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Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv’s allies push for peace at G7 summit in France

World leaders were lining up in support of Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the G7 summit began in France. Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, vowed to “choke off” Russian revenue with further sanctions, writes Alexandra Topping, and to provide hundreds of millions of pounds worth of energy support for Ukraine including enriched uranium for its nuclear power plants. Summit host Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said as he prepared to meet with Donald Trump that he wanted the US to say “we are with you, we will continue to support Ukraine, and we will increase the pressure on Russia to achieve a meaningful negotiation … The right negotiation is one in which Ukraine and Russia are at the table, but with Europeans and Americans present as well.” Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, expressed hope that “for the first time, a window can open for diplomacy” on ending the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported. He added that he wanted to discuss this further with Trump. The US president, who arrived for the summit on Monday, said: “We had a very good conversation yesterday with President Zelenskyy and President Putin, and I think maybe we can do something there. I really do. I think they’re both open to it.” A Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber plane ⁠of the type used to attack Ukraine crashed on Monday in Siberia’s Irkutsk region during a training flight, the Russian defence ⁠ministry said. The ⁠aircraft’s four-person crew ejected safely, the ministry said. The bombers are used to fire cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said two Russian drones “deliberately” targeted Kyiv’s monastery quarter in a mass overnight barrage that set the Unesco-listed Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra site ablaze and killed 11 across the country. ⁠Amid a chorus of international condemnation, Zelenskyy described the cathedral attack as “one of Russia’s most serious crimes against Christian culture to date” and urged G7 leaders meeting in France on Monday to take “decisive and substantive” action against Moscow. “More pressure on the aggressor and more support for Ukraine’s air defence, especially anti-ballistic capabilities,” the Ukrainian president said. Russia denied targeting the cathedral and claimed it had been hit with a US-made Patriot air-defence missile. But contradicting the Russian claim, Peter Beaumont writes that outside the Perchersk-Lavra complex on Monday morning a group of state security officers stood over the remains of two Shahed-Geran type drones – as built in Iran and Russia, and used ubiquitously by Moscow’s forces. Amid Monday’s heavy Russian air raids on Ukraine, a drone struck ⁠the zoo in Kharkiv, killing 10 rabbits while injuring and distressing other animals including an elephant, prosecutors said. The drone hit an area ⁠described as a vivarium in which hundreds of ‌rabbits, guinea pigs, ‌rats and mice were housed, the prosecutors said. The elephant’s adjacent enclosure was damaged. Russia is reportedly being forced to allow the sale of substandard fuel as Ukrainian attacks on oil pipelines, refineries, transport and storage squeeze supplies. The emergency measure were reported by the Russian newspaper Kommersant, which cited a source. Kommersant said refineries were being allowed to sell gasoline and diesel domestically with, for example, levels of sulphur about 15 times the maximum permitted in Europe, China, and India. The concessions also allow a higher share of aromatic hydrocarbons, which are ‌toxic compounds linked to health issues. On Monday, authorities in the Udmurtia region east of Moscow said temporary limits would be in force on gasoline at stations operated by Tatneft from 12 June, Reuters reported, after Tatneft’s major refinery had to completely shut down production because of drone strikes. As long ‌lines of cars queued on Monday in Sevastopol city, Crimea, driver Alyona, who gave only her first name, said: “How can it be solved, how? Only if the special military operation ends.” A Ukrainian drone ⁠strike ⁠killed three farm machine ⁠workers in the ⁠Russian border ‌region ‌of Bryansk, the ‌region’s acting governor said on ‌Monday. Yegor Kovalchuk said the three ⁠were killed while working in a field in ‌Pochepsky district near the border. There was no independent confirmation. Ukraine denies targeting civilians. Ukraine was due on Monday to officially begin European Union membership negotiations, launching a process that will require its government to commit to years of political reforms even as it continues to fight a Russian invasion. Ukrainian deputy prime minister Taras Kachka was to attend a conference in Luxembourg to open the talks, and called it a “Rubicon” moment. “All Ukrainian society believes that joining the European Union is our dream.” Moldova was also due to officially launch its membership talks.

