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Middle East crisis live: US attacks Iran missile sites as Tehran negotiators hold talks in Qatar

In Doha, the Qatari talks with Iran’s top negotiator and its foreign minister focused on the strait of Hormuz and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, Reuters quoted an official as saying. Iran’s central bank governor also attended to discuss the potential release of frozen Iranian funds as part of a final deal, said the unnamed official, who the news agency said was briefed on the trip. The visit came after Washington and Tehran played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough on a peace deal to end the three-month-old war. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said earlier that nuclear issues would be negotiated only after the framework accord was agreed.

Tuesday briefing: With unease at home spreading, what next for Russia’s isolated leader?

Good morning. There is little doubt that when Vladimir Putin ordered his invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he did not expect his troops to still be embroiled there in 2026. And he surely never envisaged a scaled-down victory parade in Moscow, stripped of military hardware, for fear of Ukrainian drone attacks on his own capital. Putin has survived dangerous moments before, but with the Russian economy stuttering, his popularity is waning – not only with the public but also with the elites who have underpinned his regime for decades. An undoubted master of survival, the unwritten contract the president has with the Russian people is starting to fray. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to the Guardian’s Russian affairs reporter, Pjotr Sauer, about this shift in the national mood and whether the man in the Kremlin has any plan at all for what comes next. Five big stories Middle East | The US has launched strikes on southern Iran in a test of the seven-week long ceasefire, as both sides played down hopes for an imminent peace deal even as negotiators from Tehran began new talks in Qatar. UK politics | Rachel Reeves has instructed cabinet colleagues to award government contracts in four critical industries directly to British companies, making clear her irritation that ministers have been sending too much government business abroad. Scotland | Peter Murrell, once one of the most powerful people in British politics, faces a long prison sentence after he admitted to stealing more than £400,000 from the Scottish National party to fund a lavish personal lifestyle. Cost of living | Higher prices could persist over the summer even if ceasefire talks between the US and Iran bear fruit, consumers have been warned, with economic shock waves likely to be felt “for many months to come”. UK news | The fierce heat sweeping across Europe over the bank holiday weekend has beaten the UK’s all-time temperature record for May, with scorching highs of close to 35C. In depth: ‘Putin has broken the unwritten contract he had with the population’ Vladimir Putin must have believed – and his top aides must have assured him – that the Russian army would simply march into Kyiv in 2022, topple Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government, and install a puppet replacement that would rapidly cede sovereignty of the Donbas to Moscow. That did not happen. “In the fifth year of the war, we’re seeing growing ripples of discontent in Russian society,” Pjotr tells me. “Russia is a deeply authoritarian state, where people can’t just go and protest, but we’re seeing that his approval ratings are slipping.” Putin’s approval rating was at 63% months before invading Ukraine. The month after the assault began, it rose to 83%. But it is on the slide again, and in April this year Russia’s general happiness index hit a 15-year low, according to a state pollster. “His approval ratings are still very high if you compare them to western governments,” Pjotr says, “but it is now on the same level as it was before the full-scale invasion.” *** A sense of unease While the invasion of Ukraine initially gave Putin’s ratings a boost – a “rally round the flag effect”, as Pjotr puts it – that has long since worn off. As well as polling, another telltale sign of discontent is found online. “Bloggers who have been traditionally quite pro-Putin are starting to speak out about a number of problems in the country,” Pjotr tells me. A longstanding political truism that applies to governments across the globe is “it’s the economy, stupid”. Indeed, the economy in Russia is faltering. “Growth is projected to be only around 0.4%. In reality, Russia could even already be in a recession,” Pjotr says. The effect for ordinary people are visible, as higher taxes and rising inflation have sent groceries and household bills soaring. That sense of unease has been exacerbated by draconian moves by security services to impose complete internet shutdowns. This isn’t just the inconvenience of not being able to scroll through popular Russian sites such as VKontakte or Dzen; it is a matter of basic infrastructure. “You have to realise that Russia is a deeply digital society,” Pjotr says. “In Moscow and St Petersburg, there are tens of thousands of delivery personnel and drivers for the Russian equivalent of Uber. Suddenly, with these shutdowns, the capital was paralysed, which has led to billions of roubles in losses.” *** A broken contract “Taken together,” Pjotr says, “the internet shutdowns, the economy doing worse, no clear path to victory, and more Ukrainian drones hitting Russian cities – Putin has broken the unwritten contract he had with the population. Since the start of the war, the deal was, ‘I’ll do this war while keeping you guys as shielded as possible from the consequences.’ Now, more Russians are seeing that their lives are changing as well.” This disillusionment has reached the upper echelons of the Kremlin. The Russian elite – both the government officials and the oligarchs – initially hoped for a quick victory or a Trump-brokered peace deal. Now, they see a president with no exit strategy. As one business leader told Pjotr for this recent report, there is “a growing sense that some kind of catastrophe is looming”. *** No plan B? If the elites are looking for a way out, the man at the top certainly doesn’t appear to be. Despite the occasional rumour about his health, Putin, who is 73, appears to be in relatively good mental and physical shape. More importantly, he has successfully trapped himself in power. “There are no indications that Putin is planning a successor,” Pjotr says. “He changed the constitution to allow him to run again, and with the next elections not until 2030, he has many years left he could rule.” The reality for Putin is that power is now a matter of survival. Between the international criminal court warrant for his arrest and the long memory of the Ukrainian security services, retirement to a cushy Black Sea villa is no longer a viable option. “He knows he’ll forever be a target,” Pjotr says. “He believes that as long as he’s in power, he’s safe. The people below him are too scared to even talk about succession; he’s approaching his third decade in power, and there’s no sign he’s going anywhere.” *** The information vacuum It has previously been a mistake to count Putin out. As Pjotr points out, we have been here before. In 2011, amid mass protests in Moscow, his ratings were in the doldrums; he fixed that by annexing Crimea. More recently, the 2023 Wagner rebellion led by Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to be the greatest threat to his authority in decades. Yet Putin handled the mutiny with his characteristic, ruthless brand of “Russian governance”. Prigozhin’s subsequent death in a plane crash served as a visceral warning to any other elites considering a similar move. “Putin managed to deal with that quite ruthlessly,” Pjotr says. “He seemed to survive that situation. But now, it doesn’t seem like he has another trump card to boost his popularity to play, as he had with Crimea or Ukraine.” Despite public discontent, the consensus among analysts is that any real threat to the regime will come from inside the Kremlin, not the streets. Former defence minister Sergei Shoigu has been touted as a potential challenger – but Putin has moved to systematically dismantle his power base by arresting his closest associates. Oligarchs, meanwhile, appear to be sitting quiet and hoping it will always be somebody else’s turn to catch Putin’s eye – Vadim Moshkovich, the billionaire founder of a major agricultural firm, was the most recent to face arrest. One question that vexes even western intelligence agencies is the extent to which Putin receives accurate information. The sources Pjotr and Shaun Walker spoke to for their weekend read on the topic say it is hard to gauge to what extent the Russian president lives in a “parallel reality”. He keeps making speeches, Pjotr notes, where it seems Ukraine is permanently about to collapse. While the west waits for a moment of Russian “collapse”, Putin remains fixated on a singular goal: the full capture of the Donbas by the end of the year. “The big question is whether Putin is being misled or told overly positive reports by his military commanders,” Pjotr says. “In an authoritarian state, the people below you always try to tell you how good things are.” Five years into a war that was supposed to last weeks, it seems the person most insulated from the consequences of Putin’s invasion may be the president himself. What else we’ve been reading It would be a terrible week to start. But Amy Fleming gave up her weather app for a week to understand how it was shaping her life. Patrick As part of our sports desk’s comprehensive review of the Premier League season, Simon Burnton gets let loose on his gripes of the season to amusing effect. Martin The newsletters team’s very own Charlie Lindlar has written a moving account of what his pet rabbit, Tilly, taught him about raising a family. Patrick Here’s an utterly compelling account of dealing with parents being scammed online, woven into a magical essay about spells and security advice. Martin In a world dominated by social media companies trying to distract us, Zahra Onsori struggled to get anything done. But a simple kitchen timer helped her to break the cycle of procrastination and to focus once again. Patrick Sport Swimming | The Enhanced Games has dismissed suggestions by online sleuths that a world record set in Sunday’s event was mistakenly timed, calling them “completely unfounded internet drivel”. Cricket | England achieved a straightforward win against New Zealand at Hove on Monday, bowling the visitors out for 80 before chasing down the runs with 37 balls to spare and taking the series 2-1. Football | West Ham are expected to part company with Nuno Espírito Santo this week after their relegation from the Premier League. The front pages “Former SNP chief Peter Murrell admits £400,000 embezzlement” is the Guardian’s front page. The Telegraph says “Sturgeon ‘must come clean’ over husband’s £400k theft”, while the Mail writes “How could Sturgeon not know?”. The FT leads on “Iran energy shock starts to squeeze real wages in world’s rich countries”. The Times says “Social media is the new smoking, medics warn”, and on another topic the i Paper writes “Andrew received expenses boost as trade envoy … after review he ordered”. The Mirror splashes “Revolting repulsive Reform”. The Express says “Migrants will get half of all new homes”. Lastly, Metro leads with “Bank hottest day Monday”. Today in Focus Andy Burnham’s (third) bid for the Labour leadership The Guardian’s north of England editor, Josh Halliday, talks to Nosheen Iqbal about what Manchester mayor Andy Burnham stands for and how his political journey has brought him here. Cartoon of the day | Rebecca Hendin The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad From the end of the Premier League season to the start of the French Open, it has been a major bank holiday weekend of sport. But on Cooper’s Hill, Gloucestershire, the annual cheese-rolling festival was the main event. Competitors from across the world travelled to the West Country to throw themselves down the slope in chase of a tightly wrapped cheese. This time, the event was won by a German YouTuber, Tom Kopke, who defeated the all-time champion and local competitor Chris Anderson. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

