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Middle East crisis live: US and Iran in blockade stalemate as Washington’s navy secretary leaves office ‘immediately’

If you’re just joining us, here’s a recap of the latest developments to bring you up to speed. Iran has seized two ships in the strait of Hormuz a day after Donald Trump announced he was indefinitely calling off US attacks, while there is no sign of peace talks restarting. In a U-turn after threatening to renew bombing, Trump made what appeared to be a unilateral announcement on Tuesday that the US would extend the ceasefire with Tehran until it had discussed an Iranian proposal in peace talks to end the two-month war. Iranian officials did not say they had agreed to any extension of the truce, and criticised Trump’s decision to maintain the US navy blockade of Iranian ports. Lead Iranian negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said a full ceasefire only made sense if the blockade was lifted. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps seized two vessels on Wednesday for what it called maritime violations and escorted them to Iranian shores, according to the shipping companies and Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency – the first time Iran has seized ships since the war began in late February. Trump was “satisfied” with the US naval blockade and “understands Iran is in a very weak position”, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. The US president had not set a deadline on Iran submitting a peace proposal, she said, after Trump on Tuesday said he was indefinitely extending the ceasefire at the request of mediator Pakistan until Tehran responded to the US’s negotiating positions or until talks were concluded “one way or the other”. The Pentagon announced that the US secretary of the navy, John Phelan, would depart the office “effective immediately”, without providing an explanation for his sudden exit amid the naval blockade. The US-Israeli war against Iran is “starting to weaken Europe”, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told his German counterpart. Erdoğan said: “If we do not address this situation with an approach that prioritises peace, the damage caused by the conflict will be far greater.” Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed a Lebanese journalist, Amal Khalil, and wounded a photographer accompanying her, a senior Lebanese military official and Khalil’s employer said. The death of Khalil, 43, brought the death toll to five people on Wednesday – the deadliest day since a 10-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah was announced on 16 April. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Khalil’s death. Khalil and freelance photographer Zeinab Faraj were covering developments near the town of al-Tayri when an Israeli strike hit the vehicle in front of them, Reuters reported. They ran into a nearby house that was then also targeted by an Israeli strike, said Lebanon’s health ministry. Lebanese prime minister Nawaf Salam said Israeli targeting of journalists and obstructing relief effort constituted war crimes. Oil prices leapt 4% on Thursday after Iran vowed not to reopen the Hormuz strait amid the US naval blockade despite the truce extension. Around 0025 GMT, the benchmark US oil contract West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 4.06% to $96.73 a barrel, while the international oil benchmark Brent North Sea crude climbed 3.62% to $105.63. Both eased back minutes after. Two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old schoolboy, were killed in the occupied West Bank after Israeli settlers opened fire near a school amid mounting assaults on education in the territory, witnesses and local officials have said. United Airlines implemented broad-based rises of 15-20% on fares as it sought to offset the surge in petrol prices while protecting profits, executives said. The big US carrier has also cut its 2026 flying capacity by 5%.