Sri Lanka sees ‘alarming’ rise in cybercrime as scam networks relocate from south-east Asia

Experts have warned that Sri Lanka is emerging as a hub for transnational cybercrime, after a crackdown in south-east Asia pushed Chinese-run criminal networks to relocate their vast scam operations. Sri Lankan police spokesperson Fredrick Wootler said the country was witnessing an “alarming increase of cybercrimes” perpetrated by people entering the country as tourists, and then illegally setting up scam operations targeting people across the world. Authorities in Sri Lanka have carried out more than a dozen raids on alleged scam operations in the country since the beginning of the year, arresting and deporting almost 700 foreigners accused of involvement. On Thursday, the Sri Lankan police carried out its latest raid in the capital Colombo where they detained 18 Chinese citizens and one from Laos. The Guardian visited the site of the raid, and found that the scammers had left behind dozens of fake documents, from a falsified legal certification, fake US treasury documents and fake company registration, stating their company was worth $10bn. An officer from the crime investigation bureau who carried out the raid, and wished to remain anonymous, said they had also discovered 62 passports, mostly for Chinese nationals. “They had phones, laptops, pen drives, RAMs, a processor, a stamp to forge documents, and so many forged documents. One certificate, which we found was also forged to show that they were a business registered in the US, was framed and hung on the wall,” he said. The majority of those arrested and deported for involvement in scams this year have been Chinese citizens, but people from Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Malaysia and Myanmar have also been detained in raids. The police said all those arrested had come to Sri Lanka on tourist visas. The transnational scam industry that flourished in south-east Asia over the past decade has become of the largest organised-crime enterprises in the world. It is mostly run by Chinese gangs and staffed by hundreds of thousands of workers, many trafficked or coerced into the job. From vast fortified compounds in Cambodia and Myanmar, large scale fraud factories orchestrate operations that run from romance scams and crypto fraud, to online gambling and money laundering on a global scale. The United States estimates Americans lost $10bn to south-east Asian scam centres in 2024. Yet as political pressure has grown on host countries in south-east Asia, scam compounds have faced a significant crackdown from authorities, pushing the Chinese operatives and crime syndicates to find new locations to set up operations. According to experts, Sri Lanka has emerged as a favoured new destination, due to the ease in getting tourist visas and the newly introduced “digital nomad” visas. There is also limited regulation on sim cards and internet connections, as well as a wide availability of offices and hotels to rent for a low price. There is already a significant Chinese presence in Sri Lankan infrastructure and business, and Chinese visitors are not seen as uncommon. Sri Lanka has also relaxed rules around online gambling and gaming, and its mechanisms to go after cybercrime are seen as limited. The current modus operandi is mostly to deport foreigners found carrying out cybercrimes, rather than prosecuting them. Mark Bo, cybercrime researcher and author of Scam: Inside Southeast Asia’s Cybercrime Compounds, said he had noticed a shift in operations towards Sri Lanka starting two years ago, as it began to be mentioned in posts on the messaging app Telegram, as well as in recruitment drives. “After the crackdown really ramped up in Cambodia, I saw a lot more posts on Telegram channels of people saying they were moving to Sri Lanka,” said Bo. “There’s clearly been some kind of transplanting of the exact same set-up there. It shows the challenge of controlling the industry because one of its defining characteristics is how mobile and how adaptable it can be.” The operations have been accelerating beyond the control of the authorities. Businessmen in Colombo complained that the rents for office spaces had more than doubled in some complexes, due to the surge in demand and high prices paid by groups coming in from China. Rather than setting up visible compounds, police found these operations tried to avoid detection by working in small groups of five people, which rotate around different hotels, apartments and offices every three months. The officer said the operations they had busted recently were clearly backed by huge sums of money, with eight floors of an apartment building rented out in one incident. Superintendent of police, Kamal Ariyawansa confirmed it was a Chinese crime syndicate behind the operation, which was attempting to scam American victims into investing in a fake US company. The Chinese embassy in Colombo has publicly acknowledged the involvement of its citizens in telephone fraud gangs, which they said had moved to Sri Lanka after the crackdown in southeast Asia. “Cases like these pose immense harm, and the Chinese embassy provides full support to Sri Lankan law enforcement agencies in resolutely cracking down on suspects,” they said.

