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‘This isn’t freedom’: anger, anxiety and tears as Iran’s internet flickers back

After 88 days of near-total internet blackout in Iran, long-delayed messages, images and poems flooded phones and social media feeds at about 5pm on Tuesday, when still-limited connectivity flickered back to life. The first reactions, however, were not celebratory. Many new posts were threaded with scepticism, anxiety and anger. Ellie*, 42, an artist from Tehran, was able to connect for the first time since 28 February. “I lit a cigarette, played SoundCloud and listened to our favourite music,” she said. “Ali [her husband] and I held back tears, then cried and convinced ourselves that this was a small taste of a much greater freedom after the fall of this regime … and we truly believe it.” The part-restoration hit global headlines, with many regime supporters applauding the government. Maryam*, a photographer in Tehran, said it was “nauseating to watch the celebrations and applause”. “What an absolute joke,” she said. “It’s been truly absurd watching western media celebrate partial restoration as if it’s an achievement to applaud the regime for. The internet is our basic right.” She said it had been more than six weeks since she had booked an assignment, she had had to borrow money from her parents, and part-restoration would not allow her to work effectively. “Mobile internet still can’t connect,” she said. “WhatsApp is barely in use, the only thing is that VPNs are easier to connect to now. That’s all.” Authorities initially imposed an internet blackout from 8 January in a crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests. Connections were gradually restored in February, before a new blackout after the start of US and Israeli strikes against Iran in late February. A small number of people managed to get online intermittently through costly VPNs and satellite internet, but the vast majority were stuck in digital isolation. For those unable to afford the rocketing price of VPNs that rarely worked, Tuesday was the first time they were able to post on their social media accounts. “Hello, fellow prisoners. I feel like I am on a temporary leave from prison,” a Tehran-based student posted on Instagram. In an attempt to meet the digital demands of businesses in select sectors, Iran’s national security council had approved “internet pro” last month, albeit with limitations. Some welcomed wider connectivity with cautious optimism, but others viewed it with suspicion. Mina*, 23, a protester arrested in January, said she feared expanded surveillance rather than a full restoration. “They have no reason to open the internet unless this is a way to move the population towards ‘internet pro’ or into tunnels where they can monitor us more easily,” she said. “We call this filternet. This is not a sign of freedom.” Posts mourned those executed or awaiting execution, videos showed grieving mothers clutching photographs of children killed during the January protests, and images documented the destruction brought by war. Many Iranians described scrolling through their phones in tears, confronting an archive of the loss that had unfolded. “My accounts are filled with videos of funerals of mothers wailing, fathers screaming and children lying on the graves of their parents. My heart is heavier than it was,” said Amin*, a professor based in Tehran. “We are the biggest losers of this war. It’s not the US, Israel and neither the Islamic Republic. We lost our livelihoods, our youth and our trust in the international community.” Humour, too, has returned in fragments, often edged with bitterness. “Trump needs to shut his DMs because he hasn’t faced the true wrath of those who trusted him to help,” said Moein*, an IT professional from Karaj. “The regime has clearly won the PR war because even those who hate the regime are also now angry at Trump.” The online return of friends and family also brought mixed feelings for Iranians in the diaspora. “I experienced strange feelings, both happy and sad,” said Mahshid Nazemi, 38, a human rights advocate based in Paris. “I was sad for my friends who were not online and I constantly checked their accounts to see if they were connected or not. I am not sure if they were arrested or killed.” She said her sister, who depended on the internet for work, had been distressed by the loss of her livelihood and was left with profound grief over images of those killed in January and during the war. Amin said the return of the internet was a reminder of all that had been lost: “What truly came back online is our misery, not freedom.” *Names have been changed

Spanish PM’s family affair: the corruption cases involving Pedro Sánchez’s brother, wife and predecessor