‘Embarrassment for Japan’: PM wants to cut sales tax but cash registers say no

The Japanese government has pledged to suspend an 8% sales tax on food but says it is being thwarted by an unexpected opponent – uncooperative cash registers. According to the devices’ manufacturers, the systems at big retail chains that process everything from cash to cardless transactions were never designed to calculate a tax rate of zero and so they require a major overhaul that could take up to a year. All the major parties running in Japan’s February election, which prime minister Sanae Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic party (LDP) won by a landslide, promised some form of cut or temporary abolition of the 8% consumption tax on food as people struggled with a cost-of-living crisis. The LDP’s manifesto called for the rate to be reduced to zero for two years, to be implemented by March next year. However, after being repeatedly pressed by opposition parties on a concrete timetable, Takaichi put the fault for the delay firmly at the feet of cash registers. The prime minister blamed the inflexible machines, calling the situation an “embarrassment for Japan” at a parliamentary committee on 11 May. She added that it was nothing short of “pathetic that we can’t even flexibly change tax rates when a pandemic or major disaster occurs”. But some critics claim Takaichi is using the issue to delay the cut she promised during her victorious election campaign this year as her government looks for ways to fund the measure. Political opponents and commentators pointed out that Takaichi herself had suggested that adjustments to cash registers would take time during a debate on tax cuts last year. Some believe the issue – called the “reji-kabe”, or register wall, in some quarters of the domestic media – is being used as a delaying tactic while the ministry of finance works out a plan to fund the tax suspension. Japan’s public debt-to-GDP ratio is the highest in the world, at about 230%. The tax pledge on food would cost the finance ministry around 5tn yen ($31.5bn) annually. But a compromise has surfaced: the government is now floating the idea of reducing the tax on food to 1%, which could be done in five or six months. It would allow the government to – almost – fulfil its campaign promise, while also reducing the cost by nearly $4bn.

BHP ‘laughing’ at Australia’s key climate policy while pocketing hundreds of millions in tax breaks, Pocock says