Starmer vows new sanctions on Russia and nuclear energy support for Ukraine

Keir Starmer has vowed to “choke off” Russian revenue with further sanctions and to provide hundreds of millions of pounds worth of energy support for Ukraine, as he met world leaders in France for the G7. After a torrid political week at home, the British prime minister sought to put himself on the front foot on the international stage at the meeting of the group of seven, which kicked off on Monday in the French spa town of Évian-les-Bains, on the shore of Lake Geneva. Starmer is expected to meet the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, on Tuesday, the first full day of the summit. He will announce sanctions against Russia, days after British troops seized a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker in the Channel. He is also set to use the meeting to reassure Donald Trump he is willing to raise defence spending, after the resignation of his defence secretary, John Healey, last week and ongoing delays to his defence investment plan – but is not expected to have a bilateral meeting with the US president. The defence investment plan is now expected to be published before the Nato summit in Ankara in Turkey, which begins on 7 July. After a series of devastating Russian attacks on Ukrainian power infrastructure, Starmer has pledged £210m for Ukraine’s nuclear plants for the next two years, which he said would “power Ukraine through the winters ahead”. “We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes and this announcement reinforces that,” he said. “Putin should roll back his tanks, end his barbaric strikes and come to the negotiating table.” Government officials said the UK Export Finance investment in Urenco, a multinational uranium enrichment company 33% owned by the UK government, would supply enriched uranium to Ukraine’s nuclear power producer, Energoatom. The deal was agreed between Starmer and Zelenskyy during their meeting at Downing Street last week. The agreement – which follows a two-year deal to supply nuclear fuel to Ukraine – would support UK jobs and exports, with a third of the uranium content coming from Urenco’s processing plant in Chester, said officials. New sanctions on Russia will target finance networks, and expand the number of vessels targeted as part of Moscow’s shadow fleet carrying oil or liquified natural gas (LNG) to more than 600. The new measures will also target a Russian state-linked network involved in covertly procuring western technology for Russia’s military, as well as suppliers helping Russia to illegally move money around the world. The G7 – which brings together the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, alongside the ‌EU, with leaders from other nations also invited for talks – will seek to shore up waning US support for Ukraine, but will also focus on the nascent peace deal between the US and Iran and the reopening of the strait of Hormuz. On Sunday thousands of anti-G7 protesters including environmentalists and feminists clashed with police in Geneva, setting a car on fire and smashing the windows of a bank. Starmer could face difficult questions from Trump, whose White House urged the UK not to impose the social media ban for under-16s announced on Monday. Senior US officials have indicated that while Trump will take part in a G7 working session with Zelenskyy on Tuesday, the US president will not hold a bilateral meeting with the Ukrainian leader. Trump is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings on the summit’s sidelines with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as well as with the leaders of Egypt, India, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, an official said.