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, is facing a long and difficult summer as corruption cases involving his brother, his wife and his predecessor José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero come before judges over the coming days and weeks. The socialist leader – who took power eight years ago after using a vote of no confidence to topple the corruption-mired government of the conservative People’s party (PP) – has insisted there has been no wrongdoing by his family. He has also defended Zapatero and his right to the presumption of innocence. But with two of his former right-hand men also accused of corruption and his former attorney general banned from his post for two years after being found guilty of leaking confidential information, Sánchez has a lot to contend with ahead of next year’s general election. Here’s a rundown of the cases. What’s going on with Sánchez’s brother? The prime minister’s younger brother, David Sánchez, will go on trial in the south-west region of Extremadura on Thursday, accused of influence peddling and misuse of public office. Ten other people face the same charges. The case springs from a complaint brought by Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), a self-styled trade union with far-right links that has a long history of using the courts to pursue those it deems to pose a threat to Spain’s democratic interests. According to the complaint, David Sánchez was handed a bespoke job by the socialist-led council of the south-western city of Badajoz in July 2017, when his brother was the national leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) but not yet prime minister. David Sánchez, who denies the charges, faces a three-year prison term if found guilty. And what about his wife? The prime minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, has also found herself in court as the result of a complaint brought by Manos Limpias. Last month, a judge in Madrid charged Gómez with embezzlement, influence peddling, corruption in business dealings and misappropriation of funds at the end of a two-year investigation. She has been accused of using her influence as the wife of the prime minister to secure and manage a post at Madrid’s Complutense University, and of using public resources and personal connections to further her private interests. The judge, Juan Carlos Peinado, has also charged Gómez’s personal assistant, Cristina Álvarez, and a businessman, Juan Carlos Barrabés, in connection with the case. All the accused have denied wrongdoing. Gómez is due to appear before Peinado at a preliminary hearing on 9 June. Why is Zapatero under investigation? Zapatero, who was prime minister from 2004 to 2011 – and who remains a totemic figure for the Spanish left – has been placed under investigation for alleged influence peddling and other offences by a judge examining the state bailout of a Venezuela-linked airline during the Covid pandemic. The latest investigation is part of an inquiry into the €53m (£46m) state rescue of the Spanish airline Plus Ultra in March 2021. Prosecutors are examining whether the company made “inadequate use” of the public funds the government approved for the bailout, while anti-corruption police are investigating whether the airline used the rescue money to launder funds from Venezuela through France, Switzerland and Spain. According to the investigating judge, Zapatero is alleged to have overseen “a hierarchical structure of influence peddling”, whose purpose was “to obtain economic benefits through intermediation and the exercise of influence before public bodies in favour of third parties, mainly Plus Ultra”. Zapatero has insisted on his innocence and stated his willingness to cooperate with the investigation. He is scheduled to give evidence before Spain’s highest criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, on 17 and 18 June. “I’d like to reaffirm that all my public and private activity has always been conducted with absolute respect for the law,” he said last week, adding he had never carried out “any