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Iran’s leader and security council ‘still need to approve’ peace deal with US

Iran’s supreme leader and national security council still need to approve the proposed peace deal between Tehran and Washington, Iranian officials said on Sunday. One or two clauses in the proposed peace deal between the US and Iran must be clarified to Iran’s satisfaction before the memorandum of understanding can be sent to Iran’s supreme national security council and the supreme leader Motjaba Khamenei for ratification, Iranian officials said on Sunday, adding this had been conveyed to the Pakistani mediators. Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that a peace deal with Iran “has been largely negotiated”, after calls with Pakistan, Gulf allies and Israel. The Iranian government seemed to be in jubilant mood, preparing to claim a massive and historic victory over its two great foes, the US and Israel. Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian said: “What has guaranteed the preservation and stability of the country is the solidarity and empathy of the people.” The deal reportedly offers Iran sanctions relief and the unlocking of as much as $20bn frozen assets in return for Iran reopening the strait of Hormuz and agreeing to negotiate on its nuclear programme over the next 60 days starting on 5 June in Pakistan. Details of the final points of dispute were not released. At least $12bn of the assets are in Qatar. The deal also reportedly requires Iran and the US, and their allies, to cease fighting, and for Israel to end its offensive in Lebanon. On Saturday, Trump spoke to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the key original advocate of the war when it began in February, to try to reassure him on the ceasefire’s terms. Netanyahu is concerned by the postponement of the nuclear issue but has little option other than to accept Trump’s decision to end a domestically unpopular war that is crippling the world economy by injecting inflation and critical supply shortages. Gulf States, as well as the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, had lobbied Trump on Saturday on the phone urging him to rule out returning to a bombing campaign inside Iran that they said would only bring Iranian reprisals and not topple an entrenched regime. Trump – who said on Friday he would not attend his son’s wedding this weekend, citing Iran among the reasons for staying in Washington – wrote on his social media platform that “final aspects and details” of a “memorandum of understanding” were still being discussed and “will be announced shortly”, but said the strait of Hormuz would be opened as part of the deal. “An agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalisation between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the various other Countries,” Trump posted. The US and western countries have been insistent that Iran should not be allowed to impose tolls on shipping in the strait. Iran’s Fars news agency, which is close to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, stated that the strait would remain under Iranian control. It reported on Telegram that “the management of the Strait, determining the route, time, method of passage and issuing permits, will continue to be the monopoly, and at the discretion of, the Islamic Republic of Iran”. On Saturday, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said the future governance of the strait was a matter for negotiation between Iran on the north shore of the strait and Oman on the south, and not an issue in which the US could be involved. Iran also said it had merely committed to negotiate all nuclear-related issues in talks due to last 30 days with a further 30-day optional extension, taking the timetable to late summer. No commitments on the outcome of those talks has been made, only the topics, meaning the US has largely reverted to the prewar position that held in Geneva on 26 February, two days before the war started. The deal will reportedly allow Iran to resume the sale of oil and petrochemicals during the negotiation period without the risk of sanctions. The US will also lift its counter blockade of Iranian ports. US secretary of state Marco Rubio, speaking in India, said: “We have made some progress over the last 48 hours working with our partners in the Gulf region on an outline that could ultimately – if it succeeds – leave us not just with a completely open strait … [but also address] some of the key things that underpin what have been Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions in the past”. Challenging the mounting domestic criticism of a deal that in no way meets the US original objectives, Rubio said: “The idea that somehow this president, given everything he has already proven he is willing to do, is going to somehow agree to a deal that ultimately winds up putting Iran in a stronger position when it comes to nuclear ambitions is absurd. “That is just not going to happen. But our preference is to address this through a diplomatic means and that is what we are endeavouring to do here.” News of the potential deal triggered dismay among Republican hawks, who had spent years calling for US military action against Iran, and deriding the 2015 deal to limit Iran’s nuclear enrichment in return for sanctions relief negotiated during the Obama administration. Trump withdrew from that international deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018. Mike Pompeo, who served as CIA director and secretary of state during Trump’s first term, denounced the current proposed agreement as too close to what Barack Obama’s negotiators had achieved and a boon to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “The deal being floated with Iran seems straight out of the Wendy Sherman-Robert Malley-Ben Rhodes playbook: Pay the IRGC to build a WMD program and terrorize the world,” Pompeo wrote on social media, referring to Obama’s chief negotiators. The alternative, Pompeo added, is “straightforward: Open the damned strait. Deny Iran access to money. Take out enough Iranian capability so it cannot threaten our allies in the region.” Malley responded: “Not quite the path Wendy, Ben or I would have taken. But if this deal brings an end to an unlawful, unjustifiable war, to the senseless loss of life and destruction and to the cascading global economic fallout, I am quite sure we’d willingly accept it over the alternative.” The White House director of communications, Steven Cheung, was somewhat less diplomatic in his response to the former secretary of state. “Mike Pompeo has no idea what the fuck he’s talking about,” Cheung wrote on X. “He should shut his stupid mouth and leave the real work to the professionals. He’s not read into anything that’s happening, so how would he know.” After Republican senator Roger Wicker wrote the “rumored 60-day ceasefire – with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith – would be a disaster. Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!” Rhodes replied: “Nothing was accomplished by Operation Epic Fury except putting the IRGC in charge of Iran and the strait of Hormuz.” Ted Cruz, Republican senator for Texas, warned if the war’s conclusion “is to be an Iranian regime – still run by Islamists who chant “death to America” – now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium and develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake”. Additional reporting by José Olivares and Robert Mackey