Netanyahu declares victory over Iran – and rules out withdrawal from Lebanon

Benjamin Netanyahu has hailed a historic victory over Iran and ruled out any immediate withdrawal from Lebanon, saying that Israel’s forces would remain there “for as long as necessary”. “We established deep security zones around the state of Israel. We did this in Gaza, in Lebanon and in Syria,” the Israeli prime minister said in a televised press conference on Monday. “And I want to make it clear: we will remain in these security zones … to protect our country.” The new preliminary agreement between Washington and Tehran has prompted dismay and anger in Israel, with widespread criticism of Netanyahu’s leadership. He claimed on Monday that the joint US-Israeli military campaign against Iran had spared his country from what he described as “nuclear annihilation”. “And what would that mean? It would mean that millions of Israeli citizens … would have been in terrible danger of mass death … and we have pushed away from us, for years, this danger of the annihilation of Israel’s population.” The exact details of the interim deal remain unclear, but appear to explicitly include a ceasefire in Lebanon, where Israel launched a wide-ranging offensive after attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah at the beginning of the 15-week-long conflict. US officials have sought to reassure Israel, saying on Monday that the ⁠withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon ⁠was ⁠not a condition of ⁠a pact between the ⁠US ‌and ‌Iran, and Israel would have the right to defend ⁠itself against attacks by Hezbollah. The apparent terms of the agreement still appear to be a major setback for Israel, which fiercely resisted Iranian efforts to link its interim deal with the US to halting Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Headlines in Israeli media described an “abject failure”. There was relative calm in southern Lebanon on Monday, although sporadic violence persisted as Israeli troops remain in territory they have occupied in ⁠the three-month war, according to Lebanese and foreign security sources. An Israeli drone strike killed one person in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Tebnit, and Hezbollah later said it had attacked an Israeli force trying to advance in the same area. Before Israel’s drone strike, Hezbollah welcomed the US-Iran deal, saying it had resulted in a comprehensive ceasefire including in Lebanon. A Hezbollah official earlier told Reuters the group’s position on the ceasefire was linked to Israel adhering to it, while military sources in Israel quoted by the Jerusalem Post said that, if Hezbollah respected the new ceasefire, Israeli military forces would not attack anywhere in Lebanon. Officials and many commentators in Israel have claimed the deal will strengthen Hezbollah and other militant Islamist organisations around the region supported by Tehran. But Israel, which depends on the US for vital military, diplomatic and other support, could not afford to alienate Trump, analysts said. On Sunday, an Israeli strike on Hezbollah targets in Beirut earned Netanyahu a further expletive-laden reprimand from the US president. The announcement of the interim peace agreement may have averted a new barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles aimed at Israel. Neil Quilliam, of the Chatham House thinktank in London, said: “The personal relationship between Trump and Netanyahu has taken a hit but … the whole debate around Israel in the US is changing so Israeli-US ties are under some strain at the moment, both at the political level and the societal level.” Netanyahu was instrumental in convincing Trump to launch the war against Iran, and Israeli military forces have coordinated closely with their US counterparts throughout the conflict. An Israeli military strike killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, then Iran’s supreme leader, on the war’s first day. However, any achievements in the war have fallen far short of Netanyahu’s promises of regime change in Tehran, as well as the destruction of Iran’s nuclear programme and its ballistic missile capabilities. Opposition politicians in Israel have been quick to attack the deal. An election is due in Israel before October, and there is likely to be a close fight for power. Netanyahu said on Monday that he would run in the elections and intended to win. Yair Golan, the leader of the Democrats, a centre-left party, said Netanyahu had allowed “military achievements won through the courage of [Israel’s armed forces] to be erased”. “Trump signs an agreement that funnels billions to the ayatollahs’ regime, leaves the nuclear infrastructure intact, preserves the ballistic [missile] threat as it is, and throws a lifeline to the murderous regime in Tehran,” Golan said. Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister and a leading challenger in the forthcoming polls, said Netanyahu was “incapable of achieving a decisive victory” and had led Israel into wars of “stagnation and attrition”. Far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition government called for Israel to ignore the terms of the deal, saying Israel had not been involved in negotiations and so was not bound by the agreement. “We are not party to this agreement. It does not safeguard our security,” Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, said on his Telegram channel. Israel has seized swathes of territory in Syria and has occupied more than 60% of Gaza since Hamas’s surprise raid into Israel on 7 October 2023, which triggered the series of recent conflicts. Airstrikes have continued in Gaza since a ceasefire arranged by Trump last year, killing close to 1,000 Palestinians. Danny Orbach, a military historian at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said if Trump forced Israel to withdraw from Lebanon, then Netanyahu’s political career would be over. “To withdraw from the border would be a repudiation of the basic lesson of October 7 … which is that if there is an enemy who want to destroy you, you do not withdraw from the border.” Dahlia Scheindlin, a leading Israeli electoral analyst, said the situation in the north was undoubtedly problematic for Netanyahu, but many supporters of the prime minister would see the apparently unfavourable terms of the interim deal between Iran and the US as only a “blip in a long list of what they consider to be his accomplishments”. “I don’t know if any of them are going to change their minds because of the ceasefire,” Scheindlin said.

