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Middle East crisis live: Iran could enrich uranium to weapons grade if attacked, senior lawmaker warns

Iran has expanded its definition of the strait of Hormuz into a “vast operational area” far wider than before the war, according to a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy in comments likely to anger the US. The strait is no longer viewed as a narrow stretch around a handful of islands but instead has been greatly enlarged in scope and military significance, according to Mohammad Akbarzadeh, deputy political director of the IRGC Navy, the state-affiliated Fars news agency reported this morning. “In the past, the strait of Hormuz was defined as a limited area around islands such as Hormuz and Hengam, but today this view has changed,” Akbarzadeh said. Iran effectively seized control of the critical waterway after the US and Israel attacked it on 28 February. Weeks of heavy bombing and a US naval blockade imposed last month have yet to loosen its grip. It is untrue to say the strait has been closed because Iran has allowed some vessels from friendly countries - such as China, India and Pakistan - to transit the waterway throughout the war. Iran says it will only reopen the strait under certain conditions including an end to the US-Israel war against it and the lifting of the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. Tehran says it has collected tolls from commercial vessels in order to navigate freely through the strait, something the US vehemently rejects.

Three-day ceasefire ends with fresh wave of Russian attacks on Ukraine – Europe live

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Germany must “pull itself together” or risk being left behind in a rapidly changing world, in a speech to trade unionists on Tuesday that sparked jeers, whistles and boos, Reuters reported. After a year in office, Merz’s popularity has sunk and his government has become embroiled in disputes over how far and how fast to reform Europe’s largest economy to revive growth and tackle ballooning healthcare and pension costs. “The challenges are also so great because we have created problems for ourselves for far too long, problems that we now have to solve. We have simply failed to modernise our country,” Merz told the German Trade Union Confederation. “Germany must therefore pull itself together. Germany must tackle the structural problems that we have been putting off for many years, problems that have consequently grown steadily larger. You know it, we all know it.“ Merz said high costs and bureaucracy were hurting business, putting jobs and the prosperity of future generations at risk. But his case for reforming health and pensions, the latter a straightforward question of “demographics and mathematics“, was greeted with periodic heckling, whistles and laughter, while some in the audience held thumbs-down signs.

The Bahamas goes to polls in three-way battle with immigration a key issue

Voters in the Bahamas head to the polls on Tuesday in a hotly contested general election featuring high-profile candidates such as the former basketball champion Rick Fox. Voters in the Caribbean archipelago are divided over concerns about immigration, especially from neighbouring Haiti, and the rising cost of living, with significant spikes in gas prices caused by war in the Middle East. A record of more than 200,000 people have registered to vote in 41 constituencies as the governing Progressive Liberal party (PLP), the opposition Free National Movement (FNM) and the Coalition of Independents (COI) battle for control of parliament. While third parties have historically struggled to gain parliamentary seats in the Bahamas, political observers are closely watching whether the COI, which has a strong social media presence, can build on the nearly 8,000 votes it secured in the 2021 election. Philip ‘Brave’ Davis is seeking a second term as prime minister for the PLP. Davis, 74, has framed the election as a choice between stability and uncertainty, arguing his administration has guided the country through post-pandemic recovery and record tourism growth. Christopher Curry, an associate professor of history at the University of the Bahamas, said Davis had focused on the argument that changing parties while plans from 2021 were still in progress would destabilise the country. Curry expects the PLP to hold on to power but said the FNM had experienced some success over the past two weeks by focusing on immigration. He added: “Switching their campaigning slogan from ‘We work for you not for the few’ to ‘Save our Sovereignty (SOS)’, I think created more traction with Bahamian people. “I hate to say it, but there tends to be an underlying sort of xenophobia that many Bahamians gravitate toward and so I think the opposition in a way is playing on that.” The FNM’s assistant treasurer, Carlyle Bethel, accused the government of failing to deal with illegal immigration. He said: “The FNM has made it clear that anybody that enters the country illegally … will never have a pathway to citizenship. If you want to become a citizen there is a way to apply. The idea that you can break the law, that you can sneak in, and then demand citizenship down the line, we are saying is not right and will not be tolerated.” Bethel said the FNM would also take action to address the rising cost of living. He added: “In the Bahamas … at least in New Providence, a gallon of gas is up to about $7. Our currency is pegged one to one to the US dollar. So, when you consider Americans are upset about a gallon of gas being three or four dollars, just times that by two.” Bethel also defended Fox, a three-time NBA champion and FNM candidate, who lunged at a critic during an argument on the campaign trail. “I make no apology for [Fox’s] level of passion and enthusiasm … [and] level of commitment,” Bethel said. “He’s always been committed to this country. He’s always been giving back, whether it’s in basketball, whether it’s in community, whether it’s rebuilding after [Hurricane] Dorian.” Davin Beneby, 33, who works in energy and transport, said sticking with the PLP was the best option: “I’ve seen where the economy has grown since the pandemic. I’ve seen the unemployment rate actually go down.” But T Johnson, a 46-year-old FNM supporter, said she felt her party had a better record of moving the country forward and had made university education “almost free of charge” when in power.