Middle East crisis live: Rubio sees initial progress on reopening Hormuz after Trump claims Iran deal ‘largely negotiated’

According to the NY Times, the Israeli government has issued its first response to the potential US-Iran deal. In a written statement given to journalists, an unnamed Israeli official said Benjamin Netanyahu had discussed the agreement with Donald Trump last night over the phone. The NY Times reports that the official described the deal as an initial understanding about the reopening of the strait of Hormuz that would lead to further talks on a final agreement. The official said that Netanyahu made it clear to Trump that Israel would not be constrained in responding to “all threats”, including across the border in Lebanon. Netanyahu is said to actually want to resume the war on Iran in order to degrade the country’s military capabilities further and continue attacks on its infrastructure. Donald Trump, whose poll ratings have suffered in the US over the deeply unpopular war, seems more interested in reaching an agreement with Tehran, although he has repeatedly said he will resume attacks if one cannot be reached and gives often contradictory statements. Iran has said an end to Israel’s war on Lebanon has to form part of any agreement with Washington.

Irish gangland figure fails in Dublin byelection bid for seat in parliament

The Irish gangland figure Gerry “the monk” Hutch has failed in his bid for a parliamentary seat in a Dublin byelection. The 63-year-old came fourth in a contest won by Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats, a victory for progressive politics after a campaign dominated by concerns over the cost of living and immigration. Hutch, who has been named in court as the leader of an organised crime group and was jailed for robbery convictions in his youth, ran as an independent and called for “illegal immigrants” to be interned in camps. He singled out people from Somalia. In the Dublin Central constituency Hutch won 2,817 first preference votes – 11.3% of the total – and that rose to 4,466 after votes from eliminated candidates were transferred. It left Hutch trailing Ennis, who won 12,050 in the final count, Sinn Féin’s Janice Boylan, with 7,787, and the Green party’s Janet Horner, with 5,452. The election was on Friday and results were announced on Saturday. Ennis promised to bring “deep humanity” to the Dáil and said he would do his best to represent all those who call the Dublin Central constituency home. Hutch’s defeat was a relief for establishment candidates who feared that his fame and notoriety, and a sour mood to the government, would deliver a shock result. However, Hutch and another anti-immigration candidate, the independent councillor Malachy Steenson, increased their share of the first preference vote from Ireland’s 2024 general election, in which both competed. During the election, Bertie Ahern, the former Fianna Fáil taoiseach, was secretly recorded telling a voter that he worried about Muslims and arrivals from Africa. “We can’t be taking in people from the Congo and all these places.” The current taoiseach, Micheál Martin, distanced the party and the government from the remarks. The byelection was to fill the vacancy left by Paschal Donohoe, a finance minister with the ruling Fine Gael party, who quit the Dáil for a World Bank job. With coffers swelled by corporate tax revenues, the centrist Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael coalition has ramped up public spending, but rising prices and a housing shortage have fuelled protests and resentment. The Social Democrat victory revived questions over Mary Lou McDonald’s leadership of Sinn Féin, the main opposition party, which also missed out on a seat in a Galway byelection. McDonald told reporters she felt “no pressure” and that the party would continue building. “I would humbly suggest to you that when a general election comes, when a general election lands, watch and see how we perform.” Vote counting in Galway resumed on Sunday, with Noel Thomas of the group Independent Ireland holding a narrow leader over Fine Gael’s Seán Kyne. Hutch has been a notorious figure for decades. A court named him as the leader of an organised crime group and he has admitted to committing crimes. “Some of them I got away with,” he told RTÉ in 2008.