action” relating to the airline’s bailout. How has the prime minister reacted to all this? When news broke in April 2024 that his wife had been placed under investigation, Sánchez cancelled his public duties for five days while he mulled his political future. He accused his political and media enemies of launching a “harassment and bullying operation” against his family, but decided to remain in office. He has maintained that his wife and his brother are the victims of politically motivated smear campaigns, and has said: “The truth will come out in the end. My brother and my wife are innocent.” Sánchez has also openly questioned the independence of some members of Spain’s judiciary. “There’s no doubt that there are judges doing politics and there are politicians trying to do justice,” he said in a TV interview last September. He has backed Zapatero as further details have emerged about the case, saying on Wednesday that he saw “no reason” to withdraw his support for his predecessor. What about the other corruption cases involving his administration? In June last year, Sánchez ordered Santos Cerdán, the PSOE’s organisational secretary and his right-hand man, to resign after a supreme court judge found “firm evidence” of his possible involvement in taking kickbacks on public construction contracts. Cerdán has denied any wrongdoing. Cerdán’s case is tied to those of two other men, both of whom were once close to Sánchez. The former transport minister José Luis Ábalos is accused – along with his former aide Koldo García and the businessman Víctor de Aldama – of taking kickbacks on public contracts for sanitary equipment during the Covid pandemic. Ábalos and García, who deny all charges, are facing sentences of 24 years and 19 years respectively while Aldama, who has already admitted to his part in the alleged scheme, faces a seven-year sentence. On Wednesday, anti-corruption police officers investigating an alleged plot to destabilise judicial proceedings against the socialist party – or the government – entered the PSOE’s Madrid headquarters in pursuit of documents. The presiding judge has said Cerdán was among those being investigated for possible offences including misuse of office, influence peddling, bribery and inducement to false testimony. Anything else? In November last year, Spain’s top prosecutor was banned from his post for two years after being found guilty of leaking confidential information about a tax case involving a businessman who is the boyfriend of a prominent rightwing politician. Álvaro García Ortiz, who had served as attorney general since 2022, was also fined €7,300 (£6,428), and ordered to pay €10,000 in damages to the businessman, Alberto González Amador, whose partner is Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the populist PP leader of the Madrid region. García Ortiz had insisted that he had neither leaked the information nor had it leaked, and his defence had said there was “absolutely no evidence” that he was the source of the leak. Journalists who were called to give evidence also denied that the attorney general had fed them the information. The saga was a blow to Sánchez, whose government had proposed García Ortiz for the job. What’s next for Sánchez and the PSOE? In a statement released after Wednesday’s searches at its HQ, the PSOE said it would “always maintain a position of maximum collaboration with the justice system and of absolute respect for judicial actions”. Sánchez, meanwhile, has dismissed calls for an early general election, arguing Spain needs “stability”. But his opponents, who are once again scenting blood, are pushing for next year’s election to be brought forward. “The only choice left is to let the Spanish people have their say right now,” the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said on Wednesday. “We can’t put up with this any more.” Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right Vox party, said: “Not a week, not a day, not an hour goes by without new details emerging about the mafia that governs Spain … They must be stopped and taken to court.”

