Trump raises specter of further attacks against Iran after US military operation

President warned that Tehran must start peace negotiations with Israel and stop enriching uranium

Fresh from ordering military strikes on Iran, Donald Trump on Saturday raised the specter of further attacks against Iran if its leadership did not engage in peace talks in a sweeping and at times ominous televised late night address delivered from the White House.

The remarks suggested that the president, who has repeatedly said he wanted to bring peace to global conflicts, at least partly viewed the strikes against Iran’s enrichment facilities as a tactic to force negotiations – just days after he had suggested he would given Iran two weeks before deciding on an attack.

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Trump’s inner circle shifted view to support limited, one-off strike on Iran nuclear sites

As Trump considered striking Iran, some advisers adjusted public arguments to suggest quick bombing run

Donald Trump’s move to bomb three nuclear sites in Iran came as those inside his orbit who were opposed to US intervention in the conflict shifted their views in favor of a limited and one-off strike.

The US president had been under immense pressure from Republican anti-interventionists not to engage in any action against Iran out of concern that the US might be dragged into a protracted engagement to topple Iran’s leadership, or that strikes on facilities might have limited success.

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Cheering support and instant condemnation: US lawmakers respond to attack on Iran

Ro Khanna and Bernie Sanders denounced the decision to launch attack, while most Republicans praised the action

American politicians reacted to the news of the US bombing of nuclear targets in Iran with a mix of cheering support and instant condemnation, reflecting deep divisions in the country that cross party lines as Washington grapples with yet another military intervention overseas.

Donald Trump announced on Saturday night that the US had completed strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran, directly joining Israel’s effort this month to destroy the country’s nuclear program.

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US reportedly moving B-2 bombers to Guam as Trump considers Iran strikes

Officials tell Reuters bombers moving to Pacific Island but unclear whether deployment tied to Middle East tensions

The United States is moving B-2 bombers to the Pacific island of Guam, two US officials told Reuters on Saturday, as Donald Trump weighs whether the United States should take part in Israel’s strikes against Iran.

It was unclear whether the bomber deployment is tied to Middle East tensions.

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‘My husband is free!’ Belarus opposition leader freed after nearly five years in jail

Syarhei Tsikhanouski arrested shortly after announcing candidacy in rigged 2020 election won by Lukashenko

One of the leaders of Belarus’s opposition movement, Syarhei Tsikhanouski, has been released from jail after being pardoned after almost five years behind bars.

His wife, the exiled politician Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, who took over the opposition cause after his jailing, on Saturday shared a video of him smiling and embracing her after his release.

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Pakistan to nominate Donald Trump for Nobel peace prize

Islamabad says US president helped resolve India conflict but critic says ‘Israel’s sugar daddy in Gaza’ not candidate for any prize

Pakistan has said it will recommend Donald Trump for the Nobel peace prize for his work in helping to resolve the recent conflict between India and Pakistan.

The move, announced on Saturday, came as the US president mulls joining Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

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Outcome of Israel’s war with Iran is uncertain even if US joins conflict

American involvement is not guaranteed to secure Israel’s objectives – and may lead to unintended consequences

Israel’s assault on Iran, including its nuclear and ballistic weapons programme, is unlikely to secure its long-term strategic objectives, even if Benjamin Netanyahu manages to persuade the Trump administration into joining the conflict in the coming days and weeks, experts have said.

According to diplomats, military specialists and security analysts, Israel – and its prime minister – is likely to face mounting headwinds in the campaign, amid warnings that it risks dangerously destabilising the region.

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Trump denies approving Iran attack plan but will make decision ‘within two weeks’

President denies report in Wall Street Journal and says newspaper has ‘no idea’ of his plans for Israel and Iran

Donald Trump has denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that he has approved US plans to attack Iran, saying that the news outlet has “no idea” what his thinking is concerning the Israel-Iran conflict.

He also confirmed, later on Thursday, via his press secretary, that he’d be making a decision within the “next two weeks”.