Trump claims peace deal with Iran ‘largely negotiated’ with strait of Hormuz to open

Donald Trump claimed on Saturday that a peace deal with Iran “has been largely negotiated”, after calls with a Pakistani mediator, Gulf allies and Israel, potentially paving the way for an end to the war launched by the US and Israel in February. Trump wrote on his social media platform that “final aspects and details” of a “memorandum of understanding” were still being discussed and “will be announced shortly”, but said the strait of Hormuz would be opened as part of the deal. “An agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the various other Countries,” Trump posted. However, Iran’s Fars news agency, which is close to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that the strait of Hormuz would remain under Iranian control, a red line for the US. The news agency reported on Telegram that “the management of the Strait, determining the route, time, method of passage, and issuing permits will continue to be the monopoly and discretion of the Islamic Republic of Iran”. It said Trump’s assertion that an agreement was nearly final was “inconsistent with reality”. Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, later congratulated Trump on his peace efforts and said Pakistan hoped to host another round of talks between the US and Iran “very soon”. Sharif described the US president’s call with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, the UAE, Jordan and Pakistan as “very useful and productive”, adding: “Pakistan will continue its peace efforts with utmost sincerity and we hope to host the next round of talks very soon.” Pakistan’s army chief, Syed Asim Munir, is a key figure in the negotiations and has held meetings in Tehran recently with figures such as Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. Trump’s announcement came after a Pakistani source told Reuters that Iran and Pakistan had submitted a revised proposal to the United States to end the war and reopen the strait of Hormuz. Details purported to be in the draft agreement include that the strait would reopen with no tolls during a 60-day ceasefire extension, while Iran would be able to freely sell oil and negotiations would be held on curbing its nuclear program, according to Axios. In exchange, the US would lift its blockade on Iranian ports, it reported, citing a US official. The report tallies with the Associated Press, which cited a regional source as saying the potential deal would include an official declaration of the war’s end, with two-month negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, the opening of the crucial shipping lane by Iran and an end to the US blockade of Iranian ports. Three senior Iranian officials told the New York Times the agreement would stop the fighting in Iran and in Lebanon, and could release $25bn in Iranian assets frozen overseas, with a nuclear agreement to be negotiated within 30 to 60 days. There had been hints before the announcement that indirect talks between the US and Iran had progressed in the past few days. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said during a visit to India that “news” might arrive “later today”, even as Trump continued to threaten striking Iran. In his post, Trump said that he had had phone discussions with many Middle Eastern leaders, including those of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, as well as Pakistan’s army chief Munir, and Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “Separately, I had a call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, which, likewise, went very well,” Trump said. Details of the exact negotiations remain sparse. Trump on Saturday said he’d met with American negotiators, including special envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner, along with JD Vance, to discuss the latest round of proposals. The lead-up to the announcement remained tense, with Trump continuing to threaten strikes. Trump had told CBS and Axios he would only sign a deal “where we get everything we want”, adding that if a deal was not reached, the US would begin striking Iran again. News of the potential deal triggered dismay among Republican hawks who had spent years calling for US military action against Iran, and deriding the 2015 deal to limit Iran’s nuclear enrichment in return for sanctions relief negotiated during the Obama administration. Trump withdrew from that international deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018. Mike Pompeo, who served as CIA director and secretary of state during Trump’s first term, denounced the rumored terms of the deal as too close to what Barack Obama’s negotiators had achieved and a boon to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “The deal being floated with Iran seems straight out of the Wendy Sherman-Robert Malley-Ben Rhodes playbook: Pay the IRGC to build a WMD program and terrorize the world,” Pompeo wrote on social media, referring to Obama’s negotiators. The alternative, Pompeo added, is “straightforward: Open the damned strait. Deny Iran access to money. Take out enough Iranian capability so it cannot threaten our allies in the region.” Malley responded: “Not quite the path Wendy, Ben or I would have taken. But if this deal brings an end to an unlawful, unjustifiable war, to the senseless loss of life and destruction, and to the cascading global economic fallout, I am quite sure we’d willingly accept it over the alternative.” The White House director of communications, Steven Cheung, was somewhat less diplomatic in his response to the former secretary of state. “Mike Pompeo has no idea what the fuck he’s talking about,” Cheung wrote on X. “He should shut his stupid mouth and leave the real work to the professionals. He’s not read into anything that’s happening, so how would he know.” After Republican senator Roger Wicker wrote the “rumored 60-day ceasefire – with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith – would be a disaster. Everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!”, , Rhodes replied: “Nothing was accomplished by Operation Epic Fury except putting the IRGC in charge of Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.”