The independent senator David Pocock says leaked BHP documents show that the mining giant is “laughing” at Australia’s key climate policy while pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars through a generous diesel tax break. An exclusive investigation based on documents leaked to by the Guardian and the ABC show BHP has scrapped a project to significantly reduce global emissions, delayed vast renewables projects in the Pilbara and war-gamed options to push the electrification of its polluting diesel truck and train fleets into the next two decades. It did so despite internal memos as recently as 2023 saying: “Urgent decarbonisation in line with BHP’s public commitments effectively underpins [the Western Australian iron ore division’s] licence to operate, sustain and grow.” Experts and analysts say the slowdown in BHP’s decarbonisation progress shows the failure of a key climate policy, the safeguard mechanism, and the influence of the diesel tax break the federal government gives to big miners including BHP. Analysis provided to the Guardian suggests BHP paid less than $9m under the safeguard mechanism for its excess emissions last financial year. At the same time, the analysis suggests it received $622m in fuel tax credits from the federal government for its use of diesel, including about $379m for its WA iron ore mines. Its use of diesel is a major contributor to BHP’s emissions. At Senate estimates on Tuesday, Pocock questioned environment department officials and Tim Ayres, the industry and science minister, about the revelations. “BHP had [to pay] $8m for emissions [under the safeguard mechanism] last year while getting $379m in fuel tax credits … you have to admit that’s pretty ridiculous,” he said. “They are spending 2% [of what they receive in diesel tax credits]. That sounds like a joke to most Australians.” Ayres defended the safeguard scheme, saying it had reduced emissions by 5.5m tonnes in the two years since the government reformed it. An official told Pocock it did “not make a lot of sense” to compare the company’s payments under the safeguard mechanism to the credits it received under the diesel fuel tax rebate. Pocock responded: “We have a government that’s telling us we are very ambitious and are doing everything we can with all these things in place, then we have leaked documents from BHP who internally they are laughing at the safeguard mechanism and they don’t have to worry about it for 14 years … “I am concerned that no one has thought to go, ‘Hang on, these two things don’t really work together.’” Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Earlier on Tuesday, the environment minister, Chris Bowen, said he had made his expectations “crystal clear” to emitters publicly and privately. The safeguard did “provide some flexibility”, he said, because the roughly 200 major industrial polluters that it applied to faced “different challenges and opportunities” to cut emissions. “But I want to see all large emitters reducing emissions onsite,” he said. “That applies to BHP and everyone else.” The resources minister, Madeleine King, said she was not concerned about the revelations and BHP was “doing their job”. “BHP is committed to cutting emissions,” she told ABC radio. “They will make their commercial decisions, as do others. BHP and other miners are subject to the safeguard mechanism.” The independent MP Kate Chaney said the safeguard needed to be tightened so companies had stronger incentives to cut emissions onsite, rather than pay for an unlimited number of contentious carbon offsets. “It’s important that companies have flexibility in the way they reduce emissions, but it’s the government’s job to drive ambitious decarbonisation for a safe climate and stable economy,” she said. Chaney said the government should also reform the diesel fuel tax credit scheme that gives some industry a full rebate on the 52.6c a litre applied to fuel. Chaney said the rebate should be limited for the “largest and most profitable companies like BHP” but left in place for farmers and small businesses. She said the current version, under which BHP receives more than $600m a year in fuel tax credits, meant “we have our foot on the break and accelerator at the same time”, as the incentive to keep burning diesel was greater than that to cut emissions by shifting to renewable energy and electric trucks and trains. “Large resource companies like BHP produce a huge chunk of Australia’s emissions,” she said. “Without strong decarbonisation from these companies, Australia will not be able to meet its emissions targets and international commitments. “But companies will always play within the rules that have been set. This speaks more to weakness in government policy than a failure of business.” Labor’s grassroots environment action network also renewed calls for the fuel tax credit scheme to be capped in the wake of the revelations. The Labor Environment Act Network, (Lean) national co-convener, Louise Crawford, said: “[We] have been saying for months that the diesel fuel tax credit needs reform – it should be pushing the biggest miners toward electrification, not the opposite. “Capping the rebate at $50m would free up funds to invest in electrification for those companies and others. And it would send a clear signal to get on with it.” More than 270 local ALP branches have passed motions supporting Lean’s internal push, which is expected to be debated at Labor’s national conference in July. Bowen played down the prospect of immediate changes to the fuel credit scheme when asked on Monday. “We just had a budget a couple of weeks ago – we decided not to make that change,” he said, maintaining that the government’s focus was on the safeguard mechanism. In a statement, BHP said it was making significant strides in emission reduction, cutting emissions by 36% from 2020 levels. It has a medium-term target of 30% by 2030 and a goal of net zero by 2050. BHP points to analysis that it is one of the best performers on emission reductions of large publicly listed companies and has transitioned 70% of its energy use to renewables. The company blames its slowed progress on operational decarbonisation on the lack of availability of battery-electric trucks. It says it is trialling the technology but it is not yet ready to deploy at scale. Fortescue, one of its main competitors, says the technology is ready and has ordered hundreds of battery-electric trucks. It is expecting to be able to run without any fossil fuels for 24-hour periods by 2027, though it recently was responsible for a spike in emissions.