Trump declares US-Iran peace deal ‘all signed’ as G7 leaders battle to tie up loose ends

Donald Trump has declared that the strait of Hormuz will be “completely open” from Friday, as western leaders gathering at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains battled to prevent the fragile US deal with Iran from almost immediately unravelling. “The deal’s all signed. And the strait ⁠is already partially opened,” Trump said as he arrived at the summit in France, but Israeli breaches of the ceasefire in Lebanon and Iran’s claims about its right to charge fees in the crucial waterway revealed the agreement’s many loose ends. Speaking at the start of bilateral talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Monday, Trump rejected a proposed UK-France joint naval mission in the strait, saying “I don’t think we will need much help” keeping it open. “I think a lot of great things are going to happen in the Middle East right now. And very importantly, the oil is plummeting down and the stock market is shooting up like a rocket today,” Trump said. “The main thing is that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. They fully agreed to that with strong policing powers, and they won’t have a nuclear weapon, which is what it was all about.” The memorandum of understanding (MOU) – which US officials said would open the strait of Hormuz in exchange for a lifting of a US naval blockade on Iran – is set to be formally signed at a ceremony in Geneva on Friday attended by the US vice-president, JD Vance, and the chief Iranian negotiator, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf. White House officials said the full details of the agreement would be published in the next 24 to 48 hours. But the G7 leaders gathering for three days of talks found themselves already trying to shore up the agreement that the US had signed. Technical discussions led by Vance from the US side will begin later this week, including the more thorny issues of the fate of Iran’s nuclear programme, which Trump has declared must never be able to produce a nuclear weapon. It would also include provisions to lift sanctions and unfreeze billions of dollars in frozen assets, but US officials said that would be tied to “Iran meeting their commitments”. They insisted no Gulf country was cutting a side deal to unfreeze Iran’s assets, but suggested the US was “prepared to release frozen funds, and we are prepared to relieve sanctions”. “We’ll do some small gestures of that in the beginning, if they make some small gestures to us that show that they’re willing to meet their commitments,” another official added. They declined to provide specifics on what that “small gesture” would be, but the first official later clarified that as of now, “$0 of unfrozen assets have been released by the United States or any other country”. The administration officials also said that there would not be an immediate drawdown of US forces near Iran upon the signing of the MOU. “The plan is to keep the current force posture during the … negotiations in force,” the official said. “We hope to draw them down. We’re not doing that yet. We want to see the Iranians do what they promise.” Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, said the deal could stabilise the world economy, but warned Israel that the ceasefire agreement must apply to Lebanon. He spoke after an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle in southern Lebanon killing one person, the second death since the 60-day ceasefire was agreed. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, warned: “There can be no lasting peace whilst Lebanon remains in flames.” In Israel, concern and anger deepened during the day, directed at both Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Analysts and commenters quickly pointed out that none of Netanyahu’s promises at the beginning of the war in February – which included regime change in Tehran and the destruction of Iran’s nuclear programme – had been fulfilled. Israel has also launched a wide-ranging offensive into Lebanon after Hezbollah, which has close links to Iran, fired missiles at northern Israeli towns during the first week of the war, suffering new casualties against an enemy that had been previously dismissed by officials as no longer posing a serious threat. In his first remarks on the agreement, Netanyahu did not denounce the deal but did distance himself from the negotiations, saying that it was “[Trump’s] decision”, adding: “We have our own interests.” He also said Israel would not leave the territory it was occupying in Lebanon despite the ceasefire agreement and it would be ready to strike Iran if it deemed it was moving toward making a nuclear weapon. “With an agreement or without an agreement, Iran will not have nuclear weapons – not today and not tomorrow,” he said. Opposition politicians were quick to capitalise on what some local media described as an “abject failure”. Far-right members of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition called for Israel to ignore the agreement, saying it had not been party to negotiations. The national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said of the memorandum: “Trump’s agreement does not bind us … we must not settle for anything less than the dismantling of Hezbollah. We must not withdraw from a single inch of territory that our soldiers have captured and cleared.” The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, insisted the US had to ensure Israel abided by the ceasefire, warning that the whole deal was contingent on its application to Lebanon. Trump was set to be quizzed by other world leaders whether he had signed an agreement that gave Iran a right to charge for maritime services in the strait of Hormuz. Such a formulation could prove in effect to be a tolling system that European leaders, committed to freedom of navigation, have fiercely opposed. In Evián, Trump insisted that would not be the case, saying: “because we have an agreement where it’s going to be open, and it’s toll-free”. The uncertainty meant plans to deploy a Franco-British maritime taskforce within days to clear mines and escort ships through the strait remained in doubt. Iranian officials have rejected what they see as foreign interference in the strait, and have insisted last-minute negotiated changes to the agreement have given Iran the right to charge fees for maritime services. Macron earlier declared the taskforce could help “ensure the reopening of the strait is peaceful” and France could send its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, frigates, mine search boats and aircraft to the region within days. But the taskforce plan, partly conceived to soothe Trump’s anger over a European refusal to join a more aggressive US plan to open the strait earlier in the war, looks at best uncertain since all the contributor countries have insisted the taskforce cannot operate in the face of Iranian military resistance. Macron claimed Oman, on the southern waterways of the strait, did not object to the convoy. Trump also appeared to suggest the waterway was operating without need for a European escort mission. “Ships are starting to move many loaded up with oil, out of the strait of Hormuz, They are going along the southern highway which is totally safe secure and pristine. There are other areas of travel also,” he posted to social media. But with shipping companies warning it will take months for trade to return to normal, the European Central Bank governor, Christine Lagarde, said the impact of the war on oil prices meant inflation was now spreading across the European economy, with a secondary effect on wages. Trump faces a broader uphill task persuading his sceptical fellow G7 leaders that he was right to ignore their advice since the war had secured objectives the west backed, including taming Iran and destroying its nuclear programme. Many G7 leaders refused to let Trump use US bases in Europe to mount attacks on Iran, and believe the whole episode has damaged the US, while weakening western economies in the battle with China. One western diplomat said: “No one wants a bitter or public inquest, but this has been a crash-and-burn moment for American unilateralism, and perhaps Trump will heed the lessons.” US officials speaking on Monday claimed the war had left Iran “substantially weakened” and it now had the option to be “invited into the world economy with all the prosperity that comes along with it”, on condition the country provided mechanisms to prove it was not trying to build a nuclear weapon.