‘There is profound disappointment in him’: mood in Russia turns against Putin

Vladimir Putin pulled up to a hotel in central Moscow earlier in May in a Russian-made SUV, dressed casually in jeans and a light jacket. Carrying a bouquet of flowers, he walked unhurriedly into the lobby and embraced his former schoolteacher Vera Gurevich, who kissed him on both cheeks. He then helped Gurevich into his car and drove her to dinner at the Kremlin. It came just a day after several western media outlets, citing a European intelligence report, claimed Putin had spent weeks hiding in an underground bunker, gripped by fears of assassination or even a coup. The televised meeting was carefully crafted to reinforce a very different image of the Russian leader, one which he has refined over 25 years in power: the approachable, confident president, a man of the people casually dropping in on an old teacher. But while fears of an imminent coup are exaggerated, there is little doubt that Putin is entering the most challenging period of his long rule. Interviews with several people in the orbit of the Russian leader, as well as sources in the Russian business world and western intelligence officials, paint a picture of an isolated leader surrounded by an elite that is becoming rapidly disillusioned, both with the faltering war in Ukraine and the economic downturn at home. “There’s definitely been a shift in mood among the elites this year … there is profound disappointment in Putin,” said a well-connected business leader, adding that there was “a growing sense that some kind of catastrophe is looming”. “No one believes everything will suddenly collapse tomorrow,” the source said. “But there is a growing realisation that utterly senseless, self-destructive decisions keep being made. People who once defended Putin no longer do. Any sense of a future has disappeared.” Putin’s approval ratings are slipping, the economy is under mounting pressure, and even pro-Kremlin bloggers who have rarely criticised the president are beginning to speak out. Despite the cracks emerging at home, Putin’s calculus on the war in Ukraine has not changed, and he remains determined to press on, according to interviews with multiple people familiar with his thinking, as well as European and Ukrainian intelligence officials. Putin has made clear to his inner circle that he believes Moscow can capture the entirety of the Donbas region by the end of the year, two sources with access to the president said. “Putin is fixated on Donbas and he will not stop before that,” one of them said. Speaking after the 9 May Victory Day parade – scaled back amid fears of Ukrainian drone attacks – Putin surprised many by suggesting the war was “coming to a close”. The remark made headlines, but those familiar with his thinking caution that it should not be interpreted as a sign he is prepared to compromise. Instead, it suggests Putin believes a military breakthrough is imminent. A Ukrainian intelligence official said Russian generals had convinced the Russian leader that the Donbas would be taken by the end of the year. “Fabricated reports [are] being fed up the chain of command, claiming victory is imminent,” the official said. That bravado is not currently reflected on the battlefield. Military analysts say that, at the current pace of advance, it could take Russia years to fully capture the Donbas. It remains unclear to what extent Russia’s military and security services are presenting Putin with an overly optimistic picture. “Even if many around him understand the reality of the situation, we still don’t know what Putin himself understands. That’s the most difficult part,” one senior European intelligence official said. “Of course, officials and the military paint a rosy picture for the president,” a person familiar with discussions in the Kremlin said. “They lie to him. That’s how the system Putin has built works.” Another factor in Putin’s decision to fight on is that the Russian leader has lost faith in Donald Trump’s ability to pressure Kyiv into surrendering territory as part of a deal, according to one source close to Putin and another involved in backchannel talks. “There was this widespread optimism in Moscow that Trump could deliver the Donbas after his election. It has largely evaporated,” one source in contact with Putin said. Though Trump has recently repeatedly touted that the war in Ukraine is coming to an end – with US help – the Russian leadership increasingly sees little value in continuing negotiations with Washington. Ukraine has acknowledged that Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, repeatedly pressed it in a series of meetings to withdraw Ukrainian troops from territory it still controls. But Kyiv also has dramatically reduced its dependence on Washington, while stepping up its own military production. The unblocking of a €90bn EU loan and deepening military and intelligence sharing ties with European allies have further diminished US leverage over Ukraine, and Kyiv is not minded to make concessions on territory in the absence of ironclad US security guarantees. For now, Moscow’s goal is the capture of the Donbas, and Russian negotiators have made clear that Moscow would be ready to sue for peace once this happens. Yet those close to Putin say his ambitions may increase again if he senses Ukraine beginning to collapse. Then, two people familiar with his thinking said, he could push further, crossing the Dnipro River, in an attempt to seize all four Ukrainian regions that Russia claimed to annex in 2022 but still does not fully control. “He is not a long-term strategist,” one of them said. “His appetite grows as he eats.” Discontent at home Ripples of dissent in society began surfacing earlier in 2026, when the Kremlin banned or restricted most messaging apps while