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Middle East crisis live: White House says Trump ‘satisfied’ with blockade after Iran says it seized two ships in strait of Hormuz

Al Jazeera is reporting that the employer of Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil confirmed she was killed in an Israeli attack earlier in the day. Reuters also reports that Khalil’s body was found under the rubble left by the strike, citing a Lebanese military official. Khalil and freelance photographer Zeinab Faraj were covering developments near the town of al-Tayri when an Israeli strike hit the vehicle in front of them. Lebanese rescuers were able to retrieve Faraj, who had suffered a head wound, according to Elsy Moufarrej, who runs the Union of Journalists in Lebanon.

Tourist charged with damaging historic Florentine fountain in pre-wedding prank

A tourist has been charged after allegedly climbing a colossal marble statue in Florence to touch its genitals for a pre-wedding prank. Experts said the woman caused thousands of euros of damage to the Neptune fountain in Piazza della Signoria. Created by the sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati, it was commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1559 to celebrate the marriage of his son, Francesco I de’ Medici, to grand duchess Joanna of Austria. The basin encloses horses that pull a shell-shaped chariot at the base of a statue depicting Neptune, the Roman god of the sea. The 28-year-old tourist, whose nationality has not been disclosed, was spotted by police and quickly removed from the monument. She told them her friends had dared her to touch Neptune’s genitals, according to a statement from Florence’s city council. Experts from the council inspected the monument and found the prank had caused “minor but significant damage to both the legs of the horses she had walked on and to the frieze she held on to in order to avoid slipping”. City officials put the cost of the damage at €5,000 (£4,340). Police charged the woman with defacing an artistic and architectural asset. It is not the first time a tourist has tried to mount Neptune. CCTV cameras were introduced in 2005 after a visitor climbed the statue, breaking one of its hands and damaging the chariot. In 2023, a German tourist caused significant damage trying to climb the monument to take a selfie; that same summer, a young couple tried to scale a copy of Michelangelo’s David in Piazzale Michelangelo. Despite stricter controls around Florence’s landmarks, rarely a summer goes by without similar incidents. According to Giorgio Caselli, who manages the city council’s fine arts office, it has become increasingly trendy for visitors to climb monuments for a “challenge”. In 2024, a teenager hid in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore overnight before climbing up to its cupola for a selfie. Wearing a black hoodie, jeans and trainers, the teenager filmed himself walking up an inside stairwell of the world heritage site before reaching the dome level, stepping on to a small platform outside and taking a picture of himself and posting it on Instagram. Caselli said visitors often lacked respect: “The physical contact that is sought with the monument is far from the objective, emotional and intellectual [awareness] that we expect and favour towards our monumental heritage. We must not allow ourselves any conscientious concessions to the ignorance and superficiality that characterise such actions. “Our goal must be to awaken and cure the civic sense of those who frequent the city, which is not only to show respect toward others, but also towards monuments.” Florence is one of Europe’s most-visited and overcrowded cities, attracting roughly 16 million tourists a year. “Florentines are protective of their heritage and look towards them [visitors] with suspicion,” added Caselli. “Perhaps because they don’t live in the city, they consider it more of a game.”

‘Impossible’ to reopen strait of Hormuz amid ‘flagrant’ ceasefire breaches, Iran says