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Ordinary Zambians lose out twice: to global looting and local corruption | Letters

Emmanuel Mwamba and Fiona Mulaisho respond to an editorial on US aid cuts to Zambia and huge sums taken out of the country by multinationals

Your editorial (The Guardian view on Zambia’s Trumpian predicament: US aid cuts are dwarfed by a far bigger heist, 10 January) highlights research by Prof Andrew Fischer, and the exploitation of Zambia’s commodity resources via illicit financial schemes. Many Zambians have raised the issue of this looting for years, but have met coordinated resistance. Consequently, Zambia’s treasury loses billions of dollars in revenue. These losses are driven by well-known multinationals working in concert with certain insiders close to the Zambian state.

Your editorial also says: “The US decision to cut $50m a year in aid to Zambia … is dreadful, and the reason given, corruption, rings hollow.” Alas, I disagree and wish to place this in context.

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US free-speech rights shredded despite Trump vow to be first-amendment champion

Experts say free speech under attack in ways not seen since Nixon – and critics of president’s agenda are being targeted

A cornerstone of the Maga movement during the Biden administration was to accuse a mixture of the so-called “woke left” and the justice department of forcing America into the grips of a free speech crisis.

Common complaints were that nobody “can say anything any more” without being canceled or arrested for extremism. In the same breath, Maga broadly described the January 6 insurrection, which killed a police officer, as peaceful, accusing the Democrats of a communist conspiracy.

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Iranian regime collapse would be serious blow for Russia

While some in Moscow have tried to put positive spin on Israel’s assault, Kremlin risks losing key strategic partner

When a group of Russian and Iranian foreign policy officials arranged to meet in Moscow for a conference titled “Russian-Iranian cooperation in a changing world”, they probably did not anticipate just how timely that phrase would turn out to be.

Seated around a table on Wednesday at the President hotel near the Kremlin, officials from both sides were forced to confront a stark new reality: Iran’s regime – a key ally of Moscow – is facing its most serious threat in decades.

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Women more worried about economy under Trump than men, poll finds

Exclusive: poll shows 62% of women and 47% of men across political spectrum say economy and inflation getting worse

Women across the political spectrum are more concerned about the state of the US economy and inflation under Donald Trump than men are, according to a new exclusive poll for the Guardian.

More Democrats than Republicans are now concerned about the economy following the president’s return to power. But pessimism was higher for women even among Republicans and independents, according to a new Harris poll.

More women said they are very worried about food prices (52% of women compared to 39% of men)

More women said they’re spending more time trying to find deals or go to more affordable stores (36% versus 26%)

More women said their financial security is getting worse because of their difficulty in affording essential goods and services (55% versus 46%)

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MPs back bill to end criminal penalties for abortion in key vote – as it happened

Parliament votes on biggest shake-up to reproductive rights in England and Wales in 60 years

Casey says in the past government has talked relentlessly about the need for better data sharing between departments.

But she says there is a need to consider making this mandatory.

I was there when the tragedy of Soham happened. We knew at that point that if we had had better data sharing there’s a possibility that we might have saved those girls’ lives. There’s certaintly an absolute clarity that intelligence would have been much faster in either avoiding it or or actually finding that dreadful human being earlier.

And we’ve known that forever onwards. And so I think there is also an issue that the Home Office can’t drag their feet on, looking at police intelligence systems, given we’ve living in the 21st century. Probably everbody in this room can connect within seconds. Yet we had Befordshire police finding a young boy that was being, in my mind trafficked to London. But the data intelligence system did not make it easy for them to find that he was in Deptford and being circled and dealt with by predators.

I feel very strongly on issues that are as searing as people’s race, when we know the prejudice and racism that people of colour experience in this country, to not get how you treat that data right is a different level of public irresponsibility.

Sorry, to put it so bluntly, I didn’t put it that bluntly yesterday, but I think it’s particularly important if you are collecting those sorts of issues to get them 100% right.

When we asked the good people of Greater Manchester Police to help us look at the data we also collected – I think it’s in the report – what was happening with child abuse more generally, and of course … if you look at the data on child sexual exploitation, suspects and offenders, it’s disproportionately Asian heritage. If you look at the data for child abuse, it is not disproportionate, and it is white men.

So again, just note to everybody, really outside here rather than in here. Let’s just keep calm here about how you interrogate data and what you draw from it.

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Trump brushes off US intel reports on Iran to align himself with Israel

President has dismissed verdict by handpicked spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons

Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, delivered a concise verdict during congressional testimony this March: the intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003”.