preserving access only to a state-backed alternative. Mobile internet across central Moscow and other regions has been intermittently disrupted or shut down entirely, causing Russian businesses to complain of billions of roubles in losses. Authorities have justified the unprecedented crackdown as a security measure against Ukrainian drone attacks and sabotage operations. The shutdowns prompted dark humour among Moscow’s elite. “At the dinner table, everyone talks about the internet. We are now somewhere closer to North Korea,” one Kremlin insider said. China’s internet controls, once routinely mocked in Russia as a symbol of censorship, are now discussed with a degree of envy. The internet shutdowns are being overseen by the powerful second service of the FSB, a feared department within the security services responsible for the poisoning of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. At the same time, figures within Russia’s political elite – including the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, and the first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko – have privately tried to steer Putin away from some of the harsher restrictions, but with no success, according to two people familiar with the discussions. “As long as the war continues, Putin will favour the security services,” said another figure close to the Kremlin. “The issue with the internet is a very sensitive one for Russian society. And it has sparked a huge wave of outrage,” said Ksenia Sobchak, a well-connected Russian journalist and daughter of Putin’s former political mentor, in a telephone interview. Sobchak said it was only a matter of time before Russian authorities went even further and moved to block all western social media platforms, forcing people on to domestic alternatives. She predicted the move could come as early as next year. “I think a decision has definitely been made to do that,” she said. For many Russians, the year has also brought higher taxes and rising inflation, with a sputtering economy forcing businesses to close and sending the cost of groceries and household bills soaring Taken together, Putin appears to have broken one of the unwritten social contracts underpinning his rule since the invasion began: that ordinary Russians could largely ignore the war so long as daily life remained stable. Across Russian social media, frustration with the authorities has become increasingly visible. Videos showing small business owners railing against higher taxes, residents complaining about repeated internet shutdowns, and farmers in Siberia furious over mass livestock culls ordered by officials have gone viral. Russia’s general happiness index fell to a 15-year low in April, a state pollster reported, and several polls have shown Putin’s approval rating falling to its lowest point since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “Putin follows his approval closely. He has monitored the polls obsessively since 1999,” said Alexei Venediktov, a former editor of the radio station Echo of Moscow, which was forced to shut down after the war began. Venediktov recalled how Putin once waved polling figures showing overwhelming public support in front of him shortly after the annexation of Crimea – a move the journalist opposed – telling him: “You are not with the people. I am with the people.” Coup? While it is clear that discontent is rising among the elite and the population, most analysts believe that if a real threat to Putin’s regime does emerge, it will come from his inner circle, not from the street. One of the more striking claims reported earlier this month, sourced to an intelligence report produced by an unnamed European country, was the suggestion that the former defence minister Sergei Shoigu could emerge as a threat to Putin. However, an imminent Kremlin coup is regarded by many supporters and critics alike as far-fetched. Russia’s security services, with Putin’s approval, have arrested several of Shoigu’s closest associates and friends, further isolating the once-powerful former minister amid speculation he himself could eventually be purged. “Shoigu has no popularity in the army and no support base,” said a former senior official who knows him personally. “He will never move against Putin.” Dissent is also unlikely to come from Russia’s oligarchs. Many are privately horrified by the war but remain silent, fearful of speaking out, said the leading Russian businessman. Recent months have brought fresh purges and a new wave of state seizures targeting private businesses, most notably the arrest of Vadim Moshkovich, the billionaire founder of a major agricultural firm. “The business elite are playing Russian roulette. They hope their neighbour gets hit while they are spared,” said Oleg Tinkov, one of the few Russian business leaders who spoke out against the invasion and fled the country. “Who is going to move against him? Everyone is simply waiting for his demise,” Tinkov added. The Russian president has meanwhile increased his travel schedule in recent weeks, in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to counter narratives over his security and alleged paranoia. “Putin has always been obsessed with his security, but it is wrong to suggest he is hiding,” said one person close to the Kremlin who recently met the president. “Yes, there is nervousness among the elites. Yes, there is uncertainty. But talk of an existential threat to Putin’s rule is premature. He remains in control.” The senior European intelligence official said many at the top were “currently in the acknowledgment phase”, recognising the mounting problems both on the battlefield and in the economy, but without plans to counter them. “They understand it’s a trend downwards. But I haven’t heard of them asking ... ‘What should we do about it then?’”