Tehran expresses ‘resolute support’ for Hezbollah – as it happened

We’re wrapping up this page now, but our live coverage continues on a fresh blog here, which includes a summary of the latest key developments. Thanks for following along.

US strikes Iran missile sites and mine laying vessels as Trump’s promised peace deal remains elusive

The US has launched strikes on southern Iran in a test of the seven-week long ceasefire, as both sides played down hopes for an imminent peace deal even as negotiators from Tehran began new talks in Qatar. US forces targeted missile launch sites and boats attempting to lay mines, US central command (Centcom) said on Tuesday, but stressed that the strikes did not indicate the ceasefire with Iran was over. Centcom “continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire”, said navy captain Tim Hawkins, who characterised the action as “defensive”. In Iran, the news website Tabnak, believed to be close to former Revolutionary Guard chief Mohsen Rezaei, identified four dead Guard troops it said had been killed in American strikes on boats. Iranian state television separately reported blasts around Bandar Abbas, a city on the Strait of Hormuz home to a military port and a dual-use airport. The Iranian state news agency Mehr later said the situation was “completely under control” and there was no reason for residents to worry. The strikes – the second major attacks to take place during the seven-week ceasefire – came as Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, led a delegation of negotiators to Qatar. Local media said Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and central bank governor, Abdolnaser Hemmati, were among the group as well. Hemmati’s presence has fuelled speculation that talks will focus on the release of frozen Iranian assets. The deal currently under negotiation with the US would reportedly see Washington agree to unfreeze some Iranian assets being held in banks outside Iran – including Qatar. Trump has faced criticism from loyalists in his party over the reports that billions of dollars in frozen assets could be made available to Tehran, with senior Republican saying the reported details of the peace deal appear too close to the nuclear deal negotiated in 2015 by the Obama administration, which Trump pulled out of. The memorandum of understanding being negotiated would reportedly see Iran restore commercial shipping through the strait of Hormuz but would not include negotiations over any nuclear issues. Talks over Iran’s nuclear programme would then take place within a 30- to 60-day period after any agreement. Trump has said his key aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium and is under mounting pressure for the initial deal to contain a commitment from Iran to dispose of its stockpile. On Monday he appeared to offer a concession to Tehran, announcing in a post on social media that the enriched uranium held in Iran could be “destroyed” inside the country, in a process overseen by an international nuclear agency. The fate of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium has been a major sticking point in various rounds of negotiations between Washington and Tehran. In previous rounds of talks with the US, Iran said it was willing to dilute the purity of its enriched uranium, but it would not permit the transfer of the stockpile to either the US or Russia. Experts said Trump’s announcement on Monday could amount to a major compromise from the US president, as negotiations appeared to slow after a flurry of diplomatic activity over the weekend. Reopening the strait of Hormuz has become a matter of urgency for the Trump administration, which is months away from midterm elections in the US and facing voter anger over rising costs. On Tuesday the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that despite the latest US strikes on Iran, a deal was still possible, adding that the strait of Hormuz would open “one way or another”. “There were some talks going on in Qatar today, so we’ll see if we can make progress. I think it’s a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document,” Rubio told reporters in Jaipur during an official visit to India. Iran has said future management of the strait – through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas usually flows – will be a matter for Oman and Iran to reach agreement on, and that “fees for navigational services” could be imposed. In a lengthy post on Truth Social, Trump said talks with Iran were going “nicely”, but warned of fresh attacks if they failed. It “will only be a Great Deal for all, or no Deal at all”, he wrote. Iran has insisted that a ceasefire in Lebanon has to be included in the memorandum of understanding that would lead to Iran opening up the strait of Hormuz. On Monday the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he would intensify strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire in mid-April but Israel has continued airstrikes it says are acts of self-defence against Hezbollah, which was not party to the truce. With Reuters

‘My head spins with the heat’: India’s gig workers battle exhaustion amid soaring temperatures