Internal displacements caused by violence or conflict at record high in 2025

The number of internal displacements triggered by conflict or violence around the world reached a record high in 2025, surpassing the number of disaster-driven internal displacements for the first time. A report published by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) shows that by the end of 2025 there were 32.3m conflict-driven internal displacements. That is 60% higher than those recorded the previous year, and – for the first time since data collection began in 2008 – above displacements driven by natural disasters, which reached 29.9m in 2025. Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, described the figures as a “sign of a global collapse” in basic protection of civilians. “Countless families are returning to destroyed homes and disappearing services – or cannot return at all. From DR Congo and Sudan to Iran and Lebanon, we see millions more displaced on top of the previous record numbers driven out of their homes,” he added. Internal displacements refer to each new instance that a person is forced to flee within the borders of their own country. The same person can be displaced several times. The IDMC’s Global Report on Internal Displacement also shows that the number of people displaced – during 2025 or earlier but who still remain displaced – remains high. In total, 82.2 million people were displaced in 2025, the second-highest figure after the historical peak in 2024 of 83.5 million and the first decrease in the number of people forced to flee since data collection began 20 years ago. The total number of internal displacements was 62.2m in 2025. The decline in the number of people displaced is due to people returning in parts of Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Syria, and lack of data availability. However, the report highlights the decline in number “should not be mistaken for progress” as behind the numbers “lie hundreds of thousands of forced returns, destroyed infrastructure and deepening social and environmental pressures” that make permanent solutions for people unrealistic. More than 83% of the people displaced in 2025 were forced to flee their homes in their countries because of conflict and violence, with the remainder having left because of natural disasters. Nearly half of all people forced to leave their homes last year because of conflicts were in Sudan, Colombia, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan. Sudan accounted for the largest number of internally displaced people for the third consecutive year. The record number of conflict-driven displacements is the result of new international conflicts and intensified existing conflicts that have made it impossible for people to return home. In 2025, 46% of internal displacements caused by violence were linked to international armed conflicts, nearly double the figure recorded last year. Iran and the DRC accounted for two-thirds of all conflict-driven internal displacements in 2025. Tracy Lucas, the director of the IDMC, said: “When you’re talking about the displacements themselves – the movements of people – we have to recognise that in some cases, people are continually displaced. They’re not just displaced once, they could be displaced two or three times … Yet the systems meant to protect them are being dismantled.”