As he rushed back to Washington on Tuesday morning, Donald Trump swatted aside the assessment from the official that he handpicked to deliver him information from 18 US intelligence agencies. “I don’t care what she said,” said Trump. “I think they were very close to having one.”

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‘Not our war’: bipartisan US lawmakers back resolution to block involvement in Iran

Republican Thomas Massie joins with Democrats in effort to require Congress approval before Trump attacks Iran

As Donald Trump publicly threatens to join Israel in attacking Iran, an unlikely coalition of lawmakers has moved to prevent the president from involving US forces in the conflict without Congress’s approval.

On Tuesday, Republican congressman Thomas Massie, whose libertarian-tinged politics have often put him at odds with Trump, joined with several progressive Democrats to introduce in the House of Representatives a war powers resolution that would require a vote by Congress before Trump could attack Iran. Democrat Tim Kaine has introduced companion legislation in the Senate.

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Trump threatens to keep 25% tariff on UK steel imports over Port Talbot concerns

Exclusive: Sources say US wants information on when importing of raw materials from abroad at Port Talbot site will stop

Donald Trump is threatening to keep 25% tariffs on some or all of its steel imports from the UK unless it gives specific guarantees over the Indian-owned steelmaking plant at Port Talbot in south Wales, sources have told the Guardian.

An agreement to reduce tariffs on UK car exports to the US and scrap them for the aerospace sector was signed off by the US president and Keir Starmer on Monday, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada.

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Israel-Iran conflict live: Trump denies he left G7 early to work on ceasefire after Macron suggests US ‘offer’ was made

US president says he is working on something ‘much bigger’ than a ceasefire after French president says ‘an offer was made especially to get a ceasefire and to then kick-start broader discussions’

Donald Trump has encouraged vice president JD Vance and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to offer to meet the Iranians this week, the New York Times has reported, citing a US official.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi had earlier indicated that Tehran was open to negotiations, also suggesting Trump could stop the war with “one phone call” to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. In a post on X he wrote:

If President Trump is genuine about diplomacy and interested in stopping this war, next steps are consequential. Israel must halt its aggression, and absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue.

It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu. That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy.

There is indeed an offer to meet and exchange. An offer was made especially to get a ceasefire and to then kick-start broader discussions … We have to see now whether the sides will follow.

Right now I believe negotiations need to restart and that civilians need to be protected.

All who have thought that by bombing from the outside you can save a country in spite of itself have always been mistaken.

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Suspect in murders of Minnesota lawmakers caught and charged | First Thing

Vance Boelter accused of killing Melissa Hortman and her husband and wounding John Hoffman and his wife. Plus, why a professor of fascism left the US

Good morning.

The man suspected of opening fire on two Minnesota legislators and their spouses on 14 June, killing one of them and her husband, was apprehended late on Sunday night and charged with two counts of murder and two of attempted murder, the state’s governor, Tim Walz, said.

How did the suspect get into the legislator’s homes? Authorities allege Boelter impersonated a police officer, wearing a uniform that most civilians would not be able to distinguish from the real thing and driving a vehicle made to resemble a police SUV.

Where did the manhunt end? After firing shots at police and fleeing on foot, he was finally caught in a rural area in Sibley county, south-west of Minneapolis, according to police.

Why did Israel say it launched the attack on Iran? Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had acted to pre-empt a secret Iranian programme to build a nuclear bomb, claiming Tehran already had the capacity to build nine.

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Jaguar Land Rover warns that Trump tariffs will hit profits

Shares in parent company Tata Motors fall as JLR says it will reallocate vehicles to ‘accessible markets’

The British luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has warned of a hit to profits from Donald Trump’s tariffs, after the company temporarily paused deliveries to the US.

The carmaker, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, halted shipments to America in April after the US president imposed a 25% duty on all foreign-made vehicles, before resuming them last month. The country accounts for more than a quarter of JLR’s sales.

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Trump’s ‘revenge tax’ could threaten foreign investment into US, analysts say

Concerns raised that section 899 could backfire and also undermine dollar’s safe haven status

Foreign investment into the US could be threatened by Donald Trump’s new “revenge” taxes, analysts have warned.

A provision within the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will allow the US to apply higher taxes on foreign individuals, businesses and investors connected to jurisdictions that impose “unfair foreign taxes” on US individuals and companies.

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