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US-Iran talks in Switzerland abruptly called off

Talks set to take place on Friday between the ⁠United States ⁠and Iran on implementing the 14-point agreement to end their war have been cancelled, Switzerland’s foreign ministry has announced. The talks were set to begin in the tiny Swiss village of Obbürgen on Friday, two days after the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that opened a 60-day window to negotiate a permanent understanding about Iran’s nuclear program while getting oil traffic moving through the strait of Hormuz. The White House said the US looked forward to “beginning technical talks as soon as possible”, as it announced that JD Vance, who is leading negotiations for the Trump administration, would now not be travelling. “The logistics of these negotiations have never been simple or predictable. As of now the vice-president is not departing tonight,” a White House spokesperson said late on Thursday. The cancellation of the talks came so abruptly, that Vance’s staff and a small pack of journalists had even gathered at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in anticipation of the trip. Dozens of White House officials, advance staffers and media were already in Switzerland to prepare for Vance’s anticipated arrival. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said on Thursday that he had approved the MOU despite reservations, while at the same time, the United States officially lifted a blockade of Iranian ports. But the semi-official Tasnim news agency said before the talks were cancelled, that Iranian negotiators needed ⁠to see signs of implementation of the interim agreement from the US before the next rounds of peace talks could begin, and that there was no confirmation that its delegation would travel to Geneva. The cancellation of the talks came after a report from Al-Mayadeen, an Arabic language network that is politically allied with the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, that said Tehran was delaying sending its delegation to Switzerland due to Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon. Israel, which was not included in the peace talks and has distanced itself from the US-Iran agreement, has continued its fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon and launched fresh airstrikes early on Thursday. The MOU calls for the “permanent termination” of the war in Lebanon and for the country’s “territorial integrity and sovereignty” to be ensured. US president Donald Trump has said he expects a complete ceasefire on all fronts. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to stress that it has no intention of withdrawing from Lebanon, leading to open criticism from Trump and Vance of Israel’s operations. On Friday, Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Ghalibaf, warned against any breach of the agreement, saying “in case of misconduct, breach of treaty and excess of the other side, We have no doubt that decisive respond will be given to the enemy.” The diplomatic back-and-forth over the planned talks adds to the uncertainty over whether a lasting truce can be found to a regional war that has killed at least ‌7,000 people, sent energy prices soaring and shaken global markets. Khamenei on Thursday said Trump had signed the deal “out of desperation” and signalled that upcoming talks would not be easy. “If the American side wants to be too demanding, we will not accept it,” he said in a written message. The deal gives negotiators 60 days to reach agreement on the status of Iran’s nuclear program unless ‌both sides agree to an extension, and set up a $300bn reconstruction fund for Iran and other financial incentives. On Thursday, US forces lifted their naval blockade of Iranian ports that had prevented ships from sailing to or from the Islamic republic, the US military said, noting that American warships “will remain in the general area”. Activity was still muted in the strait of Hormuz, the strategic bottleneck for energy shipments that Iran blockaded during the conflict. With Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse

For women in China frustrated by sexism, female comics are offering a release

Packed into the upstairs theatre of a small performing arts space in east Beijing, more than 100 people, mostly women, are giddy with anticipation. “Who did you come to see?” asks the MC, fashionably dressed in a faded denim two-piece suit. The answer is bellowed in unison back to him: “Fang Zhuren!” Fang Shaoli, AKA Director Fang (Fang Zhuren), has built a cult following in China in the past two years. Decidedly less fashionable than the evening’s host, Fang is dressed in a yellow hoodie and dark blue jeans. Her everywoman attire is part of the appeal. With a stout frame and short, sensible haircut, Fang, who was born in 1975, hails from rural part of east China’s Shandong province. Before discovering the art of standup comedy she worked in factories and on construction sites, but mainly lived as a housewife to a difficult husband. Her jokes riff on the deep sexism that permeates Chinese culture, particularly away from the big urban centres like Beijing and Shanghai. Joking about her two daughters’ marriage prospects, Fang says: “If you don’t get married, then you won’t have to suffer the way I did.” Every joke prompts a ripple or a roar of appreciation from the crowd. Fang’s success – she was a contestant on the hit reality television show The King of Comedy last year – comes as standup comedy as a genre has taken off in China. In the first half of 2025, the number of shows increased by more than 50% compared with 2024, while box office revenues increased by 135%. There is a long history of comedy in China, from slapstick skits to cross-talk, a two-person performance based on rapid banter and wordplay. But the western style of observational wisecracks has only recently caught on in the mainstream. For women frustrated with everyday sexism, it has provided a useful release valve in a society where official censorship makes complaining openly fraught with difficulty. “Women’s perspectives have long been overlooked, and now there’s finally space for them to really shine on stage,” says Su, 25, one of the throngs of people queueing to get a selfie with Fang after the show. In a four-part series, the Guardian analysed the changing status of women across Chinese society. The series examines how women are responding to government restrictions and shifting social and economic conditions, in different aspects of their lives. Navigating the minefield of political topics Fang is one of several female comics to have emerged in recent years. There is also Wang Xiaoli, a 45-year-old woman from Chengdu who makes jokes about being single and childless. Xi Ha, a former flight attendant, mocks the impractical dress codes for female flight attendants; some airlines have since abandoned the requirement for female staff to wear high heels. Riffing on everyday observations about the hurdles faced by women, their jokes about daily life have resonated with millions of women across the country, from urban, educated millennials to frustrated rural housewives like Fang. According to Rose Luqiu, a professor of journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University, standup comedy gives women a space to talk about certain topics that have become more sensitive in the past three years. “Nobody clearly talks about needing to be single, or not wanting to have a baby, but [female comedians] do have some narratives which echo the individualism or independence of women,” Luqiu says. But although comedy can disguise social commentary as lighthearted jokes, sometimes the authorities have a sense of humour failure. Officials have warned comedians against stirring up discord between the genders “for the sake of being funny”. In the run-up to International Women’s Day, amid a clean-up of online feminist content, a Uyghur standup comedian called Paziliyaer Paerhati, was banned from Weibo after posting a joke about having to cook for a fictional husband over lunar new year. In 2024, the e-commerce giant JD.com dropped the popular female comedian Yang Li from an advertising campaign after a backlash from male customers who were outraged at one of her viral jokes about how men can “look so average, yet be so confident”. And when it comes to explicitly political topics – or anything that criticises the state rather than social attitudes – comedians steer well clear. Vickie Wang, a Taiwanese standup comedian who lived in Shanghai for nearly a decade, says that before she performed at her first open mic night in 2017, she was warned by the organisers not to joke about politics, LGBTQ+ issues or anything relating to Tibet, Taiwan or the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. “There’s this understanding that you can’t talk politics, you can’t criticise the government. So instead of talking about systemic issues, you go very granular, you go very personal,” Wang says. But the line of what is acceptable to censors shifts frequently. Wang, who left China in 2022, used to joke about dating. Now the government is sensitive about anything that might promote “gender antagonism”. “In standup comedy in the west, the expectation is that you push the envelope”, Wang says. In China, it’s about telling jokes that resonate with your audience without attracting so much attention that the authorities scrutinise your jokes. The need for Chinese performers to stay somewhat below the radar to avoid censorship limits the reach of their message. But in small theatres across the country, female comics are subtly expanding the boundaries of public speech. For Fang, the unexpected success of her comedy career has even brought her an unlikely fan: her ex-husband, who she supports with the earnings from her newfound fame. “I used to rant about the world and my ex-husband to anyone who’d listen,” Fang says. “Now when I get attacked online, he secretly jumps in to help me fight the haters”. Additional research by Lillian Yang

Ukraine war briefing: Suspect arrested in killing of Putin critic may have Russian intelligence links

A suspect in the fatal shooting of a Russian activist critical of Vladimir Putin has been arrested in Poland. Officials said they believe there may be a link to the man and a foreign intelligence service. Robert Kuzovkov was killed on Monday in Poland in what is seen as part of a possible Russian sabotage campaign in Nato nations. The suspect, a 36-year-old with a Georgian passport, is allegedly linked to organised crime, Polish officials said. Kuzovkov, who died of gunshot wounds to the head, chest and back, had painted unflattering caricatures of Putin and high-ranking Russian officials. One depicts Putin being cradled in the arms of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. He had refused offers of protection by Polish authorities. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said the killing appears to be a political assassination, possibly ordered by Russia. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described Kyiv’s biggest air raid on Moscow since the start of the war as revenge for Russia’s strike on a historic Kyiv monastery earlier this week. Ukrainian drones hit several locations across Moscow, setting a major ⁠oil refinery on fire and forcing evacuations at the city’s airport. Russia’s foreign minister announced it would launch huge “group strikes” on Ukraine “on a regular basis” in response to the raid. Peter Beaumont, Pjotr Sauer and Jennifer Rankin have covered the scope of the attack. And Pjotr Sauer has analysed the significance of the Moscow assault, and its likely reprisals. EU officials say the European Union has reached out to Moscow in a tentative bid to open a line of communication so the continent is not sidelined in any potential talks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. The EU has been quietly seeking to reopen communications with Moscow even as it doubles down on its support for Kyiv. Several EU leaders said there was no point in rushing into talks with Russia. The Latvian prime minister, Andris Kulbergs, said: “First of ⁠all, there has to be someone on the other side willing for peace.” He added: “Unfortunately no one wants peace on that side … there is no point for contact if the other party [Russia] doesn’t want [peace].” Meanwhile, EU leaders agreed ⁠to ⁠renew sanctions against Russia for another ⁠12 months, a spokesperson ‌said. Thursday’s decision marked the ‌first time such sanctions – which target certain sectors of the Russian economy – have ⁠been renewed for a year. They had previously been rolled ‌over every six months. Britain will provide ⁠150,000 drones to Ukraine by the end ⁠of ⁠2026 as part of a £752m ($996m) funding ⁠package. The package, funded by Britain’s £2.26bn loan to Ukraine, includes 350 air defence missiles ‌and ground-based radar systems. The loan is backed by proceeds from immobilised Russian sovereign assets. Zelenskyy said Ukraine wants ⁠to end the war ⁠with ⁠Russia before winter through diplomacy and ⁠pressure on Moscow. But if ‌the fighting ‌continues longer, ‌Ukraine will need a winter assistance package such as gas, diesel ‌fuel and energy equipment and a missile package of at least 300 ⁠missiles, he said. Russian spy drones flying into Ukraine from Belarusian airspace have sharply increased since the beginning of the year, writes Peter Beaumont, as senior officials in Kyiv express mounting concern over Belarus’s involvement in the war. Ukraine has stepped up by reinforcing fortifications on its northern border, including anti-tank ditches, concrete “dragons’ teeth” obstacles to block armoured vehicles and new areas of barbed wire. Russia and ⁠Ukraine ⁠carried out another exchange ⁠of war dead ⁠on Thursday, ‌with ‌Moscow ‌receiving 33 bodies and Ukraine receiving ‌522 bodies, Russia’s RBC news outlet ⁠reported, citing a Russian lawmaker.

Iran announces plans to bring in maritime fees for strait of Hormuz

Iran has announced plans to introduce a system of maritime fees in the strait of Hormuz in two months, after the 60-day period of negotiation that has been triggered by the signing of the memorandum of understanding. Tehran, claiming a historic victory over the US, said the strait was under its control and a European plan for a naval mission to escort ships though the strait would not be welcome. The US on Thursday lifted its blockade of Iran, and oil tankers began freely moving through the critical channel. Tehran’s warning came as the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had said Israel “will maintain the security zone in south Lebanon as long as our security needs require it”, referring to the more than 600 sq km of Lebanese territory occupied by Israeli troops along the border. On Iran, Netanyahu stated that Israel would continue to “adhere to the supreme objective” of not allowing Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran insists the deal referring to territorial integrity of Lebanon requires a full Israeli withdrawal, making Donald Trump accountable for Israel’s withdrawal. Trump said on ⁠Thursday afternoon ⁠that the US expected “a ⁠complete ceasefire on all fronts, including ⁠Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Israel”. “We ‌encourage everyone ‌in the ‌Middle East Region to maintain their commitment to allowing our negotiations ‌to beautifully unfold,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. It also emerged that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei approved the deal with the US and endorsed direct negotiations with the Trump’s team. Khamenei said Trump had “used all kinds of levers” to secure the deal “out of desperation”. Khamenei has not been seen in public since he took office in March following the killing of his father. Meanwhile, Israeli drone attacks and artillery shelling continued on Thursday morning. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against Israeli forces in the Kfar Tebnit-Ali al-Taher area in recent days. The terms of Trump’s deal have drawn a stringing response from many Israeli politicians and its media. An op-ed in the Times of Israel, declaring the US-Israel war on Iran was lost due to “US presidential weakness”, typified the mood. JD Vance on Thursday went in to bat for Trump, and scolded Israeli critics. “Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who’s sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” Vance said during a White House press briefing. “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.” The threats to the agreement came as a planned formal ceremony marking the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran on Friday was cancelled. Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, have already personally signed the document, translated into English and Farsi. The cancellation of the formal ceremony means the chief mediator, Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, will now not travel to Switzerland, a blow to Pakistan that would have welcomed a moment in the global limelight. Iran said technical-level talks between the two sides would go ahead at the luxurious Qatari-owned Bürgenstock mountain resort by Lake Lucerne. The talks, which are the first direct meeting between the two sides since they met in Islamabad on 12 April, will be focused on how to implement the 14-clause memorandum, including how to lift sanctions on Iran’s oil exports and ensure that commercial traffic starts to flow freely through the strait of Hormuz. In a blow to those hoping the strait of Hormuz would be restored to full and permanent freedom of navigation, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator, said the strait needed to be managed, which would come at a cost. But the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, challenged the Iranian plan. He said: “The management of the strait was working fine before the conflict. There were no issues. Ships were navigating freely. There was no safety issue. There was no environmental issue. “So why should we now, as a result of a conflict, accept some novel arrangement that is going to be imposed on it? That, to me, doesn’t make sense. So I think we need to go back to the way it was, and that worked fine, and that should be the end of it.” Muath Alwari, the UAE’s director of policy planning, said the UAE was arguably the recipient of the most Iranian strikes during the war, which targeted hotels, tourist sites and civilian infrastructure. He added that the UAE’s relationship with Israel got stronger during the war, as it found Israel to be a solid defence partner. The country’s engagement with Israel would only deepen after the war, Alwari said. “It does not change our calculus that motivated us in the very beginning to pursue the Abraham accords.” The accords normalised relations between the UAE and Israel. The two statements from key Gulf figures came as the Iranian foreign ministry started the long process of repairing relations with its Gulf allies. It hopes that the Gulf will contribute substantially to a planned $350bn Iran construction fund, which the US has agreed to establish and is supposed to attract largely private-sector investors in the region. Seyed Ali Madanizadeh, Iran’s economic minister, said the US waiver on Iran’s oil exports would not produce an economic bonanza, with experts saying in the short term it could lead to only a small increase in output. He said the war had led to a significant decrease in revenues, a drastic drop in oil income, which had intensified the budget imbalance, adding: “It’s not like everything will just return to normal.”

Iranian star Parastoo Ahmadi reportedly sentenced to 74 lashes for singing without hijab

The Iranian singer Parastoo Ahmadi and eight members of a production team, including musicians, have been reportedly sentenced to 74 lashes for performing in a concert livestreamed on Ahmadi’s YouTube channel in 2024. According to court documents, the criminal court of Qom province sentenced the artists to flogging, a two-year ban on leaving the country and a two-year ban on engaging in artistic activities on charges that include offending public decency through the production and publication of “vulgar and immoral content” online. Although the official judiciary news agency has yet to publish the ruling, rights groups and lawyers who reviewed the documents said the pattern of arrests and legal cases against artists publicly defying the regime reflects a broader effort to deter cultural dissent. In December 2024, the 29-year-old singer performed the patriotic song Az Khoone Javanane Vatan (From the Blood of the Youth of the Homeland) without a hijab in a livestreamed performance that went viral. She was briefly detained along with several musicians shortly after its release before being freed. Authorities later filed a formal case over the publication of the video, which has since accumulated millions of views on YouTube. Bahar Ghandehari, the director of advocacy at the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, said “Ahmadi’s punishment of 74 lashes for merely singing and appearing without a hijab is yet another reminder that human rights conditions in Iran have not changed, despite the Iranian authorities’ wartime propaganda campaign aimed at improving their image.” She added that the contrast between official imagery and the prosecution of artists exposed “the gap between the regime’s propaganda and reality”. Moein Khazaeli, a human rights lawyer at Dadban, a legal counselling centre for Iranian activists, said the sentence lacked legal basis. “Singing, performing music and producing or disseminating musical works by women are not criminalised under Iranian criminal law. Consequently, such activities cannot reasonably be construed as the ‘production, distribution or publication of obscene content’,” he said. “The imposition of a flogging sentence against artists, civil society activists or other citizens is not merely a matter of domestic criminal law. It also raises serious concerns regarding states’ international obligations to prohibit torture and safeguard human dignity. “For this reason, numerous human rights organisations consider flogging not a legitimate form of punishment, but rather a form of torture and inhuman treatment.” For Iranian artists, the ruling, though not unexpected, has deepened fears of escalating cultural repression. The Iranian-British actor Nazanin Boniadi said: “The sentencing of singer Parastoo Ahmadi to flogging for the simple act of singing publicly without a hijab is a stark reminder that, despite talk in Washington of a ‘new regime’ in Iran, the Islamic republic’s machinery of repression remains unchanged. “Accommodating a regime that flogs women for their voices and kills citizens for demanding their rights only emboldens it to continue down its tyrannical path.” The Iranian actor Setareh Maleki, who was forced into exile after starring in Mohammad Rasoulof’s Oscar-nominated film The Seed of the Sacred Fig, said the performance had a powerful emotive impact on her. She told the Guardian: “When I watched the video of Parastoo Ahmadi’s concert, it reignited the spirit of resistance in me. For days, I kept watching the videos over and over again, and I felt immensely proud of Parastoo. “Knowing all the consequences she would have to face, she still refused to give up her right, as a woman, to live, to sing and to be heard. Iranian women never stop fighting against tyranny, not even for a moment, and that is truly remarkable.” She added: “For an Iranian artist who refuses to comply with censorship inside Iran, the daily routine is a form of resistance. “We’ve come a long way but there is still a long road ahead. I’m grateful that every day another beloved artist reminds us of hope again and becomes a guiding light.”

Middle East crisis: Trump says US expects ‘complete ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon, Hezbollah and Israel’ – as it happened

Three people have been killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese state media, and Hezbollah said its fighters were engaged in fresh clashes with the Israeli military today. The strikes occurred despite the signing of the US-Iran agreement which provides for the end of the war on all fronts in the Middle East, including Lebanon. Donald Trump said on ⁠Thursday ⁠that the US expects “a ⁠complete ceasefire on all fronts, including ⁠Lebanon, Hezbollah, and Israel,” adding in a Truth Social post, “We ‌encourage everyone ‌in the ‌Middle East Region to maintain their commitment to allowing our negotiations ‌to beautifully unfold.” JD Vance said that the 60-day period in which to reach a final agreement with Iran has started today. If this is true, that would set a deadline for the final agreement between Iran and the US as 17 August. US central command (Centcom) has ended its blockade in the strait of Hormuz, it announced on social media. The US blockade of the strait had been in effect since 13 April, with control of the waterway being a key point of conflict in the war. Marine Traffic data showed that at least seven ships have crossed the strait so far today. The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said at a meeting with Nato defense ministers in Brussels that the US will restart military action and ⁠reimpose a ⁠blockade against Iran if it does not fulfill its commitments ⁠under the agreement signed yesterday. Pakistan’s foreign ministry said that the signing ceremony in Switzerland, which was due to take place on Friday, is cancelled as it is understood that the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran has already been signed remotely. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said she was representing the bloc’s position on the Middle East, after Israel announced it was severing diplomatic relations over allegations she had compared the country to apartheid South Africa.

‘Cynical to get power’: Michel Barnier on Boris Johnson, Brexit and the EU’s future