Gaborone gold rush: how Botswana rose to the top of men’s sprinting

It was a fairytale ending to the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone. In the final strait, Collen Kebinatshipi surged past South Africa’s Zakithi Nene to win the men’s 4x400m relay for Botswana. The home crowd, a sea of light blue, went wild. “It means so many things to us,” Letsile Tebogo, 22, the reigning 200m Olympic champion, who ran the second leg, told reporters afterwards. “Not just the team … but for the people that always cheer for us behind the TV. Now they had that experience to see first-hand how much effort, how much pressure, how much we give for them.” In an interview after the championships, the World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, said: “I put that atmosphere in the top three that I’ve experienced live in athletics. The first was Cathy Freeman winning in Sydney. The second was Mo Farah hitting the front with a lap or so to go in the 10,000 in London, when the wall of noise was deafening … [This] comfortably sits in the top three for me.” Botswana, a country larger by area than Spain but with a population of just 2.5 million, has had a meteoric rise to the top of men’s sprinting. Tebogo’s Olympic gold in Paris in 2024 was the country’s first, and only its fourth medal of any colour. The men’s 4x400m relay team took silver, improving on bronze from three years earlier. Then, at the world championships in Tokyo last year, Kebinatshipi won the 400m while the relay team he anchored also took home gold. The athletes are superstars in Botswana, their faces plastered on billboards advertising everything from mobile phone contracts to milk. “My life has changed a lot,” Kebinatshipi told a press conference before the relays. The 22-year-old, who started running at school, said he now allowed half an hour for photos with fans when he went out shopping. “At first I was a bit nervous, because I wasn’t used to it … Nowadays I’m used to it, so it’s cool with me,” he said. Years-long investment in young athletes is one of the biggest reasons for the southern African country’s recent success, sports officials said. The Botswana Athletics Association’s chief executive, Mabua Mabua, said: “I must thank the school sports programmes that we used to have, because basically all of the athletes that you are seeing, the youthful ones, are coming from that programme.” He also highlighted the country’s infrastructure. “All of the preparations for the team are done locally. Normally people say: ‘No, they should go to Europe, USA, for preparations’. It’s local coaches, a local environment.” The Botswana National Sports Commission runs programmes for 15 sports to spot and nurture talent. Re Ba Bona Ha (“We See Them Here” in Setswana) is a coaching initiative for children aged five to 13 that was launched for football in 2002, with athletics added in 2008. Up to 300 children attended athletics sessions every year, said Frederick Kebadiretse, the BNSC’s sports development manager. Then there are twice-yearly holiday camps to identify older students for eight centres of sports excellence, which were founded in 2011. The centres run weekday afternoon and weekend training sessions, with 30 to 40 students picked each year for athletics. However, the school sports programme was suspended in 2019 over a dispute between the government and teachers and sports officials said that without it, Botswana’s recent athletics success was at risk. “The pipeline is not there,” said Martin Mokgwathi, who chaired the world relays organising committee. “[Performance] will dip unless something is done very, very quickly.” Botswana’s female athletes have not yet matched the men’s results. Oratile Nowe, the seventh fastest woman this year over 800m, is the current highest performer. The officials admitted more needed to be done to support women and girls. “We need to widen the pipeline so we can get more and more young women to join,” Mokgwathi said. “The other thing, of course, is to encourage more and more women to become coaches and technical officials … And we need to protect young women coming into the sport, so that they stay.” Isaac Makwala is trying to fill the pipelines. Makwala, whom numerous young athletes cite as an inspiration, was the first man to run 400m in under 44 seconds and 200m in under 20 seconds in the same day. The son of farmers from a village in northern Botswana, he started running at school, although he didn’t compete until he was 21. After retiring in 2024, Makwala founded the Isaac Makwala Athletics Academy, putting about 50 12- to 16-year-olds through sprinting drills five afternoons a week. “I have a daughter here, she drives me to be a coach,” he said. “I want to see how well she will run after. Did she take her talent from me?” Earlier this year his daughter, Resego Kelly Makwala, became Botswana’s under-18 girls champion in 400m, aged just 14. “I do really like it,” she said. “The times. When I make good times, PBs [personal bests].” Makwala’s centre relies on motivated parents who can afford the 100 pula (£5.50) registration and 500 pula monthly fees. Tuduetso Gaboutloeloe, a tax collector, is one. “I want to be honest with you, the way the economy is bad, I want to see [my daughter] going places, maybe getting a scholarship so she can progress very well,” she said. “Because right now, it’s a struggle.” Her 13-year-old daughter, Leloba, who runs 800m and wants to try 400m too, dreams of Olympic success. “I do imagine myself winning medals,” she said.

Iran war oil shortage forces Japan snack giant to use black-and-white packaging

Japan’s biggest snack maker has been forced to use black-and-white packaging for some flagship products because of ink ingredient shortages caused by the strait of Hormuz blockade. Calbee, whose potato chip brands in particular are known for brightly coloured bag designs, said 14 of its products would switch to monochrome branding by the end of May. The move to black and white was forced on Calbee by disrupted supplies of naptha, an ink ingredient derived from petroleum. Calbee said it was reacting to an unstable supply of “certain raw materials” due to the war. Japanese companies have lately sought to minimise the impact of rising costs and material shortages even as the government seeks to reassure the public and businesses over supplies. Printing ink requires naphtha, an oil derivative for which Japan relies on imports from the Middle East for about 40% of its consumption. News of the company’s move made headlines across Japan. It followed a brief panic in March among fans of a different crisps brand that temporarily stopped producing a popular snack citing difficulties in procuring the heavy oil needed to run its factory. Asked about Calbee’s decision, a government spokesperson said domestic naphtha refining continued with the use of stockpiled crude oil, while imports from outside the Middle East have tripled in May compared with levels from before the Iran war broke out in late February. Kei Sato, a senior government spokesperson, assured the public that naptha shortages would not cause wider disruption. “Adequate supplies of the naptha ink ingredient have been secured for important functions in Japan. We are working with major corporations to ensure naptha is imported by routes other than through the strait of Hormuz,” Sato said in remarks broadcast as an emergency bulletin by some television networks. “We have not received any reports of immediate supply disruption for printing ink or naphtha and recognise that Japan as a whole has secured the quantities required.” Calbee was founded in Hiroshima in 1949 as the city was still recovering from the atomic bombing, and has grown into a snack giant with its products sold across Asia, Europe and the US. The company acquired the UK’s Seabrook Crisps in 2018. It recorded sales of 322.5bn yen ($2.04bn) in 2025. The company’s shares dipped more than 1% on the news, while the Nikkei 225 Index was up overall. The Guardian has contacted Calbee for comment. With Reuters