Thursday briefing: Why the US president is losing support from crucial allies

Good morning. Starting a war of choice that is rapidly spiralling out of control, poll ratings at a second-term low, and a cost of living crisis intensifying for millions. Any conventional US president would be in big trouble. But Donald Trump is not a conventional president, and normal rules do not seem to apply to him. More than a third of Americans continue to believe he is doing a good job despite the global chaos he has unleashed. Even so, cracks have started to appear in the Maga base: the influential former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has become the latest high-profile Republican to express his regret for cheerleading Trump, admitting he is “tormented” by his prior support. For today’s First Edition, I spoke with Guardian US live news editor Chris Michael about how the fallout from the conflict with Iran has affected the domestic fortunes of the US president. But first, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Keir Starmer was looking increasingly isolated over the Peter Mandelson scandal as the Guardian learned of concerns around the cabinet table, a senior minister refused to say the dismissal of Olly Robbins was fair and several mandarins called for Robbins to be reinstated. One Labour MP called on Starmer to quit. Middle East | Iranian forces seized two ships in the strait of Hormuz as the US and Iran doubled down on imposing separate blockades of the shipping waterway. West Bank | Two Palestinians, including a 14-year-old schoolboy, were killed in the occupied West Bank after Israeli settlers opened fire near a school, witnesses and local officials said. Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed a journalist after rescuers were blocked from accessing the building where she was buried under rubble because of further Israeli fire, according to several witnesses. UK news | Britain’s high military dependence on the US is “no longer tenable” and the UK has to become increasingly independent of the special relationship, a former Nato chief has said. Palantir | The Metropolitan police has held talks with Palantir that could lead to the London force buying the US spy-tech company’s AI technology to automate intelligence analysis for criminal investigations. In depth: ‘Trump campaigned on the cost of living and did nothing about it after he won’ Donald Trump is an unpopular US president. In the wake of the US-Israel attacks on Iran, his favourability has reached a level comparable to the aftermath of the 6 January 2021 US Capitol attack. A series of recent polls puts his approval rating in the mid-30s, driven down by the economic fallout from the war that has worsened a cost of living crisis for millions of struggling Americans. Chris Michael says the rise in fuel prices has been a crucial issue for voters, who were promised falls in the cost of filling up their cars and trucks by Trump ahead of the election. “People are not really thinking about Iranians being killed – obviously some are – but they are really bothered about gas prices, and the Trump administration’s messaging on that has been terrible,” says Chris. “The energy secretary Chris Wright said it wouldn’t be until next year that we would see gas back down to $3 a gallon. It’s currently around $4, so it’s up 25%. That has a direct impact on everyone in the US. “Trump campaigned on the cost of living and has basically done nothing about it after he won. To make matters worse, he has started a war that has driven up energy prices and been quite dismissive about it.” *** Tucker’s ‘torment’ In Trump’s apparent moment of weakness, critics are feeling emboldened. Tucker Carlson recently apologised for supporting Trump in the 2024 US presidential election, claiming he will be “tormented” for a long time over the decision. (Some observers even say this is a sign Carlson might be distancing himself ahead of a presidential run to replace Trump in 2028.) Carlson is not alone. From Joe Rogan to Megyn Kelly, other former Trump supporters in the media are expressing their anger at the fighting in the Middle East and his administration. “The hardcore America First people are turning against Trump. They can smell something in the wind and Iran is a big part of that. They firmly believe that you shouldn’t get involved in foreign wars. The fringe right of the Maga movement has had enough of Trump,” says Chris. *** Seeds of doubt Conspiracy theorists in the Maga movement have also started to turn their attention to the US president. Almost two years ago, Donald Trump was nearly assassinated during a campaign rally when a bullet clipped his ear but he was largely unharmed. Afterwards, he stood, defiant with his fist raised, as blood dripped down his face, telling the crowd to “fight”. It was a key moment for Trump in the 2024 election. But now, some in the Maga base are questioning whether it was staged – among them, comedian Tim Dillon, a prominent Trump supporter. In normal circumstances this would just be another conspiracy theory on the internet, but it is gaining traction online, says Chris. “Trump encouraged all this stuff and rode the wave of conspiratorial thinking. If you live by the sword, you die by the sword, and now it’s turned on him a little bit. It stems from Epstein, which is seen as a real moral failure for Maga. For a lot of Trump voters, the protection of women and girls is a key value.” *** A cornered animal With just six months to go before the midterm elections, Trump and the Republican party’s political fortunes appear bleak. The Democrats could win back control of both Congress and the Senate, restricting the US leader’s ability to govern and opening the door to future impeachments. With the exception of the “big, beautiful bill”, Trump has largely ruled by executive order. But heavy losses in the midterms would still restrict the president in his final years in office. “He can certainly carry on with his executive orders but they don’t work well. His signature tariff policy was overturned by the supreme court. He has made very little attempt to get Congress to do much. If the Dems win the House, even less legislation will get passed. They can set up any number of investigations and subcommittees into corruption in the White House, which is a huge issue,” says Chris. “That will be more bad press for him. It will contribute to an atmosphere of Trump starting to look weak and cornered. But a cornered animal is a dangerous animal.” What else we’ve been reading Emine Saner interviews New York Times investigative journalist Jodi Kantor, who exposed allegations against Harvey Weinstein and Amazon’s work practices – and has now set her mind to helping young people find their life’s work. Martin The London marathon runners doing the race in fancy dress are the real heroes, just like my colleague Patrick Barkham, who will be dressed as a badger. He has interviewed other fancy dress runners about what to expect. Patrick Daniel Engber goes out on a limb for the Atlantic and describes the current mania over missing US scientists as – in a strong field – the single dumbest conspiracy theory of 2026. Martin I was fascinated by this feature on Iran’s Jewish community and how they are coping with the attacks from Israel and the US. Patrick Expanded tournaments have left many nations in men’s football believing European championship qualifying has gone stale. An exclusive from Nick Ames suggests Uefa may be on the verge of revamping the system. Martin Sport Football | Manchester City leapfrogged Arsenal to go top of the table as Erling Haaland’s goal in the 1-0 win against Burnley relegated the Clarets. Leeds drew 2-2 with Bournemouth. Football | Chelsea sacked Liam Rosenior after a dreadful run of form saw the head coach lose the support of the dressing room. Rosenior has departed three months into a six-and-a-half-year deal and leaves with his side in danger of missing out on European football. Snooker | Ronnie O’Sullivan dusted off an old cue from under his bed in Ireland and duly rocketed into the second round of the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield after wrapping up a 10-2 win over He Guoqiang. The front pages “PM isolated as cabinet divisions emerge over Mandelson scandal” – that’s the print splash in the Guardian. The Times has “PM ‘should face sleaze inquiry over Mandelson’” while the i paper stokes leadership speculation: “Streeting allies now open to Rayner pact – with cabinet losing confidence in PM”. The Financial Times leads with “Iran seizes two ships in show of force as bid to revive peace talks flounders”. The Telegraph has “Hermer pursued ‘witch hunt’ against troops despite warnings” which is about false claims about Iraq war veterans. “It’s my life, my choice” – a story about assisted dying in the Mail. The Express resents the latest immigration enforcement deal with France: “Here’s another £660m to stop the boats”. Top story in the Mirror is “Knox’s letter to Letby … Cleared of Meredith murder, now reaching out to jailed baby killer”. The Metro shames people on long-term sickness benefits, by profiling two people who are not: “Workshy Brits? Not this pair”. Today in Focus What the new Michael Jackson biopic leaves out A blockbuster film about the controversial singer could make $1bn worldwide. Owen Myers and Lanre Bakare explain what it says about Jackson’s legacy. Cartoon of the day | Martin Rowson The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad An Arizona utility worker has been hailed as being “in the right place at the right time” after rescuing a toddler from rush-hour traffic. Robert Butler leapt from his truck and scooped up the child just feet from a busy four-lane road, moments before a car sped past. He said: “I just think about when I get home and my son’s happy to see me. That little boy can be happy to see his parents or whoever.” His employer called it “a powerful reminder of what it means to look out for one another”. 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. Martin Belam’s Thursday news quiz Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