‘Fractured’ society – but New Zealand’s young have hope across difference and distance

Tucked between a tiny restaurant and a small supermarket on Auckland’s colourful Karangahape Road, a laundromat doubling as a music installation offers customers a chance to listen to tunes while their washing completes a cycle. It is the work of 34-year-old Auckland musician Jefferson Chen and artist Quentin Lind, 32. The pair chose a laundromat – rather than a gallery or online – to share their music while also serving another function: bringing together people from different walks of life. “It’s really easy to exist online and not have these connections, and we’re also slowly losing our public spaces,” Lind tells the Guardian. Getting people together is a topic of increasing concern in New Zealand, where social cohesion is fraying across every key measure. A report on cohesion that the Helen Clark Foundation released in May found financial stress, falling trust in government, and rising isolation are driving growing disconnection across the country of 5.3 million people. The co-author, economist Shamubeel Eaqub, says New Zealand is not yet polarised, but warns it is becoming “fractured”. “When we have a fractured society, it’s hard for us to be able to meet across difference and to make decisions that last the distance,” he says. The report tracked attitudes in 2025 and compared them to results from a year earlier. The Guardian analysed a regional breakdown of the results, which revealed stark differences in the way New Zealand communities are experiencing life. Four of the main issues were cost of living, falling trust in government, isolation and rising anti-immigrant attitudes. But there are glimmers of hope. Younger New Zealanders, between the ages of 18 and 35, feel far more optimistic about social cohesion than older generations. Economic hardship in the far north Northland, at the top of New Zealand, is the region hardest hit by the cost of living. Here, 39% of respondents experience food insecurity compared with the national average of 24%. More than half are financially dissatisfied. Every Monday, about 180 people turn up to a community cafe that offers free and cheap food in the northern city of Whangārei, says Liz Cassidy‑Canning, the chief executive of Whare Āwhina, a Māori social support service and community law office. “That reflects the hardship our community is experiencing.” Infrastructure is crumbling and communities are being pushed out of housing as it becomes pricier, but the region prides itself on its generosity, Cassidy‑Canning says. “We are near the birthplace of the nation [Waitangi, where Māori tribes signed a treaty with the British crown] and that means something – the pride of being a local person is extended to people that come into the community … that extends to different ethnic communities.” In Northland, economic frustration is not turning into anti-migrant sentiment, as it is elsewhere, the report found. Rural isolation and doubts about democracy New Zealand is gearing up for a general election in November, in which the cost of living, the economy, and health will be foremost in the minds of voters. But politicians have another battle on their hands: regaining voter trust. The report found trust in government institutions dropped from 42% in 2024 to 39% in 2025. Just 12% of New Zealanders believe the system of government is working fine, down 4% from 2024. In the capital city, Wellington, a contradiction is playing out: here, most people believe New Zealand has fair elections, but just 22% are satisfied with how democracy is working. For Wellington business owner Lucy Kebbell, the issue lies with those in charge. “Our leaders no longer seem to use public interest as the paramount consideration for their policy or actions,” Kebbell says, adding that when New Zealand ushered in its mixed-member proportional system 33 years ago, she thought it would result in a more collaborative democracy. “But it hasn’t really worked out like that … democracy feels like it’s being fought at the extremes.” The Otago-Southland region, at the bottom of the South Island, is the most content with government systems. But its social connections are thinning: 20% of respondents feel isolated and nearly half feel disconnected from their community. Jason Herrick – a former Southland dairy farmer of 31 years, who is throwing his hat in the ring for the populist New Zealand First party – had a mental health crisis in 2018. “It really opened my eyes up to what’s happening out there,” he says. “Rural communities are now even more isolated than they were 20, 30 years ago.” Sports clubs are diminishing, and services have either closed down or moved to larger centres, separating rural communities by longer distances. “A lot of those social avenues are disappearing,” he says. “So people tend to isolate themselves on-farm now a lot more than they used to.” National attitudes towards immigration, meanwhile, are becoming more negative. Multiculturalism is still viewed positively by 67% of the population, but that is the lowest ebb since 2011, while 31% believe immigrants take away jobs. Poverty can harm social cohesion, Eaqub says, as those who are struggling are less likely to engage with their community, lose faith in systems and become more suspicious of immigration. Waikato, in central North Island, and Bay of Plenty on the east coast reported higher levels of scepticism around immigration, and distrust in institutions such as courts. Elsewhere, the effects of declining social cohesion are more muted. The Hawke’s Bay-Gisborne region, in the North Island, has the biggest “ambivalent middle” – people personally content but not plugged into community structures; while Canterbury – the country’s fastest growing region – is called “the quiet achiever”, reporting higher levels of connection and trust. Strengthening social cohesion is vital for a resilient and inclusive society, Eaqub says. “Social cohesion isn’t a ‘nice to have’ – it’s what allows a country to make difficult decisions and navigate long-term challenges.” Unity amid the struggle In Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, Lind and Chen are aware of the “dire circumstances” in their communities – fewer job opportunities, rising costs, and social isolation. But these are also driving their communities together. “There is nothing quite like being in the same stitch-up, recognising each other’s challenges and struggles and just being like well, we’ve only got each other and we can trust each other and get creative with the hand we have been dealt,” Chen says. But Aucklanders also report being more attracted to authoritarian governance – a position Lind and Chen are working against. “We know that fascism is on the rise and if we don’t claim the spaces ourselves, then the right will be really quick to claim them – especially if people are lonely,” Lind says. “That’s why I think its really important we fill the room.”

Ukraine war briefing: Eliminate Putin’s ‘last major advantage,’ Zelenskyy urges Washington