Iranian forces have seized two ships in the strait of Hormuz as the US and Iran doubled down on imposing separate blockades of the shipping waterway. The standoff over the strait – through which about 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied fossil gas passed through during peacetime – has raised doubts about whether stalled peace negotiations will resume. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament and lead negotiator, said late on Wednesday that reopening the strait of Hormuz would be “impossible” while the US and Israel committed “flagrant” breaches of the ceasefire, including the US naval blockade, “the hostage-taking of the world’s economy” and “Zionist warmongering”. He added in a post on X that the US and Israel “did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying”. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said earlier that their naval forces had stopped two ships attempting to cross the strait and brought them to shore. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that the IRGC had accused the two ships – the Panama-flagged MSC Francesca and Liberia-flagged Epaminondas – of “attempting to exit the strait of Hormuz covertly”. The Epaminondas is Greek-operated, and Greece’s foreign minister confirmed there had been an attack against a Greek-owned cargo ship. A UK-based maritime security monitor reported attacks on ships in the waterway on Wednesday, including an incident in which a vessel was approached by an Iranian gunboat “that then fired upon the vessel which has caused heavy damage to the bridge”. The seizures mark the first time Iran has taken control of ships since the beginning of the war, which started on 28 February, and come after the US fired on and seized an Iranian cargo vessel and boarded a Iranian oil tanker in the Indian Ocean. In the latest in a series of about-turns, Donald Trump threatened violence on Tuesday hours before announcing he was unilaterally extending a ceasefire. “I expect to be bombing because I think that’s a better attitude to go in with,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday. “We’re ready to go. The military is raring to go.” Later, he said he would not attack but would continue the blockade. The US president has been unable to contain the global economic and diplomatic crisis that erupted from the war, which has not resulted in the anti-US regime being overthrown or ended Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Instead, it led to Tehran’s forced closure of the strait of Hormuz, which has caused a spiralling global economic crisis. Facing calls to reopen the waterway, Trump put pressure on Iran to end its blockade, but failed and later decided to impose his own blockade, leading to more fuel price hikes and threats of long-term inflation. Countries in Asia that are dependent on Gulf oil have been badly hit, with shortages of fuel, fertiliser and other raw materials that pass through the strait. While the west is better insulated, it is not immune. Germany, Europe’s largest economy, halved its 2026 growth forecast to 0.5% on Wednesday, while Greece announced €500m (£434m) in extra aid for households and farmers. The prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said: “The nation’s economy is holding up and doing better than expected. However, the stress of the supermarket, the expenses of children, more expensive fuel and the care of the elderly remain.” The head of the UN maritime agency has appealed for help for thousands of seafarers stranded in the Gulf by the strait of Hormuz closure. About 20,000 seafarers and 2,000 ships have been stranded, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Over the weekend, Iran said it had received new proposals from Washington but also suggested a wide gap remained between the sides. Pakistan has acted as mediator, but a luxury hotel in Islamabad that was cleared out for more talks remained empty on Wednesday. Iran never publicly accepted the invitation and the US delegation led by the vice-president, JD Vance, never left Washington. A Pakistani official briefed on the preparations told Reuters: “We had prepared everything. We were all prepared for the talks, the stage was set. If you ask me honestly, it was a setback we were not expecting, because the Iranians never refused, they were up to come and join and they still are.” In his first term as president, Trump withdrew from an agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme. He disliked the pact, which had been signed by Barack Obama, and was discouraged from diplomacy by Israel, Iran’s arch-enemy. For years, Israel had pushed the US to bomb Iran but no administration in Washington agreed, seeing it as counterproductive and fearing the chaos that is now playing out. Adding to the bloodshed and instability, Israel and the Iranian proxy group, Hezbollah, have fought a second front in Lebanon. Despite a tenuous 10-day ceasefire that expires on Sunday, Israeli strikes killed three people in Lebanon on Wednesday, Lebanese state media said. Hezbollah said it carried out an attack on northern Israel in response to what it called “flagrant” violations of the ceasefire. At least 2,454 people have been killed in Lebanon in Israeli attacks since the start of the war, according to Lebanese authorities. Reuters reported on Wednesday that an Israeli drone dropped a grenade on rescuers trying to lift a wounded journalist from rubble in Tayri, in southern Lebanon. The news agency cited an unnamed senior Lebanese military official as saying the Lebanese army had asked the Israeli military through the US to allow rescuers to retrieve the wounded journalist. Lebanese media reported that the journalist was trapped after a previous Israeli attack. The Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, said preparations were under way for negotiations between Lebanon and Israel on Thursday. The talks are significant as the countries have not maintained diplomatic relations with each other. For decades, Israel has repeatedly bombed, invaded and occupied Lebanon, while the Lebanese government has failed to contain Hezbollah, which has fired rockets at Israel. Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

