikes aimed at targets inside Iran remain on the table. America is assembling an armada of warships and fleets of fighter jets in the region ahead of possible military action. Britain itself has ordered military reinforcements to be sent to the Middle East as the war rages. Keir Starmer told reporters en route to the G7 summit in Canada that he would 'always make the right decisions for the UK and our allies'. Britain already has fighter jets in the region as part of an operation to counter threats in Iraq and Syria. Tehran has repeatedly insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful and that it has never intended to make a bomb, despite the fears of Israel and the West. However, its ever-growing stockpile of enriched uranium – needed to produce an atomic weapon – had triggered major concerns. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, said Iran's activity was a 'matter of serious concern'. On June 12, the day before Israel's sudden attack, the IAEA ruled that Iran was in breach of its safeguard obligations. Iran criticised the 'politically motivated' decision, announcing it would bolster its nuclear programme with a new enrichment facility in a 'secure location'. Officials also said centrifuges – machines that enrich uranium – would be upgraded at Fordo, one of the nation's most secretive and heavily fortified nuclear sites, buried deep beneath the mountains near the holy city of Qom.