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made a dual appeal to Donald Trump and the US Congress for more air defence munitions including Patriot missiles after Russia battered Ukraine with waves of ballistic missiles. The Ukrainian president said the Russian missiles represented Vladimir Putin’s “last major advantage on the battlefield” and neutralising them would force the Russian ruler to negotiate. Russia used 30 ballistic missiles against Ukraine in a massive strike on Sunday, and only 11 of them were shot down, according to Ukraine’s air force. Zelenskyy also said Moscow’s troops launched two nuclear-capable Oreshnik missiles. Ukraine’s only means to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles is US-made interceptors shot by the Patriot air defence system. Throughout four years of war, Kyiv has been short of these interceptors. The US is supposed to be providing them through the European-financed Purl initiative, but the Iran war and Donald Trump’s antipathy to Ukraine have threatened supplies. Ukraine also has the similar SAMP/T interceptor system produced by France and Italy, but Ukrainian authorities say it needs upgrades to shoot down ballistic missiles. In his letter to Trump and the US Congress, seen by Reuters, Zelenskyy pitched missile defence as a tool to force the Russian president to the negotiating table. “As long as Putin still has even one meaningful advantage in conventional weapons, he will avoid conventional diplomacy. Today, his ballistic missiles remain exactly that – his last major advantage on the battlefield … Ukraine is ready to purchase the number of Patriot systems and interceptor missiles we need … The current pace of deliveries through the Purl programme is no longer keeping up with the reality of the threat we face.” Russia’s defence ministry has returned to proclaiming the capture of Ukrainian villages at a time when senior analysts concur that Ukraine holds the initiative on the frontline. Moscow’s defence ministry said its troops have taken control of Hraniv in the Kharkiv region on the border with Russia and Vozdvyzhivka in Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine’s 14th army responded that Hraniv was under the control of the Ukrainian military with the Russians taking “significant losses in personnel and equipment”. DeepState, a reputable Ukrainian war blog, said Russian servicemen had briefly entered Vozdvyzhivka this month but were evicted or killed. The 14th Army also denied the capture of one of two villages the Russian military claimed to have seized in Sumy region. Ukraine has a six-month window to seize the initiative from Russia and strengthen its hand for peace talks, Brig Gen Andriy Biletsky of Ukraine’s Third Army Corps has told a Reuters interviewer. “I believe the next six to nine months are a turning point,” Biletsky, who heads one of Ukraine’s most respected fighting forces, said in an undisclosed bunker in the Kharkiv region. “More precisely, I think the next six are the most critical.” The general said he believes Russia’s army is exhausted and incapable of making major breakthroughs – “The lack of personnel no longer allows them to advance the way they did, for example, a year ago.” Ukraine’s military can push Moscow to abandon its designs on the last part of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine that it does not yet occupy. “We need to define those directions where we can improve our positions, take some strategic points, and then speak with the Russians from a position of strength – not weakness – about a truly stable truce,” said Biletsky, a rightwing political leader who founded the Azov Battalion and now commands tens of thousands of troops. “From a military point of view, this is realistic.” Assessing the military situation, John Helin of the Finland-based Black Bird conflict-analysis group agreed fatigue was a problem for Russian forces, while Ukraine’s war effort is still hampered by a manpower shortage. “It does seem like, four or five months into this year, it’s much more likely that the Russians will get exhausted before the Ukrainian problems come to a breaking point,” Helin told Reuters. On Monday, the US-based Institute for the Study of War said Kyiv’s forces were now “actively challenging the positional character of the war” and could soon be capable of staging limited mechanised assaults. Nearly half a million Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion more than four years ago, according to a new estimate from Anne Keast-Butler, head of the British electronic intelligence agency GCHQ. Keast-Butler said Russia was “going backwards on the battlefield” inside Ukraine for the first time since late 2022, Dan Sabbagh writes. Russian casualties, killed and wounded, have been estimated by the west to be running at about 30,000 a month during April. This month, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said that, of those, 15,000 to 20,000 a month were killed. Pope Leo has decried what he called a “sharp intensification” of the war in Ukraine, telling pilgrims at his weekly audience at the Vatican that he wanted to express closeness to civilians killed in recent attacks. “I am following with concern the war in Ukraine,” Leo said in comments reported by Reuters. “War does not solve problems, but aggravates them. It does not build security, but multiplies suffering and hatred … Where missiles and drones fall, hopes also fall, homes and places of worship are destroyed, and innocent lives are shattered.” The port of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea was attacked by more than 20 Ukrainian drones early on Wednesday, with Ukraine also using Storm Shadow missiles, said the city’s governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev. He added that buildings including a regional office of the central bank were damaged. The Storm Shadow, produced by France and Britain, is the most advanced western-made cruise missile available to Ukraine, and has recently been making more frequent appearances on the battlefield. On Monday, Ukraine’s military said it used Storm Shadows to destroy a Russian command-and-control and communications post in Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region.