‘Like living in a cage’: Islamabad stuck in lockdown as city waits on US-Iran talks

Across Islamabad, there is lockdown. The streets of the Pakistani capital have been empty for days, shops have been shuttered and public transport closed down. Officials and office workers have been told to work from home, while labourers have found themselves deprived of work. The only visible figures are those in army and police uniforms lining the roads. For many, it feels like a return to the pandemic. Yet the cause is not a virus but Islamabad’s status as the venue for US-Iran talks that hold the promise of an end to war in the Middle East, with stringent security measures imposed on the city as it awaits the two delegations. Yet as uncertainty reigns over whether the negotiations will even take place, anger has been rising. For people, the draconian and seemingly indefinite restrictions have become a source of frustration and economic strife. Many workers in Islamabad and neighbouring Rawalpindi unable to afford to rent a flat were unceremoniously kicked out of their hostel accommodation on Saturday, after a government order, and tens of thousands had to hurriedly find a place to say. Day after day, with the promised talks failing to materialise, and the city’s lockdown repeatedly extended, many are questioning how long they will be kept away from their livelihoods. Areej Akthar, a health officer at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, a government hospital in Islamabad, was among thousands forced out of their rooms. “Saturday was chaotic,” she said. “I am lucky enough that my village is a three-hour drive away. But many people [who] were from distant cities and province[s] had to beg their colleagues, friends and relatives to allow them to stay until the US-Iran negotiations took place.” As the delays in the talks have dragged on, Akthar’s frustration has mounted. The closure of public transport means she is unable to get back to the city. “It is like we are living in a cage,” she said. “We can’t go back to work. Many like me can’t afford to rent a flat, that’s why we live in hostels.” Many residents also complained that the lockdown is also worsening the economic impact of the war on ordinary citizens. Since the US and Israel began bombing Iran in late February, and Tehran retaliated by closing the strait of Hormuz – the shipping route for a fifth of the world’s oil and gas – Pakistan has been among one of the countries worst affected by the energy crisis. Power cuts of up to seven hours have been imposed due to a shortage of fuel while many restaurants in the capital had to close due to a lack of cooking gas. The restaurants that had remained open have now been forced to close their doors, while taxi drivers have reported a 50% cut in their earnings. Muhammad Zubair, 45, a daily wage labourer said he was not able to work for the past six days, and was growing hungrier by the day. Sitting on the pavement in Islamabad, Zubair was dismissive that acting as a host for high-profile talks was good for the people of Pakistan. “A lockdown means no work and no work means no food. The government does not care about the poor. We need work to feed our children.” The government announced that exams for more than 1,200 civil servant candidates would be shifted to Lahore, more than 230 miles (370km) away. Yasir Mushtaq said he was not sure he could afford to travel to reach the exams. “I have to borrow money,” he said. “It is worse for female candidates. Many females can’t travel alone without parents accompanying them. Some are thinking of skipping their exams.” A senior official said it felt as if the whole country had ground to a halt as they waited for decisions in Washington and Tehran. “We are all under a lockdown and it feels like we are back to coronavirus days.”

Roman Abramovich takes Jersey to European human rights court over criminal investigation