Erdogan says Iran war ‘starting to weaken Europe’ – as it happened

We’re closing this file now but our live coverage of the Middle East continues in a new blog here, including a fresh summary of the latest developments. Thanks for following along.

Czech journalists threaten to strike over plan to scrap licence fees

Journalists at the Czech Republic’s public broadcasters have said they are prepared to go on strike unless the government of the billionaire prime minister, Andrej Babiš, backs down on its plan to scrap licence fees and move funding under state control. In what the journalists see as a threat to their independence, the government wants to replace the current system, in which households pay fees directly to public service media, with direct funding from the state budget. “Licence fees are cancelled,” the culture minister, Oto Klempíř, declared last week. Babiš’s populist Ano (Yes) party pledged to end licence fees before last October’s parliamentary election, which it won. But the move is deeply controversial. On Wednesday, thousands of university students gathered at Prague’s Jan Palach Square and marched through the capital chanting: “We won’t let you take the media.” Pavla Kubálková, of the Czech Television strike committee, said: “Adoption of the bill would introduce direct political influence over Czech Television by changing a funding model that has functioned for decades. We see this as a direct threat to its independence.” The proposal would cut about £48m from public service media funding in 2027. Czech Television would lose just under a third of its budget compared with 2026, while Czech Radio would lose about a fifth. Jan Herget, of the Czech Radio strike committee, told the Guardian: “State financing puts a tool into the hands of politicians that can be used to undermine the independence and editorial autonomy of Czech Radio and Czech Television.” He noted that radio licence fees were last set in 2005 at about £1.60, rising only slightly in 2025 to roughly £1.85. “The new proposal would effectively revert funding to 2005 levels, pushing it back by around 20 years,” he said. “It’s like expecting an average household with two children today to live on the same income it had in 2005.” Wednesday’s student protest was joined by opposition figures including Zdeněk Hřib, the leader of the Pirate party, who has previously called on Klempíř to resign as culture minister. “The situation is serious. Attempts to take control of the media through funding and government-controlled council members are far beyond acceptable limits,” he wrote on X. Jan Motal, a media commentator, said the proposed law “shifts funding under state control without explaining how independence will be protected”. “It is a half-formed reform being pushed through in a climate where political interference is a real concern,” Motal said. He said successive governments had failed to reform Czech Television and Czech Radio. “Both the legislative and economic frameworks are essentially the same as they were 26 years ago. These institutions should have undergone reform long ago to secure their independence.” Concerns about political pressure are shared by prominent figures within the media. Václav Moravec, a well-known journalist who worked at Czech Television for 21 years, recently left the broadcaster, saying live on air that it could no longer guarantee independence. He told the Guardian that alongside external political pressure such as the proposed law, the broadcaster’s autonomy had been undermined internally, and he argued that resistance must also come from within the institution. Moravec drew parallels with broader global trends. “Internal pressure and political pressure are working side by side. Political actors like Nigel Farage or Donald Trump argue that public media is no longer needed because we already have private media and a pluralistic information environment through social media and private news outlets.” He argued that public opinion may further complicate the situation. “Research shows that 68% of the Czech public does not see a difference between licence fees and state budget funding,” Moravec said. “That makes it much easier for someone like Andrej Babiš to push for state control.” Czech Radio has already reduced staffing in its international broadcasting division by a quarter after the foreign ministry cut funding to Radio Prague International. The foreign minister, Petr Macinka, now plans to end support for international broadcasting altogether next year, despite the service being mandated by law. The Vienna-based International Press Institute said it feared that the bill, which still requires approval from the government and parliament, was intended to “weaken the broadcasters’ financial and editorial independence and compromise their ability to fulfil their public service remit”.

Christopher Luxon shoots the messenger as nightmare New Zealand election scenario hangs over him | Claire Robinson

Being prime minister is the hardest job in New Zealand. It requires presence, vision and the willingness to be publicly answerable for everything – to parliament, citizens, the party, business, the media. You can’t be accountable to one and not the other. Yet that’s what Christoper Luxon chose this week when he scolded the media and told them he would no longer engage with them on questions about his leadership. For most of the last year, National, the lead party in a three-way coalition government, has been trailing the opposition Labour party in the polls. In January 2026 the gap was just 0.67% of a percentage point on average. Three months later, it widened to a 5.86% average with no signs of bottoming out. The party is facing the possibility of being the first one-term National-led government since the party was founded in 1936. This prospect is embarrassing for its leadership, current and past. National has never led for less than three terms, ever. Leader popularity is a major factor in voter choice. High leader ratings correlate with increased party support. As a general rule, low preferred-prime-minister ratings can drag a party down by 2-4%. In New Zealand this can be the difference between government and opposition. Luxon’s net approval rating has plummeted from +11 in February 2024 to around -19 in March 2026. He’s in life or death territory. Not unexpectedly, the dismal polling has fuelled rumours and speculation about Luxon’s leadership, and if he should be the one who leads National into the 7 November general election. On Tuesday, in a high stakes National caucus meeting, Luxon moved, and won, a formal motion of confidence in his own leadership. Emerging two and a half hours later, he delivered a two-minute prepared statement declaring the matter “now closed”. He told the media if they “want to keep focusing on speculation and rumour, I’m not going to engage”. After describing the interest in his leadership as a “media soap opera”, he walked away without taking a question. It was a masterclass – just not in the art of leadership. Luxon may have intended to come across as a schoolyard head-boy delivering a stern word to recalcitrant first years. It had the opposite effect. His curtness and blame deflection said more about how bad it got in caucus than any questions he might have answered afterwards. In chastising the media, Luxon broke one of the cardinal rules of political leadership: don’t shoot the messenger. The press may be brutal, ask awkward questions, and go down rabbit holes where there is nothing to find. But with freedom of the press a fundamental right, you censor them at your peril. This was no media beat-up. In questioning Luxon’s leadership capabilities, the media was reflecting the public mood. When Luxon walked away from the mics, as waiting reporters peppered him with questions, he was effectively telling voters he wasn’t interested in their opinion of him. Not smart. The following day, coalition partner and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, who will jump at any chance to poke the bear, said it would have been wise for Luxon to have forewarned Peters about the confidence motion. National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis and later Luxon retorted that a vote for New Zealand First was a vote for Labour. The rarity of both National leaders actively counter-attacking Peters is telling. Luxon and Willis have been wary of criticising the party that holds the dice in the next coalition negotiation. With National bleeding votes to New Zealand First, the National caucus will have instructed Luxon and Willis to fight Peters if he comes at them. Stem the bleed, or you’re toast. Luxon likes to present himself as the CEO of the government, not understanding that the role of prime minister requires so much more of him. A CEO answers to a board. A prime minister answers to everyone. Paradoxically, if Luxon was a CEO reporting to a board and his staff engagement score was under 20%, his board would be asking the same questions as the media about his fitness for office. Luxon may have survived his own confidence vote but this is not the same as re-gaining the confidence of voters. He is a leader on notice who is yet to learn that when that notice is served is not up to him. Dr Claire Robinson is a political commentator and author of Promises Promises: 80 Years of Wooing New Zealand Voters

Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv hails frontline position as ‘strongest in a year’

Ukraine’s frontline position is “the strongest” it has been in a year due to superiority in drones and enhanced air defence, said Andriy Sybiha, the foreign minister. Agence France-Presse said its analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed Russian troops made almost no territorial gains across the frontline in March – the first time this had occurred in two and a half years. “We have minimised the Russians’ advantage in manpower through the use of drones,” Sybiha added. “For us, the situation on the battlefield is about strengthening our negotiating position. We can shoot down up to 90% of the targets that strike our cities … [Ukraine’s] position on the battlefield is indeed the strongest, or the most solid, it has been over the past year.” A Russian strike killed two people and wounded eight in Ukraine’s Dnipro city, regional authorities said on Thursday. “One person is still unaccounted for,” said Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the regional administration said. Two children aged nine and 14 were among those taken to hospital, Ganzha said, after an apartment building, a shop and a car were hit. Turkey is trying to revive negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and bring together their leaders at the request of Kyiv, the office of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Wednesday. Erdogan told the Nato head, Mark Rutte in a meeting in Ankara that “we are working to revive negotiations and start talks at leaders’ level”. Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, confirmed Ukraine is pushing for the face-to-face talks between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin. While Turkey was asked to facilitate, Ukraine would consider any venue outside Russia and Belarus. “We are … advocating for a meeting now to bring new momentum to diplomacy,” Sybiha said. Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying that Putin would only meet Zelenskyy “for the purpose of finalising agreements”. The Kremlin instead appealed for the US to again send Donald Trump’s delegates Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow. The pair have repeatedly listened to Putin’s maximalist demands, to which Witkoff has appeared pliant, and produced no outcomes while declining to visit Kyiv and hear Ukraine’s side. Peskov said Russia was ready for any new talks on a settlement to the war with US negotiators “even tomorrow”. A woman and child were killed in the Russian oil refining city of Syzran, about 1,000km (621 miles) from the border with Ukraine, after a Ukrainian drone hit their apartment building, the regional governor said on Wednesday. Russian media reports said a Rosneft oil refinery is located on the same street as the damaged building. Russian drones attacked infrastructure in the Black Sea port of Odesa damaging berths, warehouses, railway infrastructure, port operators’ facilities and a ship, Ukraine’s deputy PM Oleksiy Kuleba said on Wednesday. Preliminary reports said no one was hurt and the port was still operating. Kuleba said a Russian drone attack at a sorting yard at the Zaporizhzhia-Live station in the southern Zaporizhzhia region killed an assistant train driver while the driver was hospitalised. EU member states reached agreement on unblocking the urgently needed €90bn (£78bn) loan for Kyiv and a new package of sanctions against Moscow after Ukraine resumed pumping Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, prompting Budapest to lift its veto. Jon Henley writes that Cyprus, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said member states’ ambassadors had agreed to launch “written procedures” for the final approval of the loan and the sanctions package, with formal signoff on both due by Thursday afternoon.