A couple of years ago, Michel Barnier spent a weekend with Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley. It was not some ghoulish Brexit spin-off of The Traitors, but the result of the former EU negotiator’s wife, Isabelle, being a close friend of Johnson’s French cousin, Anne du Boucheron, the owner of Château de la Baronnière, a 19th-century estate in Mauges-sur-Loire, in western France. “We spent a weekend together in a French castle. Very friendly. Long promenades in the forest,” Barnier recalls of Johnson senior, with whom he discussed the former prime minister’s motivation to back Brexit. “It was interesting. Boris was much more European at the beginning. Even if he was critical. I don’t see it as a motivation but it is, perhaps, a method or attitude: to be pragmatic in some way. Cynical. Cynical to get power.” Emphasising his points with a gentle thump of the table in a splendid meeting room in the National Assembly, where he now represents a Paris constituency, Barnier follows up his anecdote with fresh evidence of his fondness for a bon mot. To “the clock is ticking”, “no spirit of revenge”, “no cherrypicking”, add: “Never sacrifice the future to the present.” A decade ago, Barnier was asked by the then European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, to lead the EU’s negotiating team after the Brexit referendum. He navigated four years of fraught talks, a list of negotiating counterparts lengthy enough to grace a pub quiz question – David Davis, Dominic Raab, Steve Barclay, David Frost, for the uninitiated – and a stream of meetings in his offices on the fifth floor of the EU’s Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels with the various political agitators of the time. There was Tony Blair (“I never thought that there would be a second referendum,” Barnier insists) and Nigel Farage (“This guy with the help of Mr [Steve] Bannon, the help of the Russians wants to destroy the EU – never, no way”). He also hosted that “more radical group” in the Conservative party, he recalls, grasping for the name of the guerrilla Brexiters who made such trouble for Theresa May. “The ERG [European Research Group], yes,” he says after a little help. “Great times,” says Barnier with a wistful smile. Each to their own, perhaps. Few would now argue that great times followed Britain’s exit of the EU – something Barnier is happy to make a point of. “The great lie was to say that everything was due to Brussels,” he says, noting the UK’s weak economic growth and increasingly toxic immigration debate. “Mr Farage is still winning some elections but he has no longer the capacity to say the fault is in Brussels.” Other scapegoats are available? “But not Brussels,” he responds with a little flash of steel. “It would not be fair to say that the problems of the UK today are due to Brexit, but what I am sure of is that all these problems are more difficult because of Brexit.” It is not that Barnier is blind to the EU’s historical “mistakes”, he says. Too many directives and bureaucracy, he concedes, and not enough done to secure the bloc’s external borders. He is an admirer of the EU’s new policy of seven-day screenings for those arriving through irregular routes and expedited deportations, a package of policies that have had some making comparisons to Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. All this should have been done earlier, he says, but Britain was as complicit in this failure as the other 27 member states. “I still don’t understand why the UK, which always had a very strong influence, left rather than use its influence to correct the EU – it is for me incomprehensible.” Barnier is also reluctant to accept that the EU made any particular missteps in the run-up to the referendum in 2016. It was Britain’s decision not to impose transitional controls on migration from eastern Europe when Poland (2004), Bulgaria and Romania (2007) joined the EU. The then German chancellor Angela Merkel’s later rejection of David Cameron’s “emergency brake” was soundly based on concerns about the “unravelling of the unity and coherence of the EU and legitimacy of the single market”, he says. The single market was the top priority for Barnier too during the Brexit talks as the UK sought to keep frictionless trade while ending the free movement of people. At the time, Barnier explained it in a rather technical way; that the four freedoms (of goods, capital, services and labour) were indivisible. Today, he is more political. Barnier, not yet a presidential candidate for when Emmanuel Macron stands down, but doing a lot of campaigning and “hoping to be useful”, is speaking in the knowledge of a very real possibility that a far-right president could be elected next spring – whether Marine Le Pen or, should a legal ruling on her candidacy not go her way, Jordan Bardella, the 30-year-old president of her National Rally party. “We can never give any kind of argument for Mrs Le Pen or Mr Bardella or Mr [Matteo] Salvini [in Italy] to ask for the same treatment: ‘Look at the UK, they have no consequence, they pay nothing, they are cherrypicking.’ Never, never. At that moment it is the end of the EU – and Mr Farage wins … If they destroy the EU, then every European country is lost.” No flexibility even now on trade for Keir Starmer? “No,” he says. Brussels cannot “give any argument to the far right in France or elsewhere”. Barnier was France’s prime minister for three months in 2024 before the National Rally and the leftwing New Popular Front voted to bring down his government. “I am now much more comprehending [of] Theresa May,” he says of the former prime minister’s parliamentary woes. He is working to create a new body, a European Council for Defence and Security, that would include UK, Ukraine and Norway and the EU members. The governments could cooperate and jointly borrow to fund military projects as well as initiatives relating to artificial intelligence and other disruptive technologies. A similar sort of defence cooperation had been agreed in a political declaration relating to Britain’s future relationship with the EU in 2019 which was ripped up by Johnson a few months later, Barnier says. “I remember a dinner with Johnson and [the European Commission president] Ursula von der Leyen, and he tries a threat. He says: ‘OK, we are not going to find an agreement on trade and economy, it is a pity – but we can work together on external defence.’” Barnier recalls he spoke up to remind Johnson that he had already ruled out such cooperation. “With a kind of natural cynicism he looks around at his team: ‘Who decided this?’ I don’t know if Mrs von der Leyen was an altar girl but I am not an altar boy – I used to be a long time ago. He decided this.” Did he ever believe Johnson’s threat to leave without a deal? “Frankly speaking, no. And I was never impressed by …” Barnier turns to ask his aide to remind him of the name of Johnson’s negotiator, David Frost. He had forgotten Frost’s name? Barnier raises a gallic eyebrow, purses his lips and says nothing. It has been claimed that should Britain rejoin the EU it would not be able to enjoy its previous special status, with opt-outs from the euro and the passport-free Schengen travel zone. Barnier disagrees. “It is perfectly possible,” he says. He is less definitive on the issue of Margaret Thatcher’s permanent budget rebate which reduced the UK’s financial contributions. “The DNA of the EU is solidarity,” he says. Will the UK rejoin the EU in his lifetime? “I don’t know the length of my life,” says the 75-year-old. “I think day after day the British people will see in the current world that it is more dangerous, more fragile, more unstable, that we cannot be alone. It is true for France, it is true for Germany, it is true for everyone. Every day it will be more clear.”