By the time Jalaj Jha begins getting ready for work each morning, he already feels drained. Awakening in a cramped room in Delhi, with no ventilation except a rattling fan pushing hot air around, the 24-year-old gig worker has ahead of him a 12-hour shift delivering groceries. “I barely sleep three or four hours in this heat,” Jha said, wiping dust off his motorbike, which he uses for deliveries. “I wake up exhausted. It feels like my body is pulling me down.” It is only 7am, but the temperature is already 30C (86F) – the lowest temperature of the day. During the day it can soar to more than 45C (113F). This week, Delhi registered the hottest May day in the last two years, and the warmest May night in 14 years. Rising temperatures are turning cities across south and south-east Asia into places where workers can no longer recover from the heat. A new report by US-based People’s Courage International (PCI), using research in Delhi, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Jakarta and Quezon City, has found hotter nights, combined with the urban heat island effect – the trapping of heat inside dense cities – are leaving millions of informal workers exhausted before a new workday even begins. For delivery riders, construction workers and street vendors living in cramped settlements with little ventilation or unreliable electricity, sleep itself is becoming difficult. The inability to rest and cool down is worsening heat-related illnesses, reducing productivity and pushing already vulnerable workers into deeper economic stress. The crisis is worsening in south Asia as climate change is predicted to triple the chance of pre-monsoon heatwaves, such as a 15-day one that turned deadly last month. Scientists say night-time temperatures are rising faster than daytime temperatures across much of the region, reducing the hours people once relied on to recover from extreme heat. Across Asia, the International Labour Organization estimates that more than 70% of the workforce are exposed to excessive heat at some point during their jobs, with informal workers among the most vulnerable. This has a big impact in countries like India, where nearly 90% of workers are employed in the informal economy. Lost wages, dizziness and fatigue Experts warn that cities across the region remain poorly prepared for worsening heatwaves. Some governments, including Delhi’s, have introduced heat action plans and advisories, water kiosks, early warning alerts and directions to reschedule outdoor work during peak afternoon heat. But researchers say most responses remain reactive and fail to directly address the needs of workers living and working in extreme heat. The PCI report, based on interviews with more than 2,200 internal migrant workers across the five cities, found nearly eight in 10 said extreme heat was disrupting their livelihoods or households. Workers reported losing wages because they could not work full shifts, spending more money on water, medicines and transport, and struggling with headaches, dizziness and fatigue during long workdays outdoors. “Heat impacts are silent and generally creep up on workers,” said PCI researcher Ameena Kidwai. Workers reported impacts across their lives – including at home and work, on their commute, as well as on their mental health and sense of community, Kidwai said. Ajay Kumar, 32, a roadside vegetable vendor in Gurugram on the outskirts of Delhi, spends hours every day pulling a three-wheeler rickshaw loaded with vegetables through dense traffic after buying produce from a wholesale market 7km away. “Every day my head spins with the heat. But I have no option but to work for my family,” said Kumar, who has four children. Researchers describe this growing exhaustion as a “recovery deficit” where workers begin each day already physically depleted. Sleep deprivation, they say, is contributing not only to lower productivity and worsening health, but also to anxiety and emotional exhaustion. Kumar, who moved from a village in Bihar in search of work four years ago, lives with his wife and children in a cramped room with no ventilation except for a rusty fan. He said he wanted to buy a cooler this summer but could not afford one. “I barely make Rp300-400 ($3-4) a day. Most of that goes in feeding my family,” he said. “I keep some water with me and damp my gamcha [scarf]. That helps my head.” At night, Kumar’s family often sleep on the open terrace of their building because the room becomes unbearably hot. “But even then, it takes me hours to fall asleep.”

