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Middle East crisis live: Trump says Iran and US ‘want to make a deal’ but Tehran says claims of talks are ‘fake news’

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Monday that “no negotiations” were held with the United States after US president Donald Trump announced talks were ongoing. “No negotiations have been held with the US, and fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped,” Ghalibaf said in a post on X. It came as US president Trump announced “very good” talks on Monday with an unidentified Iranian official after abruptly shelving plans to attack the Islamic republic’s power plants. The Axios new site, citing an unnamed Israeli official, named Trump’s interlocutor as Ghalibaf. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei indicated that messages had been received from “some friendly countries indicating a US request for negotiations aimed at ending the war,” according to the official IRNA news agency.

Israel launches new strikes on Tehran as Trump pauses Iran energy attacks

The Israeli military said it had launched a new wave of strikes on Tehran, after Donald Trump signalled a pause in US attacks against energy infrastructure after what he said were talks with Iran. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it would continue operations in line with Israeli government directives until told otherwise. About 40 minutes after Trump said he had extended by five days his deadline to strike Iran’s power plants, describing talks with Tehran as “productive”, the IDF said on X it ‘‘has just begun another wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime across Tehran”. The IDF told the Guardian energy infrastructure would be spared, suggesting Israel may follow Washington in suspending any targeting of Iranian power plants and related sites. An IDF official told the Times of Israel that the military could not comment on the US president’s announcement of negotiations with Iran, saying it was a “political echelon matter”, and stating it was ‘‘operating in accordance with the directives of Israel’s political leadership and will continue to strike in Iran according to its plans until instructed otherwise”. Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent in Tehran reported that the size and volume of the explosions in the Iranian capital were “unprecedented”. Israel has not recently threatened to strike such facilities, but the defence minister, Israel Katz, said on Sunday that attacks on Iran and on “the infrastructure it relies on” would significantly escalate. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Monday said they launched a new attack on targets in Israel. Before Israel launched its latest strikes on Iran, Trump wrote on social media, that Washington and Tehran “have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations”, adding that he had “instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions”. A source familiar with Israel’s military planning said Washington had kept Israeli officials updated on its discussions with Tehran, adding that Israel was expected to align with the US in pausing any strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the US-Iran talks or Washington’s decision to refrain from targeting certain Iranian sites. On Monday, in a statement on Telegram, the Israeli military said it had struck a series of military bases and weapons sites in a fresh round of attacks on Iran, including an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps air defence and ground forces headquarters, a Quds Force base and intelligence site, and a defence ministry missile production facility, as well as other research and manufacturing centres. The Guardian could not independently verify the claims. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said in the last 24 hours it had recorded at least 206 attacks across 15 provinces in Iran, resulting in at least four casualties (killed and injured, both civilian and military). With the killing of a child on Monday, it is estimated at least 15% of the total human casualties in Iran so far have been under the age of 18. At least six people were killed in strikes on homes in Tabriz city, according to Fars. Since US-Israeli bombs started falling on Iran, estimates of total fatalities (military and civilian) in the country have surpassed 1,500, with some rights groups reporting figures as high as 3,230 as of 21 March. Earlier, the IDF said it had destroyed or rendered inoperable about 330 of Iran’s estimated 470 ballistic missile launchers since the beginning of the war, with more than half hit in airstrikes and others disabled after entrances to underground storage sites were targeted. The military said the air force was continuing to pursue the remaining launchers, as missile fire on Israel has fallen to about 10 a day in recent days, down from roughly 90 at the start of the conflict. Meanwhile, Israel has continued its military campaign in Lebanon. The Israeli military said it had carried out a recent strike in Beirut targeting a militant linked to Iran’s Quds Force, while Lebanon’s health ministry reported that one person was killed. The state news agency also said Israeli forces had positioned themselves inside the southern village of Aita al-Chaab, deploying a large crane equipped with surveillance cameras facing nearby Ramiyah. On Monday, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, called for the annexation of areas in southern Lebanon, saying Israel should “apply sovereignty” over areas under its control, signalling an expansionist vision that has alarmed critics at home and abroad. On an Israeli radio programme, Smotrich said the military campaign in Lebanon “needs to end with a different reality entirely, both with the Hezbollah decision but also with the change of Israel’s borders”. “I say here definitively … in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani,” he added.