Gisèle Pelicot tells Hay festival she has found love and trust again after rape ordeal

Gisèle Pelicot has described the moment she fell in love and was able to trust again after her rape ordeal orchestrated by her former husband in France. Pelicot, 73, waived her right to anonymity during the trial of Dominique Pelicot, who was jailed for 20 years in 2024 for drugging and raping her and allowing other men to sexually assault her while she was unconscious, over almost a decade. Speaking at the Hay festival in Wales on Saturday, she said she never thought she could trust a man again before meeting her partner, Jean-Loup Agopian. The campaigner said: “It’s something that I didn’t think could happen, especially at my age, first of all, I didn’t really want to fall in love, but life decided otherwise. “We met, our trajectories crossed at one moment and I met this young man of 73… You see, you can fall in love at any age, it happened to me, it can happen to you, I’m convinced of it. “I didn’t think that I’d be able to trust a man, but it’s what happened to me, so you see that everything can be allowed in life, you must never despair.” Pelicot appeared at the festival to discuss her memoir A Hymn to Life and was interviewed on stage by Lady Kennedy. She said that “society has got to wake up” on the issue of violence against women, and that it’s an “appalling evil that touches all borders”. “I thought that my story only related to me, but I realised that, in fact, it was really the tree that hid the forest,” she continued. Yet, she feels “serene” about the future for women, because “I think that we can all live together in harmony, men and women, and I think it’s a question of educating our children very young”. “Maybe I’m a very optimistic person by nature, but I would hope that the human being will go towards peace and love.” Last month, French authorities launched an investigation into the reappearance of a website Dominique Pelicot used to recruit dozens of strangers to rape his wife in their home between 2011 and 2020. Authorities said the French-language platform Coco has been linked to crimes, including the sexual abuse of children, rape and murder. The website, which was registered abroad, was shut down in June 2024. Pelicot described it as an “absolute miracle” to be speaking on stage, because “the way in which [Dominique] sedated me, he sedated me so strongly, I’m wondering how my heart and my body was able to hold for so long”. When Pelicot was being unknowingly drugged, people around her wondered whether she was drunk or unwell. “My children and my friends were very worried for me, because very often when I was on the phone with them, I often repeated the same things, but I don’t remember that at all.” Pelicot described taking years to decide to waive her right to anonymity. When her decision was announced in court in front of the 51 men who were ultimately declared guilty of rape and their lawyers, she realised they were going to “make me pay for it very dearly, and that’s what happened, they really tried to humiliate me”. Pelicot’s daughter, Caroline Darian, is also pursuing legal action against Dominique Pelicot. Among the images in his possession were two photos of his daughter in which she is unconscious on a bed wearing underwear that is not her own. Pelicot said she believed there had been “an incestuous attitude towards his daughter that was intolerable”. She said Darian “didn’t find justice” during Pelicot’s case, and that she hopes her daughter will win her own case, in order to “rebuild herself”. Pelicot also praised Darian’s advocacy group M’endors pas, which campaigns against chemical submission. She invited her onstage, and said that she was “really proud” to be her mother. • Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