Roman Abramovich has gone to the European court of human rights (ECHR), claiming that a criminal investigation into his financial affairs by the Jersey authorities has breached his human rights, according to reports. The former owner of Chelsea FC, who is under UK sanctions over his links to Vladimir Putin, is being investigated in Jersey over allegations of corruption and money laundering. In a claim filed to the ECHR, lawyers for Abramovich said the actions taken by the Channel Island, where £5.3bn of his assets are frozen, were “unfair and abusive”. The investigation has previously resulted in a company owned by the billionaire oligarch to say that the £2.4bn proceeds of the sale of Chelsea, which have been promised to the victims of the Ukraine war but are yet to be released, could be viewed by Jersey as the proceed of crime. Representatives of Abramovich told the Times: “This investigation, which has dragged on for years without charges, transparency or credible evidence, represents a clear abuse of power by the government of Jersey and a violation of fundamental rights. “Authorities have withheld key information and ignored basic procedural safeguards, showing how this is not a legitimate legal process but one driven by political motives.” “We expect the European court of human rights to recognise these failures and reach the same conclusion.” Abramovich has previously succeeded in a legal attempt to force ministers and other senior figures in Jersey to produce private messages, emails and other data related to him that would be made public as result of the investigation. His claim at the ECHR argues that his right to a fair trial under article 6 of the European convention on human rights has been infringed, according to the Times, which first reported the filing. According to the report, Abramovich also claims that his right to privacy, under article 8, was breached by a public announcement about the investigation, made by Jersey in 2022, because he had not been charged with any offence. The UK government is the official respondent to the claim, the documents say, according to the report. Representatives for the oligarch say the Jersey case is delaying the release of funds from the sale of Chelsea. The British government has threatened to sue Abramovich to force the release of funds, amid reports of disagreement over how the money will be used. Britain wants the money to be ringfenced for use in Ukraine, in line with a wider European push for Moscow to foot the bill for the devastation caused by its invasion. However, Abramovich has indicated that he wants more flexibility over how the money, which he has pledged to donate for charitable purposes, would be spent. When he announced his intention to sell the club in March 2022, he said the proceeds would be used “for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine”, leaving open the possibility that money could be diverted to areas of Ukraine annexed by Russia. The Guardian has approached the government and Abramovich for comment.

Strait of Hormuz is hosting gunboat diplomacy as US and Iran vie for most effective blockade