Tuesday briefing: Starmer’s ‘last chance’ speech and the possible challengers to his premiership

Good morning. Yesterday, Keir Starmer gave a speech which he hoped would draw a line under any potential moves within Labour to replace him, after the nation resoundingly punished his party at the ballot box. However his words were not enough to quell disquiet. Pressure on the prime minister is growing, with more than 70 Labour MPs publicly calling for him to stand down, and two senior cabinet ministers believed to be among those telling him he should oversee an orderly transition of power. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to the Guardian’s policy editor, Kiran Stacey, about what Starmer set out, how it landed with the colleagues most likely to replace him, and what the possible pathways forward are. First, this morning’s headlines. Five big stories UK politics | A newly elected Reform UK councillor has resigned after he allegedly celebrated on social media the rape of a Sikh woman in the Midlands, declared white people the “master race” and called Muslim people “rats”. Iran conflict | Donald Trump has said the ceasefire with Iran is on “life support” and that he is considering restarting US navy military escorts of ships through the strait of Hormuz in an attempt to end the Iranian blockade. Cost of living | Households cut back on their spending in April at the fastest pace in 18 months, as the conflict in the Middle East provoked fears of another cost of living crisis, a report from one of the UK’s biggest banks has suggested. Hantavirus | A French woman who tested positive for hantavirus after she was evacuated from a cruise ship reported symptoms to doctors onboard but was told it was probably just anxiety, the Spanish health minister has said. Health | Singing, painting or visiting a gallery or museum helps people age more slowly, according to the latest study to link taking an active interest in art and culture with improved health. In depth: ‘This wasn’t a speech aimed at voters – it was aimed at Labour MPs’ The prime minister’s speech was “well put together, clear-eyed, and passionate”, says Kiran Stacey, but had one fundamental problem: “His policy solutions simply didn’t match the rhetoric.” “When a prime minister stands up and says there is something big going on and they are going to address it, you expect the solutions to be big.” That did not appear to be the case in his speech. *** What did Keir Starmer say? A mix of personal reflection on last week’s election setbacks, the prime minister’s speech came with a warning that the British people would never forgive Labour if it descended into the leadership merry-go-round that characterised the last few years of the Conservative government, which made its way through three prime ministers in its final four years. Starmer anchored the speech with three policy announcements. In a move to shore up his left flank, he announced legislation to bring British Steel into public ownership. In an appeal to those who resent Brexit, he promised a “big leap forward” in EU relations, including a youth experience scheme to restore a “sense of possibility”. And further, he pledged every young person struggling to find employment will get a guaranteed offer of a job, training or a work placement. However, Kiran says there were echoes of previous disclosures, saying: “Starmer spoke about a youth guarantee scheme which has already been announced, some extra details on European negotiations which are already happening, and the nationalisation of British Steel which is, in effect, already nationalised.” Starmer had a brief dig at the Green party leader Zack Polanski, but reserved his sharpest rhetoric for Reform UK’s Nigel Farage. He described the Clacton MP as “not just a grifter, he is a chancer”, and said Farage had “fled the scene” after Brexit had made Britain poorer. “It sounded a lot, structurally and tonally, like his last conference speech,” Kiran notes. “This wasn’t a speech aimed at voters – it was aimed at Labour MPs. But if I were a Labour MP listening, I’d just think: ‘I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that speech before. Thanks, prime minister.’” *** How did key Labour leadership contenders react? Catherine West, the Labour MP who had surprised almost everyone by announcing a challenge to Keir Starmer’s leadership on Saturday, has changed course. Instead of an immediate change, she wants the prime minister to set a September timetable for his departure. “She wants a confidence vote and is gathering names for an ‘orderly transition’ in September,” Kiran tells me. “That feels like the move the Andy Burnham camp has long wanted.” “The one we are all watching today is health secretary, Wes Streeting,” he says. “Andy Burnham isn’t in parliament, and Angela Rayner still has tax issues and doesn’t seem to have the