Iran Reports Progress in US Talks Amid Trump Threats
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, declared "progress" after the first day of high-level talks between Washington and Tehran in Switzerland, despite a tense opening marked by US President Donald Trump's threats to restart attacks. Araghchi said Pakistani and Qatari mediation "has delivered major progress to end [the] Lebanon war." Iran has insisted that Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon must cease as part of any deal. Israel is not directly participating in the talks.
A joint statement from mediators Qatar and Pakistan said the US and Iran agreed on a roadmap towards a final deal within 60 days. Technical talks between lower-ranked officials will continue for the rest of the week. In a critical development, the US Treasury was also preparing to issue a 60-day waiver lifting sanctions on oil, petrochemicals, and derivatives.
Trump's Crude Threat Over Strait of Hormuz
Over the weekend, Iran said it had reinstated its blockade in the Strait of Hormuz in protest at continued Israeli strikes on Lebanon. Trump responded on social media, saying: "You close it and you won't have a country. You won't even make it back to your fucking country."
The war has triggered a rare moment of solidarity in Iran, a country that was reeling from the killing of thousands of protesters by authorities at the start of the year, according to Saeed Shah.
UK PM Keir Starmer to Step Down
Keir Starmer has announced he will stand down as UK prime minister after days of intense pressure from Labour Party MPs, including cabinet ministers, following the return of Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to Westminster. Starmer will remain in Downing Street until any leadership contest or handover of power is complete.
Starmer's exit caps a calamitous fall from grace since becoming only the fourth Labour leader to win an election, taking more seats in 2024 than anyone since Tony Blair's 1997 landslide. His successor will become the UK's seventh prime minister in 10 years.
Why Starmer Resigned
After months of internal party pressure and plunging poll numbers, his downfall was triggered by key political misjudgments, including appointing the Jeffrey Epstein-linked Peter Mandelson as US ambassador despite a failed security vetting. Policy reversals led his MPs to view him as weak, a sentiment reinforced by devastating losses in the May elections that underscored his deep unpopularity with voters.
Far-Right Millionaire Wins Colombia's Presidential Election
Abelardo de la Espriella, a Trump-admiring far-right millionaire lawyer and self-styled "outsider," has won Colombia's presidential runoff, defeating leftwing senator Iván Cepeda. De la Espriella's victory marks a sharp swing back to the right after four years under Colombia's first and only leftwing president, Gustavo Petro, who was barred by the constitution from seeking re-election.
The result is seen as further evidence of a wave of far-right candidates sweeping presidential elections across Latin America, following recent victories by Nasry Asfura in Honduras and José Antonio Kast in Chile, while Keiko Fujimori currently leads the vote count in Peru.
De la Espriella's US Alliance
In a video posted by US Republican congresswoman María Elvira Salazar after the result, De la Espriella said: "To solve Colombia's problems, we need to build a very close alliance with the US, which is not only our main trading partner but also our most important strategic ally in the fight against organised crime."
Other News
Wyndham Clark won the US Open amid a fierce challenge from Sam Burns and jeers from a hostile crowd. At least seven people have been killed in Chicago shootings since Friday as Trump renewed his call for military deployment in the city, though a recent nonpartisan study found that the national guard's presence in DC has had minimal effect on violent crime there. The US investment firm Castlelake has gone public with a £4.7bn proposal to buy the European airline easyJet after earlier bids were rejected. Almost three tonnes of cocaine was found buried under a Sydney property in Australia's biggest ever seizure. Repair work will begin "immediately" at the troubled Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, Trump has said, blaming — without evidence — "vandals" for the site's issues.
Stat of the Day: Boston Airport Near Miss
A Delta jet was roughly 300 feet (90 meters) from an American Airlines plane during a close call at Boston's airport that forced the Delta aircraft to abort a weekend landing attempt.
Building Power: Rosa Parks Monument
Bronze hands rise from the pavement, holding a placard against the sky. It reads 7053, the booking number displayed in Rosa Parks's 1955 mugshot. Montgomery Square not only preserves the memory of Black resistance to racism but also asks what that memory demands of us, especially as the current administration works to erase victories born from that era.
Don't Miss This: White Working Class Analysis
In an informative essay, Boston University professor Saida Grundy argues that access to power over other racial groups is the preferred political currency of the white working class. "Even when siding with conservatives has cost the white working class the most economically, they continue to measure their gains racially," she writes.
Africa Can End Aids on Its Own Terms
Aids-related deaths have fallen by 59% since 2010 and new infections by 68% on the African continent, but Jean Kaseya and Amma Adomaa Twum-Amoah write that external health aid to Africa was estimated to have fallen by 70% in the last four years. They say the era in which Africa delivered progressively better health outcomes while others financed and directed is gone for good.
Climate Check: Utah Wildfire Forces Evacuation
Extreme heat and dry, windy conditions are fuelling multiple wildfires across the US west, including a massive blaze in Utah that forced the evacuation of a small town. Hot weather in the forecast raises the risk of more blazes in the week ahead.
Last Thing: Mount Everest 'Green Boots' Mystery
Thirty years after he perished in a small limestone cave near the top of Mount Everest, the body of the climber known only as "Green Boots" may finally be heading home — and his identity at last confirmed.