Middle East crisis: Rubio says ‘some progress’ on US-Iran deal after Trump says ‘maybe we’ll just have to finish the job’ – as it happened

Donald Trump suggested there is still hope for a deal with Iran, but added that the US might have “to just finish the job” if they’re not satisfied with it. “We’re not satisfied with it. But we will be - either that or we’ll have to just finish the job,” he told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. He later added that he could, “make a good deal now but maybe not a great deal, and if it’s not a great deal, we’re not making it.” His secretary of state Marco Rubio said there has been “some progress” made in talks, but added, “we’ll see over the next few hours and days whether progress can be made.” He reiterated that Washington would “prefer the negotiated, diplomatic route and we’re going to give it every chance to succeed”, but also warned that Trump has “other options available ... if that doesn’t work”. The sentiment was echoed by Trump’s defense secretary Pete Hegseth. Trump also issued an extraordinary threat to “blow up” Oman. Asked about reports that Iran and Oman are negotiating a deal to jointly manage the strait of Hormuz, the US president told reporters: “Oman will behave just like everybody else. Or else we’ll have to blow them up, they understand that, they’ll be fine.” The US president also insisted that November’s midterm elections are not motivating him to reach a deal to end his war more quickly. He once again dismissed Americans’ concerns over the cost of living as a result of his war, declaring: “I don’t care about the midterms.” He went on: “The primary urgency is that we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon.” Earlier, the White House blasted an Iranian state television report about a framework deal with the United States to end the Middle East war as a “complete fabrication”. The Iranian report cited a draft outline of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that it said included a US commitment to lift the naval blockade on Iran and withdraw its forces from the Gulf region. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said a return to war with the United States was unlikely, while warning that the Islamic republic stood ready against any attack. The statement came a day after Iran accused the US of breaching the ceasefire in place since April, and warned it was ready to retaliate after the most serious strikes since the truce took effect. Meanwhile in Lebanon, where Israel continues to wage war despite a ceasefire, Israeli airstrikes hit the outskirts of the southern city of Tyre on Wednesday, state media and an AFP correspondent reported, after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for swathes of the city and its surroundings. The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said that “Israeli enemy warplanes launched a strike on the outskirts of Tyre”, also reporting another raid near the city despite a ceasefire. The Lebanese army said a soldier had been killed in an Israeli air strike near his post in Bekaa and that it had retrieved his body. It said the retrieval was delayed from the previous day due to the security situation in the area. Hezbollah said it traded fire with Israeli soldiers in Lebanon as the Israeli military pushes deeper intp the country. The Iran-backed group said its fighters engaged in close-range combat with Israeli troops in Zawtar al-Sharqiyah, a town north of the Litani river and beyond the buffer zone that Israel has enforced in parts of southern Lebanon. Israeli airstrikes killed at least 31 people in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, according to health officials, in one of the deadliest attacks since a ceasefire took effect in April. The Israeli prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had instructed the military to expand its operations in Lebanon with “large forces on the ground” and take control of new areas north of the Israeli-held buffer zone.