parliamentary support needed to win a contest. It depends on whether Streeting believes now is his moment.” *** What lies ahead On Bluesky, the political analyst Sam Freedman wryly observed: “At least three and maybe four years of the past decade have been spent with a PM grimly hanging to power having lost authority with their party.” However, the Labour rulebook makes it difficult to unseat a party leader. Someone seeking to replace a sitting leader must secure the written support of 20% of the parliamentary party, which is 81 MPs. Alternate routes to replace him might include the notorious quiet word from the fabled “men and women in grey suits”, or a spate of cabinet resignations making governing publicly impossible, as happened to Boris Johnson in 2022. So far, four government aides have quit their posts, while the Guardian understands that Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, and Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, have told Starmer he should oversee an orderly transition of power. John Healey and David Lammy were also believed to have discussed the need for a “responsible, dignified, orderly” approach to what might follow. But several others have urged Starmer to fight on. Starmer was steadfast that he would fight any leadership challenge. “I think he is serious,” Kiran tells me. “His side has been doing the polling, and they think they would win an internal election against Streeting.” That would suit supporters of Burnham and Rayner, who would welcome a delay to any contest, rather than allow a swift Streeting coronation. “A lot of people who think Starmer should go might still back him if a leadership election comes very soon.” Maybe I will leave the last word to my colleague Jessica Elgot, who yesterday evening posted these thoughts she had received from an anonymous Labour MP: “We have to face up to the fact every single one of them is fucking useless. Andy’s strategy has been a disaster. Angela bottled it. Ed clearly a hiding to nothing. Wes AWOL. God knows what Catherine West is doing. Not quite sure how we ended up here.” And yet here we all are … What else we’ve been reading Crispin, the big-headed canary, is the latest in our The pet I’ll never forget series. He sounds as if he was a lovely creature. Patrick Here’s a stunning gallery of once-grand abandoned movie theatres in North America, now repurposed or left suspended as hybrid ruins since their 1920s heyday – including one acting as a school bus parking lot. Martin Amy Fleming has written a fascinating deep dive on the links between oral heath and the rest of the body. Patrick Paul Sinclair recounts a frankly hilarious encounter with a rude record shop owner in Berlin, which took me right back to my own 1990s days behind the counter, swearing miserably at hapless customers in Soho. Martin Do not miss the second episode of the Guardian’s series on the global dating crisis. This time, they are in the US. Patrick Sport Football | Spurs’ Mathys Tel scored the opener but conceded a penalty which allowed Dominic Calvert-Lewin to earn Leeds a 1-1 draw, leaving Spurs two points above the relegation zone. VAR | The Premier League is to reject widening the scope of VAR next season after talks with the refereeing body Professional Game Match Officials. Tennis | Iga Świątek produced a statement victory in a battle between two of the game’s best, mercilessly dismantling Naomi Osaka 6-2, 6-1 to return to the quarter-finals of the Italian Open. The front pages “Starmer’s survival on the line as cabinet ministers urge him to quit” is the Guardian’s front page today. The Times, in a similar vein, says “Cabinet turns on Starmer” while the Telegraph’s take is “Time to go, Cabinet tells Starmer”. The Daily Mail says “Starmer on the brink as Cabinet ministers tell him it’s time to go”. The i Paper has “Starmer mutiny grows with Labour Party in open revolt against PM”. The Mirror runs with “Rebels turn on Starmer” and the Sun says “Starmer’s on the brink”. The FT’s headline is “Starmer ‘reset’ speech met with rising tide of MPs urging him to move aside”. Metro has “Starmer eyes British Steel as plots thicken”. Today in Focus Why does everyone hate Keir Starmer? The Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty on the Labour leader’s predicament – and if he may be the last prime minister of the two-party system. Cartoon of the day | Pete Songi The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Many of us feel a lack of connection to those we live alongside. Annabel Lee once felt this way, estranged from the community in the Oxfordshire town where she lives. So, she started volunteering. From the parent-teacher association to the parkrun, Lee gave her time to those around her – and created the sense of community she had been looking for in the process. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply