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Middle East crisis live: Iran’s foreign ministry says US broke ceasefire with overnight strikes

Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel is “intensifying” its military operations in Lebanon, with the IDF operating with “large forces on the ‌ground” in order to take control of “strategic areas”. Earlier, we reported that a military official confirmed that Israeli forces had begun operating beyond its so-called ‘yellow line’, which marks the 10km (six miles) area deep inside southern Lebanon which Israel is already occupying. A reminder that these expanded ground operations are all despite a ceasefire that has been in place since 17 April. Israel has continued to intensify its strikes on Lebanon, killing thousands of people while claiming it is acting to remove threats from Hezbollah.

Seven heat-related deaths in France as May records set in several countries

Seven people have died in France in an extreme early-summer heat event that is affecting a swathe of western Europe with record high temperatures for May recorded in several countries. In France, which logged its hottest-ever May day on Monday and again on Tuesday, the Météo France weather agency said the heat wave could last through the week and predicted temperatures could reach 39C in some areas. “What I can say today is that there have been seven deaths linked directly or indirectly to the heat,” the French government spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, told TF1 television, adding that five of the deaths had been by drowning. The UK also reported its hottest-ever day for May, at 35C near London – breaking a record of 33.5C set Monday – as a high-pressure system trapped warm air over western Europe. Models have already estimated that, with the effects of climate breakdown, June heatwaves are now about 10 times more likely in Europe than they were in the pre-industrial era, and the same trajectory is becoming evident for May. “This extension of the heatwave season is entirely characteristic of the effects of climate change,” Robert Vautard, a climate researcher, told Agence France-Presse. “Eventually, we will be seeing similar heat events in April and October.” In Spain, widespread highs of 36-38C in the Guadiana, Guadalquivir and Ebro valleys were expected to continue possibly until Friday, the state weather service, Aemet, said, adding that temperatures could reach 40C in some areas. In Italy’s Lazio region, which includes Rome, authorities have imposed restrictions on work in conditions “with prolonged exposure in the sun”, for example on farms, construction sites and in the delivery sector, between 12.30pm and 4pm. In France the national heat index, which measures the average temperature across the country, reached 24.8C according to provisional readings from Météo France surpassing Monday’s 24.6C, which was already a record. Eight of France’s 96 administrative departments have been placed on an orange high-temperature alert, the second-highest level, requiring the population to “be vigilant and take precautions”. Another 20 were on a more moderate yellow warning. It was the first time the national heat warning system had been activated in May since it was introduced in 2004. “This is an unprecedented event with a one in 1,000 chance of happening at this time of year in the climate of 1979 to 2025,” Christophe Cassou, a climate scientist, told Le Monde. “It would have been virtually impossible in the pre-industrial era.” The prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, called a meeting of key ministers on Thursday to assess government preparations for heatwaves after more than 350 weather stations across France recorded new monthly highs on Monday. A record May temperature of 28.8C was also recorded at two of Ireland’s weather stations, Met Éireann data showed. More heat records could be broken this week forecasters said, with temperatures exceeding norms by 12C or 13C in what Météo France described as a “premature, remarkable and long” heat episode expected to last several more days. The agency said the episode was caused by a heat dome, with hot air from Morocco trapped under an area of high pressure, and that Europe could expect such events to “occur more and more often, earlier and earlier, and to be more and more intense”. Two deaths in France on Sunday have been directly attributed to the heat: a woman competing in a Hyrox fitness competition in Lyon died of hyperthermia, and a 53-year-old man had a heart attack during a 10km running race in Paris. Sixteen people were hospitalised, including 10 in a critical condition, during another road race in the Paris suburb of Maisons-Alfort. Three teenagers were among those who drowned in swimming accidents over the weekend. High temperatures drove many people to the country’s beaches and rivers to cool off in the water, even though lifeguard supervision is not due to start in most areas until July. While parts of the UK are entering a heatwave – with temperatures exceeding 26C to 28C, depending on the location, for three consecutive days – in France, night-time temperatures must also stay above a certain level for a heatwave to be declared.

Iran remains in peace talks despite first US strikes since ceasefire

A proposed peace agreement between Iran and the US seemed to still be on the table on Tuesday despite US bombings of Iranian targets – the first military action by Washington since the 8 April ceasefire. The Iranian foreign ministry denounced the US attack – aimed at missile launchers and efforts to lay fresh mines in the strait of Hormuz – as “an act of bad faith” and “a definitive violation of the ceasefire” and said it would not leave aggression unanswered. But it conspicuously did not pull out of the talks that were continuing under the joint mediation of Pakistan and Qatar. The Iranian military announced no specific reprisals at this stage, suggesting it did not want the attack – which killed four Iranian soldiers – to disrupt the delicate last steps towards an agreement that it intends to hail as one of the great milestones in Iran’s history of resistance. Brent oil futures climbed 4% after news of the renewed fighting. In a sign that Donald Trump recognises the conflict has reached a decisive point, he is convening a rare cabinet meeting at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland. It will be only the second time Trump has visited the compound in his second term. Iran’s parliamentary speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, remained in Doha for a second day on Tuesday trying to agree the means by which more than $12bn (£9bn) in frozen Iranian assets could be unlocked and sent to an Iranian account. He is also seeking sanctions relief for Iran’s oil and petrochemical exports for the 60-day period set aside to negotiate fresh constraints on Iran’s nuclear programme. A separate 30-day timeframe has been allocated in the agreement for the US to lift the blockade of Iranian oil ports and for Iran to allow commercial shipping through the strait of Hormuz, restoring maritime traffic to levels from before Israel and the US started the war on 28 February. The brief agreement, which would end the war but not delineate the peace, is fraught with political sensitivity as all sides know they must try to emerge with one they can exhibit to their respective constituencies as proof that the sacrifice was worthwhile. Hardliners in Washington, Tehran and Jerusalem are all putting pressure on their negotiators not to make more concessions, such as Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of Iran’s parliamentary national security and foreign policy commission, insisting no agreement should relinquish Iranian control of the strait. But Ghalibaf, overwhelmingly re-elected as speaker this week, can for the moment marginalise this opposition. Reports said he was focused on the method of accessing frozen Iranian assets, described as the last serious dispute between Tehran and Washington. Owing to the accumulated lack of trust, no further negotiations over the future of the strait or the nuclear programme can take place without the prior transfer of frozen Iranian funds, his allies said. The consultations in Qatar have resulted in progress towards resolving the issue of frozen Iranian assets, but one Iranian MP, Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, claimed a plan for $12bn to be transferred from Qatar to a Russian account before being sent to Iran had been thwarted by the US at the last minute. He warned that if the war restarted, Iran knew the whereabouts of the hotels in Doha and Dubai used by Trump’s lead negotiators, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and “next time they would be hit”. Apart from the issue of Iran’s frozen assets, Tehran is trying to strengthen the section committing Israel to a ceasefire in Lebanon. With Israel admitting it was launching operations north of the yellow line to hit Hezbollah’s missiles, the war appeared to be escalating, not winding down. Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father after he was killed by US-Israeli strikes on the opening day of the war, claimed the tide of history was moving in Iran’s favour and called for unity among Muslim countries, in a statement that marked the start of the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Khamenei, who has not been seen in public or issued any recorded audio since his elevation in March, projected confidence as he predicted the elimination of Israel by 2040. He said: “What is certain is that the hands of time will not turn backwards and the nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for American bases. The United States not only will no longer have a safe haven for its mischief and for establishing military bases in the region but, day by day, it is growing more distant from its former status.” He added: “The shaken Zionist regime and the cancerous tumour of Israel are approaching the final stages of their wretched existence.” His remarks put into perspective Trump’s much-derided claim that Arab states, as well as Turkey and Iran, should normalise relations with Israel.

Why give a tax break for HGVs that wreck our roads? | Brief letters

Why is the government giving heavy goods vehicles a free ride for a year, with its “12-month vehicle tax holiday” (Report 20 May), when they cause such huge road damage to our crumbling road system (The pothole puzzle: the bumpy ride to fixing Britain’s broken roads, 23 May)? A 44-tonne HGV, the industry standard, is 100,000 times more damaging to road surfaces than a Ford Focus. Philippa Edmunds East Twickenham, London • Within five years, Sunderland have moved from League One to seventh place in the Premier League with a place in Europe; they got two columns in Monday’s paper. West Ham got three pages, Manchester City two, and Liverpool and Arsenal one each. Manchester United got three columns, and Tottenham got eight. Speaking as a Wearsider, this looks like a bit of big-boy bias. Bob Powley Leeds • Before everyone rushes to buy tomato timers to help them with their work, as advocated by Zahra Onsori (The one change that worked, 25 May), could I suggest an alternative? I have long had a clockwork orange timer which simultaneously manages to be both menacing and fun. Margaret Squires St Andrews, Fife • With all the negative stuff coming out of the US, how heartwarming it was to read your Experience column (We found a baby on the subway – now he’s our 26-year-old son, 22 May). It brought tears to my eyes, thinking that there is good in the world, despite everything. Barbara Thompson Sheffield • So, Rachel Reeves is urging ministers to buy British when procuring steel, energy and AI, among other things (Report, 25 May). Could she start by telling Palantir to get lost? Steve Boulding Stanwardine, Shropshire • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Moscow wants to ‘destabilise’ Europe, EU chief warns, as countries summon Russian ambassadors over Kyiv threats – as it happened

… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today! Several European countries, including Germany (14:50), the Netherlands (15:22) and Norway (14:02), and the European Union (13:19) have summoned the heads of the Russian diplomatic missions to protest over Moscow’s warning suggesting further strikes on Kyiv. Mocking the EU’s response insisting that its diplomats would remain in Kyiv, the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said “they have got diplomats to spare” (17:59). Separately, the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, warned that Moscow was seeking to “destabilise” Europe, as she appeared alongside the three Baltic presidents in a show of solidarity with the region amid Russian threats (14:56, 15:00, 15:20). Separately, An investigation is under way after four people, including two children, were killed when a school minibus collided with a train in northern Belgium (11:28, 11:41, 11:46, 12:31, 12:49). Seven people have died in France in an extreme early-summer heat event that is affecting a swathe of western Europe, as France and the UK set record highs for May and temperatures were forecast to rise further on Tuesday. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Italy’s top court rules against tourist refused tap water in Dolomites hotel

A tourist’s simple request for a glass of tap water at a hotel restaurant in the Italian Dolomites has culminated in Italy’s top court ruling that being served water from the tap is not a consumer right, after a lengthy and costly legal saga. The case dates back to 2019 when the woman spent a week at the five-star hotel in the ski resort of Corvara, in Badia, over Christmas and new year. She was on a half-board deal with the evening meal included, except for drinks. According to Italian press reports, the woman repeatedly asked for tap water with her meal, even offering to pay for it. This was refused and instead she arrived at dinner each night to find a 0.75-litre bottle of mineral water, costing €7, on the table. During her stay, the tourist complained about “constantly being denied the opportunity to consume tap water, and instead being forced to purchase bottled water”, Corriere Alto Adige reported, citing court papers. The woman then pursued legal action, arguing water was “a natural resource and a universal human right” and that “the free provision of a minimum vital quantity is necessary to meet essential needs and must be guaranteed”, Corriere wrote. The woman considered tap water to be an integral part of the service at a restaurant or hotel, “much like finding a bed with sheets, a warm room and soap in the bathroom”. She sought €2,700 in compensation for the “economic damage and emotional distress” suffered. The first and second-instance courts dismissed her case and the woman then appealed to the supreme court of cassation. That court confirmed there was no law in Italy obliging restaurant managers or hoteliers to serve customers tap water, and dismissed the case too. Asking for free tap water at a restaurant in Italy is generally considered a breach of etiquette, especially if the server has already offered the choice of a bottle of natural or sparkling water. But customers are becoming bolder, with many seeking to avoid using plastic, and more restaurants now offer filtered water.

Image of ‘twin babies’ used by anti-abortion activist appears to show sugar gliders

An image posted by anti-abortion activist Joanna Howe claiming to show aborted twin girls called “Ruth and Emma” appears to be a picture of sugar gliders. The two little pink bodies are displayed on a clean white background and experts say the image does not look at all like the product of an abortion. Analysis from a digital forensics expert, commissioned by Guardian Australia, found the image was most likely a sugar glider joey (Petaurus breviceps), or possibly another marsupial such as an opossum. The digital analysis showed Howe’s image was almost certainly from a TikTok video posted in January that describes rescuing sugar gliders. It is not clear who is behind the TikTok, which was posted in January and has been seen by almost 24 million people and liked by 750,000 people. There was an “extremely low” chance that the image was of human embryos, the analysis found, as the shape, head proportion, and other traits were “characteristic of marsupials, not humans”. A wildlife veterinarian and glider expert, who asked not to be named, agreed the picture was probably a sugar glider, and that a human embryo would have a different leg and head shape, and “at that stage would have an obvious umbilical cord and would be aborted with its membrane”. Howe is using the image to garner support for a 2 June rally in Sydney calling on the state parliament to restrict abortion access. She has announced that former Nationals leader, now One Nation MP, Barnaby Joyce will speak at the rally. Medical experts also believe the image is of marsupials. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Adelaide University adjunct professor Jeremy Thompson, an expert in embryo and fetal growth and the chief scientific officer at IVF company Fertilis, said if the objects in the image were the product of abortion it appeared someone had “tidied them up” for the picture because they were lacking tissues including the sac, the placenta, and the umbilical cord. A medical specialist, who has not agreed to be named, said they were “not verified to be human, let alone females with names” and that if they were an abortion there would be blood clots and membranes. “It’s not plausible that a distressed, unsupported woman has miscarried these foetuses and then carefully washed them for photography,” she said. Howe, an expert in labour migration from Adelaide University, has worked with NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick, and SA Fair Go MP Sarah Game (formerly of One Nation), on bills currently before those state parliaments. She has also worked with multiple other state and federal MPs on legislation that would restrict abortion access in various ways. While she often focuses on second- or third-trimester abortions, she recently revealed that her ultimate goal was to have all abortion criminalised. “We want to end abortion,” she said in a debate with Abolish Abortion Australia in April. “We believe abortion is murder and we believe that everybody involved in the process of murder should face criminal penalties. I mean, that’s what you should do when you’ve murdered someone.” Howe has been banned from SA parliament after alleged “threatening and intimidating tactics” but denied doing anything wrong and said she would challenge the ban. She has also been accused of “grift” for creating a Bingo-style game to raise money during an emotional abortion debate; accused of spreading misinformation; and she has previously posted an image from inside a Townsville hospital of what she said was an aborted foetus, sparking an alleged privacy breach investigation by the hospital. The Townsville inquiry concluded without finding who sent her the pictures. In a tearful video posted to social media last week, Howe said she received an email titled “my shameful abortion” with a “picture of two babies”. She said the woman who emailed her was “abandoned” after a medical abortion and was “alone in her house, in her bathroom, giving birth to her twin babies on to the bathroom floor”. The email prompted her to rename a planned Rally for Life in Sydney on 2 June to “the rally for Emma and Ruth”, “two little twin girls who never got to live”. “We can’t sit idly by. I can’t end this alone. I need you guys,” she said. The bill before the SA parliament would ban abortions after 25 weeks no matter the severity of foetal abnormalities or the risk to the pregnant person’s physical or mental wellbeing. It would only be allowed to save the pregnant person’s life. In NSW the bill would outlaw sex-selective abortions. A bill in Queensland has sought to restrict access to medical abortion. The president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Nisha Khot, said such tactics were ways of “chipping away at abortion rights”. “If you can’t do it one way, you do it another,” she said. The SA Abortion Action Coalition said this “incrementalism” undermined access to abortion care, rejected evidence-based health care, and eroded the decriminalisation of abortion. MPs have described death threats and abuse from third parties in the wake of Howe’s campaigns. The focus on second- or third-trimester abortions, which are rare and “heartbreaking”, is “preying on vulnerable people”, Khot said. Khot said the “absolutely horrible tactic” of using images that are purportedly of abortions would “tug at people’s emotions”, but that the fact was that abortion is healthcare. Howe told Guardian Australia she received two emails from a woman whose name she would keep private. The first had the photo, and in the second the woman said she had had the abortion, and “something big came out”. “And when I washed the pad I saw these.” Howe did not respond to questions about the veracity of the photo. A spokesperson for Ruddick said he was aware of Howe’s position, and that there was no libertarian position on abortion as “opinions vary” and it was a matter of individual conscience. “Libertarians believe murder should be illegal and some libertarians believe life begins at conception. John is pro-life,” the spokesperson said. One Nation has been contacted for comment.

Czech police release Russian bishop after ‘white powder’ found in his car

Czech police have released a Russian Orthodox bishop who was detained on suspicion of drug possession, after Moscow condemned the arrest as a politically motivated setup. Bishop Hilarion, also known by his secular name, Grigory Alfeyev, was stopped by police on Sunday in Karlovy Vary, a spa town in western Czechia popular with Russian tourists, after officers discovered containers of a white substance in the boot of his car. In a statement published on Tuesday after his release without charge, Hilarion said forensic tests had confirmed the substance was a banned narcotic, but insisted he had been framed. “The mere discovery of a prohibited substance does not answer the key question – how these items ended up in the vehicle in the first place,” his post on Telegram said. Hilarion, 60, heads the Russian Orthodox congregation in Karlovy Vary, which is home to a sizeable Russian diaspora. The Czech national drug headquarters had said the bishop’s vehicle was stopped after an anonymous tip-off was received alleging the transportation of narcotic and psychotropic substances. Russia’s foreign ministry called the arrest a “deliberate, orchestrated provocation”. The Russian Orthodox church described the incident as a “classic setup”, while Russia’s foreign ministry said it had summoned Czechia’s chargé d’affaires in Moscow, Jan Ondřejka, to formally protest against the detention. Hilarion previously headed the Russian Orthodox church’s department for external church relations, essentially serving as the church’s foreign minister. Once regarded as a close confidant of Patriarch Kirill, the powerful head of the Russian Orthodox church and close ally of Vladimir Putin, Hilarion fell out of favour with the church leadership in recent years. Unlike many senior clergymen who openly backed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Hilarion neither publicly supported nor condemned the war, and was demoted and posted abroad shortly after the invasion began in February 2022. In December 2024, the Russian Orthodox church’s synod removed Hilarion from the administration of the Budapest-Hungarian diocese after a younger aide accused him of sexual harassment – allegations he denies. He also faced criticism over his allegedly lavish lifestyle, including yachting and skiing holidays, as well as reports about his ownership of an estate near Budapest. Hilarion has said he has been able to purchase property and fund his lifestyle from royalties received for his books and films. Hilarion was later reassigned to the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Karlovy Vary.