Israeli military tells residents of swathe of southern Lebanon to leave

Israel’s military has told residents across a swathe of southern Lebanon to leave and head north, as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his forces were escalating their offensive against Hezbollah. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a post on social media that all areas south of the Zahrani River, which runs about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the de facto Israel-Lebanon border, were considered combat zones. “In light of the repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement by the terrorist organisation Hezbollah, the IDF will act against it with great force,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, wrote on X. The warning late on Wednesday was the first since a ceasefire that took effect on 17 April, and came a day after Israel launched more than 120 airstrikes against Lebanon in one of the heaviest days of bombing in weeks. The ceasefire brokered by the US last month now appears close to total collapse, complicating negotiations to bring a definitive end to the US-Israeli war with Iran. Tehran, which has a close relationship with Hezbollah, has repeatedly signalled that an end to Israel’s offensive in Lebanon is a condition of any deal with Washington. Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that Iran wanted to make a deal, but that the US was not satisfied with it yet. “Iran is very much intent, they want very much to make a deal,” he said. “So far they haven’t gotten there … we’re not satisfied with it, but we will be. We will be either that or we’ll have to just finish the job.” Observers said Israeli officials and military commanders wanted to inflict as much damage as possible on Hezbollah before a deal between Tehran and Washington imposed new limits on or stopped the current offensive. Israel’s military said it targeted 100 sites linked to Hezbollah across southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa valley area, including storage facilities, command centres and observation points that Israeli officials say are used to attack troops and residents in northern Israel. Lebanon’s national news agency said at least 10 people, including women and children, were killed in one strike on the town of Burj al-Shamali in southern Lebanon, while another strike on the eastern village of Mashghara killed 12 people including several members of the same family. Netanyahu said in a statement that the Israeli military was “operating with large forces in the field and capturing and controlling areas”. “We are fortifying the security strip to protect the northern communities [in Israel],” Netanyahu said in a reference to a self-declared security zone occupied by Israeli troops several kilometres inside southern Lebanon. The veteran Israeli leader, who faces a tough battle for re-election later this month, is under pressure to show results against Hezbollah, especially as few of the apparent aims of the war Israel launched with Iran in February have been achieved. Politicians and commenters in Israel have called in recent days for Netanyahu to ignore any pressure from Washington to limit its military operations in Lebanon. Writing in the Maariv newspaper, Avi Ashkenazi called for “sustained around-the-clock attack waves of strikes using hundreds of aircraft simultaneously”. “The ground in Lebanon must tremble. Residents of Beirut, Tyre and Sidon must sit in shelters just as residents of [Israel’s] north are being forced to remain confined to their homes,” he wrote. Beirut has so far been spared Israeli strikes since the start of the ceasefire, but the prospect of an escalation of the offensive has caused widespread concern. “By just saying a few words on TV, [Netanyahu] causes everyone to panic and flee their homes,” said Tony Aboud in Beirut’s bustling Hamra district. “I don’t know what’s going to happen and how long we can live like this.” There were reports on Wednesday of new fighting in southern Lebanon between Israeli troops and Hezbollah. Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with Israeli forces in a town north of the strategic Litani River in southern Lebanon – the current de facto boundary in Lebanon, with large areas to the south under Israeli military control. Strikes hit the outskirts of the southern city of Tyre on Wednesday, state media and an Agence France-Presse correspondent reported, after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for much of the city and its surroundings. Israel’s military has ordered residents not to return to dozens of villages in the buffer zone it is seeking to establish between five and 10 kilometres into Lebanon, where its troops have been destroying homes. An Israeli military official said the military was “operating in a targeted manner beyond the Forward Defense Line in order to remove direct threats to the citizens of the state of Israel [and Israeli soldiers]”. In recent weeks, Hezbollah has boasted that it was using new fibre-optic drones, which Israeli troops have struggled to intercept, hitting Israeli forces and northern Israeli villages. Israel has told people there not to gather in large numbers. On Wednesday, air raid sirens were activated in the area of Shlomi in the western Galilee after reports of a drone infiltration. “What this requires of us now is to increase the blows, to increase the intensity. We will smite them hip and thigh,” Netanyahu said earlier this week. Over 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced in the latest round of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, which began when the Islamist movement fired rockets into northern Israel in March, two days after Israel launched strikes against Tehran which killed the then Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. At least 3,213 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of the war, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, with more than 9,700 wounded. According to Netanyahu’s office, 23 Israeli soldiers and a defence contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon, and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel. The Israeli military said that 10 of its soldiers had been killed since the 16 April ceasefire, six of them by Hezbollah’s explosive drones. Hezbollah has not released figures for its own casualties. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said the military had killed Mohammed Odeh, the new leader of Hamas’ military wing, during airstrikes in Gaza City, less than two weeks after killing his predecessor. At least five people were killed and 12 injured, according to local hospitals. Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press contributed to this report