Giorgia Meloni concedes defeat in Italy’s judiciary reform referendum – as it happened

… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today! Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has conceded defeat in a two-day referendum on judiciary reforms, saying she will respect the voters’ decision – but branding it “a lost chance to modernise Italy” (16:50, 17:00). With 95% votes now counted, nearly 54% of the voters backed the No campaign, rejecting the contentious proposals (18:05). The unexpected defeat weakens Meloni politically, as she was hoping to press ahead with an electoral law that could give her coalition a comfortable win in next year’s general election (15:23). In other news, Hungary’s embattled prime minister Viktor Orbán hosted the “Patriots’ Grand Assembly” in Budapest, bringing together a number of far-right leaders from across Europe (18:11). Earlier today, the European Commission said it would seek “a clarification” from the Hungarian government after media reports alleging that the country’s foreign minister Péter Szijjártó had been leaking confidential EU discussions to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov (12:23). Orbán attempted to get on the front foot as he ordered a probe into what he called a wiretapping of Szijjártó’s phone (13:02). Hungary’s Orbán and his government face a tricky parliamentary election next month, with a number of nationalist leaders lining up to endorse him ahead of the vote (11:41, 12:03). Elsewhere, France’s local elections, closely watched for clues to next year’s presidential vote, have given parties of the centre a welcome and unexpected lift as the far right and radical left fell some way short of their ambitions. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Colombian military plane crashes with scores of soldiers on board, officials say

Scores of Colombian soldiers are feared dead after military transport plane crashed on takeoff in the south of the country. The defense minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the accident happened as the Lockheed Martin Hercules C-130 plane was taking off from Puerto Leguízamo, deep in Colombia’s southern Amazon region on the border with Peru, as it transported troops from the armed forces. “The exact number of victims and the causes of the crash have not yet been determined,” he said. Local media quoted sources saying that between 80 and 110 soldiers were on board, and that the crash took place just 3km (2 miles) from an urban center. Images shared online by local media outlets show a black cloud of smoke rising from a field where the plane crashed, and a truck with soldiers rushing to the site. Sánchez did not specify the number of troops who were aboard the Hercules C-130. He said rescue teams had been sent to the site of the crash and that the cause of the accident still hasn’t been determined. “This event is profoundly painful for the country,” Sánchez wrote. “We hope that our prayers can help to relieve some of the pain.” US defense company Lockheed Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. At the end of February, another Hercules C-130 belonging to the Bolivian Air Force crashed in the populous city of Alto, barely missing a residential block. More details soon …

Hungarian election candidate accuses ruling party of treason over alleged EU leak to Russia

The candidate leading the polls in Hungary’s upcoming elections has said the alleged sharing of confidential EU information between Budapest and Moscow should be investigated as possible treason, while the European Commission has called for “clarifications” over the alleged leaks. Péter Magyar, a conservative anti-corruption campaigner who is mounting the most serious challenge to Viktor Orbán’s 16-year-long grip on the Hungarian premiership, said the government appeared to be colluding with Russia, “thereby betraying Hungarian and European interests”. A report in the Washington Post last week said Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, routinely updated his Russian counterpart with the details of confidential EU meetings. Magyar wrote on X on Monday: “If confirmed, this would amount to treason, which carries a potential life sentence. A future Tisza government will immediately investigate the matter.” Magyar, a former insider of the ruling Fidesz party, leads the rival Tisza party, which is ahead in the polls three weeks before the country goes to vote on 12 April. The European Commission has called on Hungary’s government to provide clarity over the reported leaks. The commission’s spokesperson Anitta Hipper said reports that Szijjártó had disclosed information from closed-door EU meetings to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, were “greatly concerning”. She told reporters: “A relationship of trust between member states and between them and the institution is fundamental for the work of the EU and we expect the Hungarian government to provide the clarifications.” Relations between Hungary and its EU neighbours, never the smoothest, have plummeted to new icy lows as Orbán enters election campaign mode. He blocked a €90bn EU loan for Ukraine last week. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, tweeted over the weekend: “The news that Orbán’s people inform Moscow about EU council meetings in every detail shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. We’ve had our suspicions about that for a long time.” Citing a European security official, the Washington Post reported that Szijjártó called Lavrov during EU meetings with “live reports on what’s being discussed”. Two diplomatic sources confirmed to the Guardian that the Hungarian foreign minister had shared information with Lavrov. Szijjártó, who was given an award by Vladimir Putin in 2021, is a regular at the EU foreign affairs council, which has discussed the war on Ukraine every month since the full-scale invasion just over four years ago. He dismissed the allegations as “fake news”. EU diplomats said they were not surprised by the reports and that tightening the circulation of information and documents could be required. Currently, there are no restrictions on Hungary’s access to information, although a diplomat from one EU member state said they were more guarded when a Hungarian representative was present. A German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday that discussions within the EU were confidential and “we will not tolerate any violation of them”. In the wake of the Washington Post report, Orbán ordered an investigation into what he called the “wire-tapping” of Szijjártó. He announced the inquiry after a pro-government publication, Mandiner, published an article claiming that foreign intelligence agencies had eavesdropped on Szijjártó with the help of a Hungarian journalist, Szabolcs Panyi. The piece included a voice recording of Panyi sitting down with a source. Panyi told the Guardian: “This is a smear campaign aimed at discrediting me. After they found out I was working on Szijjártó’s leak, they bugged [the room] and recorded my conversation.” He was meeting a source with the aim of finding out more about communication between Lavrov and Szijjártó after the Washington Post’s report, he said. Panyi, one of Hungary’s leading investigative journalists, has reported extensively on Russian influence operations in his country. In 2024, Panyi revealed that the former Slovakian prime minister, Peter Pellegrini, had sought Orbán’s help in obtaining an invitation to Moscow four years earlier in what proved to be an ultimately unsuccessful bid by his left nationalist government to retain power. Panyi’s report for VSquare in 2024 alleged that Orbán had tasked Szijjártó with conveying Pellegrini’s message to Lavrov. Pellegrini made an official visit to Moscow in an attempt to appeal to pro-Russian sentiment in Slovakia, but his government lost the 2020 election. Panyi has previously found his phone infected with Pegasus spyware, in what he believed to be targeted hacking by the government to get ahead of his stories and identify his sources. EU diplomats do not expect Orbán to change his mind on the €90bn loan for Ukraine before the 12 April elections. Nor is the EU likely to retaliate against Orbán for blocking the loan or the alleged leaks to Russia, for fear of handing him a campaign card. Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, wrote on Sunday that criticism of Orbán at the EU summit had been “fierce” but added: “The rest of us won’t play along and become props in Orbán’s own Hungarian election campaign.” The Washington Post also reported that Russian intelligence operatives proposed a staged assassination attempt on Orbán to motivate his supporters, once it became clear Magyar was leading the polls. The Guardian has found that other disinformation networks with links to Russia, known as Operation Overload and Storm-1516, are also publishing content on platforms such as YouTube and X aimed at undermining the credibility of Magyar’s Tisza party and accusing Ukraine of meddling in the elections.