UK to pay France another £660m to curb Channel crossings

The UK government has agreed to pay France another £660m to curb the number of asylum seekers travelling across the Channel, including plans to fund a riot squad to “contain and disperse” people trying to board small boats. Under a three-year deal to be signed on Thursday by the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, 1,100 enforcement, intelligence and military officers – an increase of 40% – will be employed to track down smuggling gangs and people seeking refuge. A 50-strong riot squad will be trained in “crowd-control tactics” and will “stop illegal migrants in their tracks”, according to the Home Office. UK cash is expected to fund batons, shields and teargas to deal with “hostile crowds and violent tactics”. The announcement follows protracted negotiations between the two countries over how to halt unauthorised small boat journeys, and who should pick up most of the cost. The previous £478m, three-year deal collapsed on 31 March. Organisations representing asylum seekers said plans to fund policing tactics such as riot control would mean the further brutalisation of people who have no alternative if they wish to seek refuge in the UK. Sile Reynolds, head of asylum advocacy at the charity Freedom from Torture, said it was a “deeply alarming” escalation, adding: “Now, we will be paying for police boots and batons to be wielded indiscriminately against men, women and children on the beaches of northern France for the crime of seeking safety. “Many of the people who will be harmed by these heavy-handed tactics have already endured state violence during their flight from persecution. Now they will face the full ferocity of the French riot police – a security body that has been criticised by the United Nations committee against torture for excessive use of force.” Imran Hussain, the director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, said: “By focusing on policing the Channel, the government is treating the symptom not the cause. Policing alone will not prevent desperate people from turning to dangerous small boats in the first place. “We know from our frontline services why people risk their lives to reach the UK: many already speak some English, have family here, or have cultural connections to Britain. Without safe routes to reach the UK, these men, women and children will be forced into dangerous and potentially deadly small boat crossings.” French police have fired teargas canisters and stun grenades and used pepper spray in attempts to stop people boarding boats across the Channel. However, this is the first time the UK will fund a riot squad specifically to tackle irregular migration. The new deal includes a baseline package of about £500m to boost enforcement action on beaches in northern France. The deal will cover: • Five new police units, including a riot squad of 50 officers who will be trained in the use of crowd control. • An additional 20 maritime officers to target and intercept small boats that pick up asylum seekers in shallow waters. In the past two months, French officials have stopped six “taxi boats”, sentencing smugglers to prison and deportation, the Home Office said. • An expansion of the 18-strong intelligence unit to 30 specialists to ramp up the arrest and prosecution of people smugglers. • Two new helicopters and a camera system to track down and intercept people smugglers and people seeking to cross to the UK. The government has also put aside £160m “to trial new approaches”, but the Home Office did not respond to requests asking what these might be. In the first year of this arrangement, the UK will spend £50m, a statement said. If the initial investment does not make an impact, the government will withhold the remaining £110m in years two and three, it says, billing it as the first “payment-by-results” scheme in the Channel. Labour, which is predicted to lose councils to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the local elections, has come under increasing pressure from political opponents to curb irregular migration. In a statement Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said: “Our work with the French has already stopped tens of thousands of crossings and this government has deported or returned nearly 60,000 people with no right to be here. This historic agreement means we can go further: ramping up intelligence, surveillance and boots on the ground to protect Britain’s borders.” Mahmood said: “This landmark deal will stop illegal migrants making the perilous journey and put people smugglers behind bars.” Earlier this month, a Sudanese man was charged over the deaths of four migrants who drowned after being swept away by strong currents while trying to cross the Channel. More than 6,000 people have arrived in the UK this year after making the journey, down 36% on the equivalent period last year.

‘Impossible’ to reopen strait of Hormuz amid ‘flagrant’ ceasefire breaches, Iran says

Iranian forces have seized two ships in the strait of Hormuz as the US and Iran doubled down on imposing separate blockades of the shipping waterway. The standoff over the strait – through which about 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied fossil gas passed through during peacetime – has raised doubts about whether stalled peace negotiations will resume. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament and lead negotiator, said late on Wednesday that reopening the strait of Hormuz would be “impossible” while the US and Israel committed “flagrant” breaches of the ceasefire, including the US naval blockade, “the hostage-taking of the world’s economy” and “Zionist warmongering”. He added in a post on X that the US and Israel “did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying”. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said earlier that their naval forces had stopped two ships attempting to cross the strait and brought them to shore. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that the IRGC had accused the two ships – the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca and Liberia-flagged Epaminondas – of “attempting to exit the strait of Hormuz covertly”. The Epaminondas is Greek-operated, and Greece’s foreign minister confirmed there had been an attack against a Greek-owned cargo ship. A UK-based maritime security monitor reported attacks on ships in the waterway on Wednesday, including an incident in which a vessel was approached by an Iranian gunboat “that then fired upon the vessel which has caused heavy damage to the bridge”. The seizures mark the first time Iran has taken control of ships since the beginning of the war, which started on 28 February, and come after the US fired on and seized an Iranian cargo vessel and boarded a Iranian oil tanker in the Indian Ocean. In the latest in a series of about-turns, Donald Trump threatened violence on Tuesday hours before announcing he was unilaterally extending a ceasefire. On Wednesday the White House press secretary said Trump was “satisfied” with the naval blockade, and “understands Iran is in a very weak position”. “The cards are in President Trump’s hands right now,” Karoline Leavitt told reporters, adding that the US was “completely strangling their economy through this blockade, they’re losing $500m a day”. The US president has been unable to contain the global economic and diplomatic crisis that erupted from the war, which has not resulted in the anti-US regime being overthrown or ended Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Instead, it led to Tehran’s forced closure of the strait of Hormuz, which has caused a spiralling global economic crisis. Facing calls to reopen the waterway, Trump put pressure on Iran to end its blockade, but failed and later decided to impose his own blockade, leading to more fuel price hikes and threats of long-term inflation. Countries in Asia that are dependent on Gulf oil have been badly hit, with shortages of fuel, fertiliser and other raw materials that pass through the strait. While the west is better insulated, it is not immune. Germany, Europe’s largest economy, halved its 2026 growth forecast to 0.5% on Wednesday, while Greece announced €500m (£434m) in extra aid for households and farmers. The prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said: “The nation’s economy is holding up and doing better than expected. However, the stress of the supermarket, the expenses of children, more expensive fuel and the care of the elderly remain.” The head of the UN maritime agency has appealed for help for thousands of seafarers stranded in the Gulf by the strait of Hormuz closure. About 20,000 seafarers and 2,000 ships have been stranded, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Over the weekend, Iran said it had received new proposals from Washington but also suggested a wide gap remained between the sides. Pakistan has acted as mediator, but a luxury hotel in Islamabad that was cleared out for more talks remained empty on Wednesday. Iran never publicly accepted the invitation and the US delegation led by the vice-president, JD Vance, never left Washington. A Pakistani official briefed on the preparations told Reuters: “We had prepared everything. We were all prepared for the talks, the stage was set. If you ask me honestly, it was a setback we were not expecting, because the Iranians never refused, they were up to come and join and they still are.” In his first term as president, Trump withdrew from an agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme. He disliked the pact, which had been signed by Barack Obama, and was discouraged from diplomacy by Israel, Iran’s arch-enemy. For years, Israel had pushed the US to bomb Iran but no administration in Washington agreed, seeing it as counterproductive and fearing the chaos that is now playing out. Adding to the bloodshed and instability, Israel and the Iranian proxy group, Hezbollah, have fought a second front in Lebanon. Despite a tenuous 10-day ceasefire that expires on Sunday, Israeli strikes killed five people in Lebanon on Wednesday, Lebanese state media said, including journalist Amal Khalil. Khalil and photographer Zeinab Faraj were covering developments near the town of al-Tayri in southern Lebanon when an Israeli strike hit the vehicle in front of them. They ran into a nearby house, which was then also targeted by an Israeli strike, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Rescuers were able to retrieve Faraj, who had a head wound. When they returned to help Khalil, a sound grenade blocked their access to the damaged building, a Lebanese military official said. She was later found dead by civil defence, who pulled her corpse from under the rubble. In a statement before Khalil’s death was confirmed, Israel’s military said it had received reports that two journalists were injured as a result of its strikes, and denied it was preventing rescue teams from reaching the area. Hezbollah said it carried out an attack on northern Israel in response to what it called “flagrant” violations of the ceasefire. At least 2,454 people have been killed in Lebanon in Israeli attacks since the start of the war, according to Lebanese authorities. The Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, said preparations were under way for negotiations between Lebanon and Israel on Thursday. The talks are significant as the countries have not maintained diplomatic relations with each other. For decades, Israel has repeatedly bombed, invaded and occupied Lebanon, while the Lebanese government has failed to contain Hezbollah, which has fired rockets at Israel. Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report