Canada eliminates human rights watchdog that oversees companies operating abroad

Canada is eliminating a watchdog that investigates alleged human rights violations committed by Canadian companies operating abroad, after Mark Carney said the office hadn’t been “effective” since it was set up in 2019. The move comes as Canada faces criticism from Donald Trump’s administration over its “unacceptable” efforts to combat forced labour. The Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (Core) was established by former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government to investigate the use of forced labour by industry. At the time, much of the focus was on China’s use of the Uyghur ethnic minority for what critics say was forced labour. Despite years of public reports from human rights groups, Beijing disputes claims it engages in modern day slavery. Over its six years, however, Canada’s watchdog has only launched five investigations, including against three US clothing companies with operations in the country – Ralph Lauren, Nike and Levi Strauss – as well as two mining companies: GobiMin and Dynasty Gold Corp. In all cases, the allegations centered on the use of forced labour in the northeastern Xinjiang region of China. The watchdog also used its mediation mechanism after Hugo Boss faced allegations that it used Uyghur forced labour. Core has only issued formal recommendations against two companies. As part of his austerity measures, Carney has said the Liberals will review the function of various offices in the federal government and will make cuts where resources are used inefficiently. “Part of government is to look at things and see whether or not they’re effective and try to improve it,” he said, adding the decision to cut the role was taken “a few months ago”. He said that while Canada has formal legislation to combat the issue, including the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act, it has been “less effective” in enforcing those laws. Despite criticisms of the watchdog, federal ministers have called it an important part of Canada’s efforts to combat human rights violations. When touring China in the spring as part of a trade mission, Canada’s finance minister François-Philippe Champagne cited Core as a safeguard against the use of forced labour in Chinese automobiles that might one day be sold in Canada. Other lawmakers say the oversight body needs resources, not elimination. “CORE has never been given the independence or powers it needs to do its job properly,” said Green party leader Elizabeth May said in a statement. “The Green Party has long called for this office to be strengthened so it can actually investigate abuses, compel evidence and deliver accountability. The solution to a flawed office cannot be to simply do away with it entirely.” The Liberals said on Friday that new legislation would create a public list of products that have been linked to forced labour in specific regions and would require importers to prove that specific products from listed regions were not made through slavery. The move comes as the US has called out Canada – and 80 other nations – over their perceived inability to tackle the use of forced labour in supply chains. The White House recently announced it would impose tariffs on Canada for what it suggested were weak enforcement rules around goods made with forced labour. The Liberals say their new legislation should address the issues raised by the Trump administration.