Trump to meet with US negotiators to decide on Iran’s ceasefire proposal

Donald Trump said he would meet today with American negotiators to review Iran’s latest proposal and decide by Sunday whether he will strike Iran “to kingdom come”. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, also told reporters in India on Saturday that “there may be news later today” about Iran. He did not specify what that news would be. Trump told Axios it was a “solid 50/50” on whether he would be able to make a “good” deal with Iran or begin striking the country anew. He will be meeting with special envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner, along with JD Vance. Trump is also expected to meet with Gulf mediators, to discuss the situation with Iran. Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish leaders are expected to participate in the talks. A Pakistani security official said a memorandum of understanding is being “fine tuned” to end the war, Reuters reports. Trump’s interview with Axios comes as Iran’s top negotiator said earlier on Saturday there will be no compromise over its national rights during a meeting with the Pakistani army chief in Tehran on Saturday. In the past few days, there has been a flurry of diplomacy aimed at preventing renewed US strikes on Iran and potentially extending the ceasefire. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, said Tehran would secure its “legitimate rights”, whether through the battlefield or through negotiations, while accusing the US of not being an honest negotiating partner, Iranian state media reported. “If Trump acts foolishly and the war resumes, the response against the United States will certainly be more crushing and bitter than on the first day of the war,” Ghalibaf said during the meeting. He added that the Iranian military had rebuilt its capabilities during the ceasefire that began in early April. His comments came amid reports that the US was considering fresh strikes on Iran as negotiations for an enduring truce between the two countries sputtered. The Trump administration was preparing for a renewed round of strikes, CBS News reported on Friday, citing informed sources. Trump has frequently threatened to strike Iran if it does not reach a deal with the US, though military analysts have expressed doubt that a renewed aerial campaign could tip the balance in Washington’s favour. Amid the escalated rhetoric from both sides, Iranian state TV reported that Iran was in the “final stage” of drafting a framework for a deal with the US. Pakistan, which has been mediating talks between Iran and the US, has led a renewed push in recent days to bridge the gap between the two parties. Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, also met Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on Saturday, before leaving Tehran. The talks reportedly focused on a 14-point peace proposal by Iran, as well as messages between the two parties. A Qatari delegation met with Iranian and Pakistani mediators in Iran on Friday, and on Saturday, Trump spoke with the Qatari emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, to discuss “regional and international efforts to stabilise the ceasefire”, according to a statement by Tamim’s office. A ceasefire between the US and Israel, and Iran, has been in place since early April after more than a month of war. The truce was meant not only to stop fighting, but also to give space for negotiations over reopening the strait of Hormuz – a chokepoint for about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies – as well as Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme. Talks have largely not progressed and the strait remains mostly closed, despite the ceasefire and mediation efforts. On Saturday, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, expressed cautious optimism for negotiations. “There’s been some progress done, some progress made. Even as I speak to you now, there’s some work being done,” Rubio told reporters in New Delhi during a visit to India. “There might be some news a little later today. There may not be. I hope there will be.” It is unclear what “news” Rubio was referring to. Mediators on Saturday said they believe they were close to extending the ceasefire by 60 days and set a framework for talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the talks. Iran’s official IRNA news agency meanwhile quoted the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei as saying that positions had moved closer in recent days. Trump met the US secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, in the White House on Friday reportedly to review options for restarting the bombing campaign. Trump also announced that he would be skipping his son’s wedding this weekend for reasons “pertaining to the government”. It is unclear what the target of a renewed bombing campaign would be. In the past, Trump threatened to wipe out “a whole civilisation”, and targeted civilian infrastructure such as bridges. Israel had also attacked energy facilities, and strikes damaged desalination facilities during the war in March. Human rights groups have criticised the attacks on civilian infrastructure, saying that attacks against public infrastructure could be considered war crimes for their impact on civilians. Sites that hold Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which has been a key point in negotiations, could be targeted, but those facilities and other nuclear sites are probably deep underground and would require complex operations using tons of bunker-buster bombs. Iranian stockpiles of drones, ballistic missiles and missile-launching sites could also be targets, as they were in the last round of conflict. Targeted assassinations of Iranian officials could also be on the table. Analysts, however, have warned that the US is in an even more vulnerable position than it was at the beginning of the Iran war. The Washington Post revealed that the US had depleted much of its stockpile of advanced missile-defence interceptors, a key munition it needs to defend its bases and allies in the Middle East. Much of the US public is against the war and is frustrated with soaring gas prices and inflation that have occurred as a result of the closure of the strait of Hormuz. Trump’s popularity has declined, with an approval rating of about 37% – a historic low. It is also unclear how much the US actually achieved in the first round of conflict. The Iranian leadership remains in place, and intelligence assessments indicate that as much as 60% of Iran’s missile and drone stockpile remains.