Donald Trump’s indefinite shelving of the plan to bomb Iran’s bridges and power stations on Tuesday night is being widely described as leaving the conflict in limbo, but that is anything but the truth. Pakistan insists the prospect of talks in Islamabad has not evaporated, and positive messages are still being exchanged, but in the meantime the site of kinetic activity has switched from land to sea. Both sides are vying to prove they can enforce their blockade of the strait of Hormuz more effectively than the other. It has become a form of gunboat diplomacy brought to life in the most significant geopolitical waterway in the world. Iran, by firing at and seizing commercial ships trying to navigate the strait, is trying to send a message that it can maintain its chokehold on the world economy. The US, through its blockade of Iranian ports, is trying something more immediate. Through sanctions and naval action, it is attempting to make the Iranian economy collapse as Tehran runs out of space to store the oil it is producing and cannot export due to the blockade. It is a trial of strength in which both sides believe they have time on their side. Gholamhossein Mohseni-Eje’i, the head of the Iranian judiciary, said: “The enemy is not in a position to set a timeline for us.” The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said that in a matter of days “Kharg Island storage will be full and the fragile Iranian oil wells will be shut in. Constraining Iran’s maritime trade directly targets the regime’s primary revenue lifelines.” This chimes with an analysis championed by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The FDD, a fiercely anti-Iranian regime thinktank, has argued that the strait is not a gamechanging weapon for Iran, but a source of weakness. The argument runs that Iran will run out of oil storage by Sunday – 26 April. Writing on the RealClearDefense website, Lance B Gordon, a retired naval officer, claimed: “Forcing Iran to shut in production due to lack of storage would risk long-term reservoir damage including permeability loss, water coning, and formation compaction – effects that could permanently reduce future output and cashflow.” Forced shutdowns could permanently eliminate 300,000 to 500,000 barrels a day. Mark Dubowitz, the chief executive of the FDD, says the strategy is now ceasefire on one front and intensifying pressure on the other, including US Central Command increasing the pressure by seizing ships. The mix of blockade, sanctions enforcement and implicit threat of renewed strikes run in parallel with talks. Iran insists it understands and can foil this US strategy, in part by refusing to restart talks until the US blockade is lifted. The cargo tracking firm Vortexa has reported that at least 34 tankers linked to Iran have circumvented the US blockade since it began, with 19 exiting the Gulf and 15 entering from the Arabian Sea. Six outbound tankers carried approximately 10.7m barrels of Iranian crude oil, generating an estimated $910m (£670m) in revenue at a discount to Brent crude. Secondly, Iran does not need to look far for signs that its own blockade of the strait is working. The price of oil, manipulated downwards by Trump’s social media messaging, remains the key metric for Iran, and is above $100 a barrel. But there are other signs, too – the cancellation of 20,000 Lufthansa flights due to the cost of jet fuel, hotel booking vacancies this summer, the level of oil reserves at the UAE’s Fujairah port, the price of copper and condoms, the cost to European treasuries of mitigating energy inflation and even the number of Senate “pick-ups” that the Democrats are now targeting in November. In this global war the mood among Tennessee voters about Trump’s handling of the economy matters as much in Tehran as in the White House. Seeing his country as joining the great power league, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace force commander, Majid Mousavi, said: “Iran’s southern neighbours should know that if their geographies and facilities are used in the service of enemies to attack the Iranian nation, they must say goodbye to oil production in the Middle East.” But Iran is also hinting that it has other cards to play. Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, wrote about the potential of internet cable disruption. It noted the concentration of Gulf countries’ communication infrastructures in the strait of Hormuz and said any disruption to these would lead to a catastrophe for the region’s digital economies. But escalating the war in this way could cause strain inside Iran, itself exhausted by war. Trump claimed he detected signs of a deeply fractured Iranian leadership and that this was the reason Tehran was not able to reply to US proposals. The degree of division is hotly contested, but what is undeniable is the pressure on ordinary Iranians. The continued internet blackout – a self-imposed security measure – is forcing thousands of often young entrepreneurs each day into unemployment. There are also calls – likely to be disregarded – to use the ceasefire as an occasion to have a wider discussion inside Iran about how the country responds, rather than leaving the discussion to a security elite. The reformist writer Ahmad Zeidabadi argued on Wednesday that the ceasefire extension should be an opportunity. “Instead of aggression, accusation and fearmongering – which has become the primary mode of our political action as Iranians – we must create a safe, free and civil space for discussion of the country’s available options in the face of this crisis, so that in the end, the best and most rational decision can be made and announced with complete candour and courage.”

Zelenskyy says EU unblocking of €90bn loan for Ukraine is ‘the right signal’ as Hungary drops opposition – as it happened

… and so on that note, it’s a wrap for today! The European Union is in the process of formally approving a €90bn loan for Ukraine after the restart of the Druzhba pipeline and reports that Hungary has dropped its longstanding veto (15:16), finally clearing the way for the funds to be disbursed (13:14, 15:45). The formal written procedure for voting on the loan is due to be completed by Thursday afternoon, just as EU leaders are expected to meet in Cyprus (13:28). The process should be a mere formality at this stage (17:21). The Hungarian oil giant MOL reported earlier that its Ukrainian counterpart started receiving crude oil form Belarus around midday, with first deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia expected tomorrow (10:03, 10:40, 12:27). Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico warned Ukraine against any attempts to disrupt the flow of Russian oil once the money is approved (12:02). Meanwhile, Russia has confirmed plans to suspend the shipment of Kazakh oil to Germany from 1 May, citing “technical reasons” (14:38, 15:09, The EU will cut electricity taxes and provide consumers with fresh incentives to ditch fuel-burning cars and boilers, the European Commission has announced, as the energy crisis from the Iran war speeds a shift to a clean economy. British holidaymakers face new rules when taking their pet into the EU involving paperwork costing up to £200 (16:15). If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