Trump hails Iran deal that fixes nothing except a problem his war caused

If we get to a Friday signing ceremony without this uncertain new US-Iran deal being derailed by any of its inherent ambiguities, then nuclear talks can finally restart in the same place – and at almost exactly the same point they were before this conflict started. The world will have irrevocably been changed in other ways. There is no going back for the 120 Iranian children in Minab killed in their primary school in the war’s first hours, nor for their bereaved parents, or any of the thousands in Iran, Lebanon and around the region whose lives were erased or blighted by a feckless war of choice. Iran itself has been changed as a state and society in ways which will only become clear in the coming months and years, but for the time being it is evident the military has been strengthened at the expense of secular civilian governance. Freedom and basic rights for Iranians are as elusive as they were before the conflict, maybe more so. Tehran has been bolstered by its proven capacity to close the strait of Hormuz and squeeze the lifeblood of the global economy. Conversely, the power and credibility of the US has been undermined decisively in front of the entire world. Donald Trump has so far achieved none of the stated regime change and nuclear disarmament goals he laid out when the war was launched with Israel on 28 February. The achievement he advertised overnight – “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” – was a matter of claiming credit for fixing a problem his war had caused. Even that is not in the bag yet. It is still a long way to Friday and a planned signing ceremony in Geneva, in view of all the fudges that have been packed into this compromise deal. It is not clear, for example, if Iran will continue to charge tolls (or “service fees”) for the use of the strait, nor whether $24bn (£18bn) of Iran’s frozen assets will be released and paid to Tehran before or during the intended nuclear talks in Geneva. The two sides have very different spins on what was agreed under those headings in the past few days. Ultimately, the ships will only start their engines and the oil begin to flow through the strait of Hormuz when the shipping companies and insurance companies judge it to be safe – and that may be some days or weeks off. At the same time, Iran and the Pakistani brokers are adamant that the deal should stop Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, but members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition have already made clear they do not intend Israel to be bound by the agreement. A deal that freezes the Middle East battlefield as it stands now is a political disaster for Netanyahu, who promised Israelis he would rid them of their worst enemies: Iran’s regime with its nuclear programme, Hezbollah and Hamas. They are all still standing while Israel’s relationship with the US, its ultimate security guarantee, has taken a battering. Netanyahu’s greatest success was finding a US president he could persuade to go to war with Iran with him, but that glimmering triumph has turned to ashes in his hands. Trump is now openly dismissing the Israeli prime minister as a “difficult guy”, and the relationship is unlikely to get any easier in the near future, as Netanyahu seeks to demonstrate his independence of action to sceptical voters before elections due by October. Trump will try to constrain Israel as much as possible – certainly to get to Friday’s signing, and through to the end of the US-hosted World Cup extravaganza – but Netanyahu has his own security and political imperatives. The divergence will sour the partnership still further, at a time when a majority of Americans no longer treat the relationship as sacrosanct. A continuing Lebanese conflict will not be the only centrifugal force tearing at the limbs of this fragile agreement. There will be internal US and Iranian politics too, which could tempt each side to renege. Most importantly, there will be the nuclear issue – the supposed casus belli itself, left essentially unmoved by the war. Starting from Friday, US and Iranian negotiators are due to sit down to 60 days of talks in Geneva to resolve the fundamental dispute over how much of a nuclear programme Iran should be allowed to have. At the centre of the negotiations will be Iran’s right to enrich uranium, how long a moratorium on enrichment it should observe, and what should be done with its stockpile of uranium which has already been enriched to a level approaching weapons grade. If that all sounds familiar, it is because it is exactly what was on the table in Geneva on 26 February, the last day of negotiations before Trump and Netanyahu went to war two days later. By all accounts, including those of UK government observers, those talks had been making progress at the time they were abruptly curtailed and the bombs started to drop. The hope now is that some of that forward momentum can be restored, but the postwar Iranian delegation is likely to be an even tougher nut to crack. The regime has shown its durability and has a proven weapon in its pocket: the Hormuz option. The Iranians will arrive knowing that it was Trump who blinked first to get this interim deal over the line. It seems to include no detailed parameters for future nuclear negotiations, as the Americans had wished, and Israeli reporting confirms arrangement for Tehran to get some of its frozen assets delivered before the Geneva nuclear talks, as Iran had demanded. If Trump and Netanyahu had set out to demonstrate the futility of war, they could not have staged it better.