Iran denies deal with US is imminent despite some progress

Iran has poured cold water on suggestions that a deal with the US is imminent, pointing to the confusion in US positions and Israeli interference as key factors in why a complete agreement is proving difficult to secure. Speaking at the weekly foreign ministry press briefing, Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s negotiating team, also said future management of the strait of Hormuz was a matter for Oman and Iran to reach agreement on, and that it was not tolls that were being proposed but “fees for navigational services”. Referring to the state of the talks, Baghaei said: “It is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the issues under discussion. But to say that this means the signing of an agreement is imminent – no one can make such a claim.” He also insisted that a ceasefire in Lebanon had to be included in the memorandum of understanding that would lead to Iran allowing commercial shipping through the strait, and the US lifting its blockade of Iran’s ports. By contrast, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, still held out hope that a deal could be reached on Monday, but there appeared to be a mounting list of unresolved problems in what was intended to be a roadmap to reopening the nuclear talks that Trump abandoned in February in favour of war. Rubio said it took time to receive an answer from the Iranian political system but he emphasised: “Either we will have a good deal or we will deal with this issue in another way, and we prefer to have a good deal.” Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Rubio said there was a “pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the strait [of Hormuz], get the strait open, enter into a very real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matter, and hopefully we can pull it off.” The plan reportedly being considered would restore full access to the strait of Hormuz in 30 days after any deal to end hostilities between the two countries. Under the proposed framework, Iran would use a 30-day post-ceasefire period to remove mines from the strategic waterway, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a Middle East diplomatic source speaking to Nikkei. Amid the efforts to reach a peace deal, the US military’s Central Command said on Monday that US forces have carried out strikes on southern Iran in “self-defence”. The strikes targeted missile launch sites and Iranian boats seeking to lay mines, Centcom was quoted as saying. It said the military will defend US forces “while using restraint” during the ongoing ceasefire. The US president, Donald Trump, said in a post on Truth Social on Monday that the deal would either be “great and meaningful, or there will be no deal at all”. Trump added that he had asked countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey to join the Abraham accords en masse to normalise relations with Israel. He said he spoke on Saturday to the leaders of those countries, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have already signed the accords, a set of agreements to normalise relations with Israel. “I am mandatorily requesting that all Countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords, and that, if Iran signs its Agreement with me, as President of the United States of America, it would be an Honor to have them also be part of this unparalleled World Coalition,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. He cited “all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together”. Barbara Leaf, a former US assistant secretary for near east affairs, said: “Suffice to say there are no takers among those who are not part of the Abraham accords to join that agreement. You are not going to get Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to do that. Absolutely not.” She said the proposal had been greeted with “stunned silence” when Trump put it to the regional leaders by phone at the weekend. The Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, suggested the Abraham accords plan would not make the emerging deal any more palatable to Israel, describing the deal as disturbing and bad for the region. He said the Israeli government was at “an all-time low in its ability to influence decisions in Washington”. In his press briefing, Baghaei also said no nuclear issues, such as what to do with the Iranian stockpile of highly enriched uranium, would be tackled in the memorandum except for a commitment to negotiate in the next 60 days. Trump, under mounting pressure from critics inside the Republican party, wants the memorandum to contain a commitment by Iran to dispose of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, even if the precise method is not detailed. In previous rounds of talks with the US, Iran has said it is willing to down-blend the enriched uranium, but it will not permit the transfer of the stockpile to either the US or Russia. It has spoken of suspending domestic enrichment for as long as five years, but not the 20 years sought by the US. Iranian officials also claimed the political outcry about the deal inside the US was placing pressure on Trump to backtrack on plans to release as much as $12bn (£9bb) in frozen Iranian assets held in Qatar. The governor of Iran’s central bank, Abdolnaser Hemmati, travelled to Qatar on Monday. The release of the assets is a central Iranian demand, but has painful parallels for Trump, who lambasted Barack Obama for giving $1.7bn to Iran in cash at the time of the 2015 nuclear deal. Baghaei, referring to the chaos in Washington, said: “You are faced with a wave of dismissals, contradictory statements, opposition from Congress and also opposition from parts of public opinion.” Trump by contrast has dismissed his critics, saying he would not “listen to losers who are critical of something they know nothing about”. The deal contains nothing on Iran’s ballistic missiles or support for its regional proxy groups; as such, it contrasts with Trump’s promise that the war would end with Iran’s complete surrender. Baghaei accused Israel of trying to scupper the deal, saying nothing else should be expected of the Israelis. On the strait of Hormuz, Baghaei said talks were held on Monday between Omani and Iranian officials. He claimed the reason Oman and Iran were trying to establish a reliable and effective mechanism to ensure safe passage in the strait was precisely because “we believe in the use of this international waterway for free trade and safe navigation”. Rejecting claims the Iranian plan amounted to nationalisation of an open waterway, he said that if “navigation services are provided, plus necessary measures to protect the environment of the strait, these require the collection of fees. The term tolls should not be used. We do not charge tolls. I think we should be careful in the choice of words.” European and Gulf states are likely to see this as a distinction without a differences, especially if commercial shipping is in effect required to seek Iran’s navigational services. Inside Iran, many commentators saw the imminent deal as a roadmap to a hostile coexistence aimed at managing the tension, rather than ending it. The sense that the war for now may be reaching its endgame was underlined by reports that Iran’s officials would reconnect Iran to the international internet within a week after a vote by the supreme national security council. Iranian officials, facing soaring inflation of food prices, are nervous about the public reaction once internet controls are lifted. The spate of executions inside Iran continues unabated.