Italian voters reject overhaul of judiciary pushed by Giorgia Meloni

Italian voters have rejected an overhaul of the country’s judiciary pushed by the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, an outcome expected to tarnish her reputation and make winning next year’s general election more challenging. In a two-day referendum, 54.63% of voters said “No” to the reforms to reorganise the judiciary compared with 45.37% for the “Yes” camp. “The Italians have decided and we respect this decision,” said Meloni as the results came through on Monday afternoon. “We will move forward, as we always have done, with responsibility, determination and respect towards the Italian people and Italy.” Turnout reached a record-breaking 58.5%, according to data from the Italian interior ministry, contradicting ballot forecasts that it would be low. “We’re all surprised by the level of the turnout,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, a politics professor at Luiss University in Rome. “I’m very impressed.” While the nature of the reforms, which would have required amendments to Italy’s post-fascism constitution, were technical and complex, the referendum campaign was mostly filled with inflammatory rhetoric from Meloni and her ministers towards the judiciary. Meloni’s far-right government has proved unusually stable for Italy and since coming to power in October 2022 the prime minister has cultivated good working relations with many European leaders and Donald Trump. Her Brothers of Italy party, which has neofascist roots, leads in polls at about 30%, while Meloni rides high in personal opinion polls. But this aura of invincibility is now damaged, said analysts. “Her standing is going to suffer,” said D’Alimonte. “She’s going to be a weaker prime minister.” The referendum defeat will make it harder for Meloni’s ruling coalition to push forward with plans to pass an electoral law that could give the alliance a comfortable win in the 2027 general elections. It may also scupper Meloni’s other flagship policy, allowing the electorate to vote directly for the prime minister, a move that would also require a controversial constitutional change. “This is her pet project,” said D’Alimonte of the direct election proposal. “That is sitting in parliament waiting for the outcome of this referendum. The loss means she is going to lose the leverage to push it through.” He added: “The other thing is when you start losing in politics, you might face a change in the wind. People start looking at you differently. You’re not invincible. You made a mistake.” The defeat comes at a particularly sensitive time, with the cost of living rising due to the widening conflict in the Middle East as a result of the US-Israeli war in Iran. Meloni has nurtured close relations with Trump and is ideologically in tune with him, while the majority of Italians are against the war and have a negative opinion of him. “This is an unfavourable environment for Meloni,” said D’Alimonte. “You have gas and electricity bills going up, and her association with Trump is something that even her voters think is problematic, to say the least.” The referendum outcome is expected to boost the fortunes of the opposition parties, which for the most part supported ‘‘No” in the referendum, giving them a platform on which to unite and possible build a credible force against Meloni. “We did it – long live the constitution,” said Giuseppe Conte, the former prime minister who leads the Five Star Movement.

Is Iran really able to strike London, and is the UK prepared for an attack?