Lifting of internet restrictions reveals Iranians’ anger over food inflation

The partial lifting of internet restrictions in Iran has revealed a rising tide of anger about food price inflation as ordinary Iranians decry annual price increases of 308% for vegetable oil, 190% for chicken, and 170% for rice. Iranian authorities on Tuesday began restoring the connection to the global internet that was severed on the first day of the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic on 28 February, as it had been during mass protests in January. Connectivity remained patchy on Wednesday, with mobile internet still largely disconnected and many sites remaining restricted. But even the partial restoration was enough to reveal an outpouring of anger over price inflation and food shortages. “Everything is so expensive. It has become a disaster,” wrote one user on social media. “You leave the market with a broken heart after spending all your savings. It is unbearable. We have no patience left to lead a normal life.” President Masoud Pezeshkian, who has been given some credit for lifting the internet restrictions, blamed the US for Iran’s economic woes, saying Washington “had moved to economic warfare after failing to bring the government down”. In a lengthy statement, the ministry of intelligence revealed its concerns that internet freedom could be used for “cognitive warfare”, warning that Iran’s adversaries aimed to “incite protesters and drag them on to the streets”. It said: “The enemy, defeated on the military front, now focuses its efforts on soft warfare, cognitive warfare, and social provocations.” The government announced the launch of a “resistance economy committee” to crack down on price gouging and address surging shortages, but hyperinflation is now endemic in Iran owing to trade sanctions, exchange rate pressure, and moves taken to reduce subsidies given to traders in January. Data from the International Monetary Fund showed food inflation had risen to between 140% and 200%, pushing overall inflation to 70%. Support for continuing internet restrictions was put at just 9% in a survey published on Wednesday. In an attempt to forestall support for Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah, government backers tried to flood the internet with claims directed at “youngsters returning to the internet” that Pahlavi had openly applauded the attacks mounted by Israel and the US. Others expressed simple relief that they could now talk to the wider world. The human rights activist Emadeddin Baghi wrote: “Three bloody months have passed, but not for those who lost a loved one or had their home destroyed. In this period our voices found no echo except on some internal platforms and to the best of our ability we spoke and wrote in defence of the rights of the voiceless.” The prominent rapper Toomaj Salehi, who was sentenced to death in 2024 for supporting protests in 2022 but was later released, said being connected to the internet was “not a favour to us – it is our right. And without filters as well. “Like free elections, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of parties, and many other freedoms, these are our rights and not favours,” he wrote on X.

Nearly half a million Russians killed in Ukraine war, UK spy chief says

Nearly half a million Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion more than four years ago, according to a new estimate from the head of the British spy agency GCHQ. Anne Keast-Butler, the chief of the electronic intelligence agency, said in her first speech in the job that Russian forces were “going backwards on the battlefield” inside Ukraine for the first time since late 2022. She then offered a new Russian death toll estimate, which was higher than a recent estimate of 352,000, calculated by the exiled media outlets Meduza and Mediazona, who extrapolated their total from official probate records. Keast-Butler said there was “new intelligence showing that almost half a million Russian soldiers have now been killed since the conflict began”. An exact figure was not given, though the estimate is understood to be close to that total. Ukraine has been trying to lift the number of Russian soldiers it kills or seriously wounds above Moscow’s ability to raise new recruits in an attempt to halt more than three years of slow losses of territory in the east of the country. Russian casualties, killed and wounded, have been estimated by the west to be running at around 30,000 a month during April. This month, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said that, of those, 15,000 to 20,000 a month were killed. The high casualty rates reflect Russia’s continued attempts to capture the eastern Donbas region, as demanded by President Vladimir Putin. Exact recruitment figures are hard to obtain but the economist Janis Kluge estimated Russia was recruiting around 800 to 1,000 a day, between 25,000 and 31,000 a month. Keast-Butler told an audience at Bletchley Park that GCHQ was “working tirelessly” to degrade and reduce the Russian threat to the UK and in Europe, warning, as trailed a day earlier, that Russia was relentlessly targeting Britain’s infrastructure and democracy. “One area in sharp focus for us is protecting the data and energy flowing through the critical cables and pipelines in and around British waters – we do this by exposing Russia’s intent, motive and underwater capabilities,” Keast-Butler said. In April, John Healey, the defence secretary, said a British warship and aircraft had tracked Russian Akula and Gugi submarines trying to survey undersea infrastructure in the north Atlantic, in a month-long operation. Keast-Butler said “no nation can face these threats alone” then mounted a defence of an 80-year-old UK-US intelligence sharing relationship at a time when the transatlantic alliance has been under acute political strain. It was, she said, “a powerful and robust partnership that remains fundamental for the security of both our countries”, and the “strongest intelligence alliance in the world”, paving the way for the Five Eyes alliance with the addition of Australia, Canada and New Zealand. During the spring, Donald Trump repeatedly voiced his unhappiness with Keir Starmer for not being willing to join the US-Israeli war on Iran launched at the end of February. Close cooperation continues between GCHQ and its US equivalent, the National Security Agency. The agencies are working together to develop security algorithms able to withstand attacks from ultra-fast quantum computers, which are expected to become operational in a few years. “Quantum computers will be able to complete, in a matter of seconds, tasks that currently take years,” Keast-Butler said. “That includes defeating the codes and encryption that keeps our secrets safe today. So we must protect our most critical systems from future quantum attacks.”