EU agrees to unblock €90bn loan for Ukraine after Hungary lifts veto

EU member states have reached agreement on unblocking an urgently needed €90bn (£78bn) loan for Kyiv and a new package of sanctions against Moscow after Ukraine resumed pumping Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, prompting Budapest to lift its veto. Cyprus, which holds the bloc’s rotating presidency, said member states’ ambassadors had agreed to launch “written procedures” for the final approval of the loan and the sanctions package, with formal signoff on both due by Thursday afternoon. The EU agreed in December on the loan, vital to keep Ukraine afloat this year and next, but Hungary’s outgoing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, backed by Slovakia, vetoed it in March because of a dispute with Kyiv over a damaged oil pipeline. Orbán, who lost to a centre-right challenger, Péter Magyar, in elections on 12 April, accused Ukraine of deliberately delaying repairs to the Druzhba pipeline which carries oil to Hungary and Slovakia, both of which are heavily dependent on Russian oil. Kyiv said the pipeline, which has a capacity of 1.2m to 1.4m barrels a day and became one of the most politically charged pieces of infrastructure in Europe, had been badly damaged by Russian drone strikes and was being repaired as fast as possible. Hungary’s MOL oil firm said early on Wednesday afternoon it had been told by Druzhba’s Ukrainian operator that crude oil was arriving via the pipeline from Belarus and was “expected in Hungary and Slovakia by tomorrow at the latest”. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, welcomed the news as “the right signal under the current circumstances”, adding that both “support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia” were needed for Moscow to end its war. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was fulfilling its obligations in its relations with the EU, including on the Druzhba pipeline, and it was now important that the European support package “becomes operational swiftly”. The row over the loan, which aims to cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s financing needs in 2026 and 2027, also delayed new sanctions against Moscow that the EU had hoped to adopt for the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of February 2022. Orbán’s heavy election defeat after 16 years in power had fuelled EU hopes that the funds would be unlocked, but officials had expressed concerns that the bloc might have to wait until Magyar took office in May before it could be approved. Orbán had the power to block the loan even though he – like the similarly Moscow-friendly governments of Slovakia and the Czech Republic – secured exemptions meaning none of the three countries will participate in the joint borrowing. The EU will provide Ukraine with two interest-free loans of €45bn each in 2026 and 2027, with €28bn reserved for military spending and €17bn for general budget needs each year. The money will be borrowed on capital markets backed by the EU budget. Economists have said Ukraine could start to run low on money by June without the EU loan. The bloc’s economic commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, said on Tuesday the first disbursement was likely to be made at the end of May or in early June. Ukraine is not expected to pay the money back from its own funds, with the capital only due when Russia starts paying reparations once the war is over – potentially using the estimated €210bn of its central bank assets frozen in the EU. The scheme was designed last year as a way of making use of the frozen Russian funds to help Ukraine without actually confiscating the cash, a move that Belgium and several other EU member states had viewed as legally hazardous. According to a draft, the EU’s 20th sanctions package against Moscow includes further maritime and energy restrictions aimed at limiting Russia’s ability to export oil, as well as a financial sector crackdown and trade and industrial bans. More than 40 additional ships are to be added to the 600-strong list of vessels banned from EU ports and a comprehensive ban is to be introduced on maritime services such as insurance, brokering and technical management linked to Russian oil transport. About 120 individuals and entities including 20 Russian regional banks have been added to the sanctions list, with travel and transaction bans and asset freezes intended to complicate domestic and cross-border settlement for Russian businesses. Crypto platforms and digital assets will also be targeted, as will third-country banks that facilitate trade in restricted military goods, and about €930m of goods have been added to import and export bans. Separately, the German government said the German subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned oil company Rosneft had told it the flow of oil from Kazakhstan through the Druzhba pipeline to a refinery in eastern Germany would be halted from 1 May. The PCK refinery near the Polish border, one of Germany’s largest, supplies much of the Berlin region with fuel, but the government’s spokesperson in Berlin, Stefan Kornelius, said the change would “not significantly restrict refinery operations”.