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed at the weekend that Iran had weapons able to travel about 4,000km (2,500 miles), posing an immediate threat to European cities including London. The comments came after it emerged Iran had targeted the joint UK–US military base on Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands. What has Israel claimed? After reports that Iran had targeted Diego Garcia, the IDF posted claims on social media on Saturday that Tehran had deployed missiles that could travel about 4,000km. The IDF revealed that the Iranian regime has intentions to develop missiles with a range of 4,000km, which pose a danger to dozens of countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. The Iranian regime denied this. We have been saying it: The Iranian terrorist regime poses a global threat. Now, with missiles that can reach London, Paris or Berlin. What do we know about the targeting of Diego Garcia? Few details have been released. Those that have been suggest the island, which is about 3,800km from Iran, was not under any genuine threat. One of the missiles was shot down by a US warship and the other reportedly failed in flight. The Sunday Times said the latter had dropped 400 miles short of Diego Garcia – the same distance as from London to Frankfurt. Iran does, however, see the island as a legitimate target. It is home to an airbase capable of accommodating long-range US bombers. It is strategically valuable to the US and has been used as a launchpad for operations in the Middle East for years. It has a large airfield, major fuel storage facilities, radar installations and a deep-water port, and is home to about 2,500 mostly US personnel. How has the UK government responded? The UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, condemned the attack, while stressing that the UK has “taken a different position from the US and Israel” on the conflict. Cooper said ministers wanted to see a swift resolution to the war, and that the government was supporting defensive action against “reckless Iranian threats”. London initially refused US requests to use UK airbases to attack Iran in late February, in part because ministers had been told it was likely to be in breach of international law. It has since allowed the use of British bases for strikes on Iranian sites that target British allies and interests in Gulf states. This scope was expanded on Saturday to allow attacks on missile launchers that target commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz. A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “Iran’s reckless attacks, lashing out across the region and holding hostage the strait of Hormuz, are a threat to British interests and British allies. “RAF jets and other UK military assets are continuing to defend our people and personnel in the region. “This government has given permission to the US to use British bases for specific and limited defensive operations.” How did the UK respond to Israel’s warnings? The communities secretary, Steve Reed, told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that no assessment pointed to Tehran trying to attack Europe. “I’m not aware of any assessment at all that they are even trying to target Europe, let alone that they could if they tried,” he said. “But even if they did, we have the necessary military capability to defend this country.” On why Israel had issued such a warning, he said: “You would need to speak to the Israelis. “Whatever people might say, the UK is not going to be dragged into this war, but we will take appropriate collective defensive action to keep our nationals and our interests safe.” Is the UK prepared for an Iranian attack? Britain is protected by Nato’s ballistic missile defence (BMD) system. The system includes two Aegis Ashore sites in Poland and Romania, part of a larger Nato shield designed to detect, track and intercept ballistic missiles in flight. Reed told Sky News there were “systems and defences in place that keep the United Kingdom safe and that will continue to happen”. Various sources told reporters over the weekend that it was unlikely missiles launched from Tehran would be able to hit London because they would need to pass through a number of air defence systems.

How Jürgen Habermas helped me cope with my wife’s death | Letters

Compliments to Stuart Jeffries for his obituary of Jürgen Habermas (15 March). Jeffries does a superb job describing both the personal and intellectual dimensions of Habermas, his life, thinking and commitment to action. For this layman, who has darted in and out of Habermas, most influential was his concept of bounded, intermediate, public settings engendering meaningful thought and action. I never looked at the role of the 19th-century coffee house in the same way. Ironically, the obituary reminded me that Habermas had recently played a significant role for me in coming to terms with another death, that of my beloved late wife, who was known to prefer the privacy of the home to engaging in public settings. But, as it turned out, that was not quite so in a Habermas sense. As became clear in the accounts provided by people coming to pay their last respects, my wife had maintained an active, expansive life within the public space bounded by the main street in our town. Person after person, some whom I hardly knew, related details about her and indeed our joint lives, which totally surprised me. She would traverse a kilometre-long stretch of the street by foot and encounter pedestrians and shopkeepers on an unplanned but recurring basis, engaging them in often-lengthy conversations. I came to realise then that she had created her own version of the Habermas coffee house. She had fashioned a public space that transcended the private, providing her with a robust venue for conversation, and even action. Little did I know that my eureka moment about Habermas in the context of my wife’s death would be so quickly joined by that of Habermas’s own death. Neil Wilkof Ra’anana, Israel • A brilliant and inspiring editorial on the central message of Habermas. I was only tangentially aware of his work, but the argument you have distilled is inspiring. When we are assailed and worse by continuous babble, the truth of his insight must surely make us reflect, change and act. Sadly, I doubt that the demagogues and their acolytes will give it a moment’s thought. Neil Blackshaw Alnwick, Northumberland