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Talks to end Iran war appear to falter a day before Trump deadline

Diplomatic negotiations aimed at halting the war in the Middle East appeared to be faltering a day before a deadline imposed by Donald Trump with a threat to destroy Iran’s bridges and attack its power plants. Mediators from Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey want both sides to agree to a ceasefire and reopen the strait of Hormuz, to be followed by a period of detailed negotiations intended to reach a more complete peace agreement. Iran, however, said it wanted a permanent end to the war, not a ceasefire. It submitted its own 10-point peace plan, according to the country’s Irna news agency, and called for a “permanent end to the war in line with Iran’s considerations, while rejecting a ceasefire”. Trump acknowledged Iran’s proposal as he spoke to reporters during an Easter egg event for children at the White House on Monday and said it was insufficient. “It’s a significant step. It’s not good enough,” he said. Trump had demanded on Sunday that Iran “Open the Fuckin’ Strait” by 8pm Tuesday evening ET (1am Wednesday BST) or else he would target the country’s power plants and bridges. The prospect of bombing power plants and bridges has been condemned by lawyers and experts as a likely war crime because its impact on civilians would be disproportionate to whatever notional military advantage is gained. Trump, however, said such an attack on Iran would not be a war crime because the country was led by “animals” who had given orders to shoot large numbers of protesters in the streets in January. “They killed 45,000 people in the last month, more than that, it could be as much as [60,000]. They killed protesters, they’re animals,” he said, though casualty figures that high have not been verified. Meanwhile, he emphasised in a press conference later on Monday afternoon that Iran’s failure to meet the proposed deadline could result in significant escalation and destruction: “The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.” Iranian officials earlier told Reuters that they would not open the strait to merchant shipping as part of a temporary ceasefire. Another report, on the Axios news site, suggested that Iran did not want to be caught in a situation where there was an agreement on paper but the US and Israel periodically attacked anyway. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said Tehran had responded privately, but added that peace negotiations were “incompatible with ultimatums and threats to commit war crimes”. The country’s central military command warned of a “much more devastating” retaliation should the US and Israel escalate. Ceasefire discussions have involved Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, in contact with the US vice-president, JD Vance, while Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has been in contact with Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi. Israeli political sources told the country’s Haaretz newspaper they believed the talks were likely to collapse, though they thought Trump was looking for a way to end the war. Israel was preparing for all scenarios, they added, and had identified further targets if the bombing of energy and infrastructure targets went ahead. Israel has already shown its willingness to step up its bombing. Iranian news agencies reported explosions at Iran’s South Pars petrochemical complex in Asaluyeh. Israel claimed responsibility shortly afterwards through its defence minister, Israel Katz. The minister said the IDF had struck “the largest petrochemical facility in Iran” and that the attack had come after a separate strike on the Mahshahr complex on Saturday. Katz said the two sites were “responsible for roughly 85% of Iran’s petrochemical exports and have now been put out of operation”. Oil prices dipped on Monday morning, reflecting hopes for a de-escalation. Brent crude futures fell by $1.92, or 1.76%, to $107.11 a barrel by mid-morning before ticking back up above $108 as the fighting continued. Prices were at $70 a barrel before the US and Israel attacked Iran at the end February. Israel’s military said it had bombed Tehran again on Monday and that another strike on Sunday killed Majid Khademi, the head of intelligence of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Four people were confirmed dead in Haifa, northern Israel, on Monday after a missile strike the day before, as a rescue team recovered all the bodies buried beneath the rubble. The missile got through Israel’s air defences and destroyed a building. Israel bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday, where Hezbollah has its stronghold in the capital. A day earlier, 15 people were killed in Lebanon, including Pierre Mouawad, an official in the anti-Hezbollah Christian party, who was one of three people who died in a strike on Ain Saadeh, east of Beirut.

Hungary puts gas pipeline under military protection amid false-flag accusations

Hungary has placed the gas pipeline that straddles the Serbian border under military protection, its prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has said, as accusations of a false-flag operation continued to swirl before a crunch election at the weekend and an official visit on Tuesday from the US vice-president, JD Vance. Orbán travelled to Hungary’s southern border with Serbia on Monday, one day after Serbia said it had found “explosives of devastating power” near a pipeline that carries Russian natural gas to Hungary and beyond. Coming days before a hard-fought election in which Orbán is trailing in most polls, the development sparked accusations by Hungary’s leading opposition candidate of a possible “false-flag” operation aimed at influencing the ballot. Orbán has yet to address the claims. Instead on Monday, he sought to emphasise their seriousness. “This pipeline is important, it is our lifeline,” he said in a video posted on social media. “We conducted an inspection, and I can report to the Hungarian public that the Hungarian defence forces are capable of placing this pipeline under military protection and, if necessary, defending it.” Earlier he and several government officials had sought to imply that Ukraine was involved in the incident – a charge roundly rejected by Kyiv, which said it had most likely been a “Russian false-flag operation as part of Moscow’s heavy interference in Hungarian elections”. Orbán, who since taking power in 2010 has turned Hungary into what he calls an “illiberal democracy”, is also the EU’s most Moscow-friendly leader and has blocked aid packages for Ukraine. The claims are a glimpse of the tensions that have gripped the central European country as Orbán seeks to convince voters of the threat of the war in Ukraine. Polls suggest Orbán’s messaging, which also pushes himself and his Fidesz party as the safest pair of hands amid the volatility, is falling flat as he faces an unprecedented challenge from Péter Magyar, a former top member of Fidesz. On Monday, Magyar described Orbán’s remarks regarding the pipeline as “nothing more than the cheap theatre of a fearful regime”, on social media. That the backdrop of Orbán’s remarks included a poster that read: “Comrades, it’s over,” was just a funny coincidence, he added. Speaking late on Sunday, Đuro Jovanić, director of Belgrade’s counterintelligence Military Security Agency (VBA), countered Fidesz’s suggestion that Ukraine was responsible for the incident, saying it was “not true”. The markings on the explosives, while not indicative of those who organised the plot, were American, he added. While most countries did not address the incident, the Kremlin waded into the speculation on Monday, saying without evidence that it believed that Ukraine had planted the explosives. “And prior to this, as we know, the Kyiv regime was directly involved in such acts of sabotage against critical energy infrastructure,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “It is highly likely that signs of the Kyiv regime’s involvement will be found this time too,” he added. On Monday, after several journalists said they had heard rumblings that something would probably happen around Easter involving a gas pipeline as well as Serbia and Russia, a former senior counterintelligence officer, Peter Buda, said that the potential plans had been an open secret among many. “Plans for this false-flag attack had been circulating since February,” he told the Guardian. The uncertainty hovering over Hungary – fuelled by concerns in some quarters, voiced by Magyar, that Orbán could use the incident to prevent the election from going ahead as planned on 12 April – comes as the US vice-president and the second lady land in Hungary for a two-day visit. The visit has sparked questions over why Vance and his wife, Usha, are carving out time to visit Budapest, even as the US administration is facing a threat of escalation in its five-week war on Iran. “Hungary is their El Dorado,” said Jacob Heilbrunn, the editor of National Interest. “Vance has always been besotted with Hungary for political and religious reasons.” The veneration spans across much of the current US administration. Orbán has been lauded by Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon as “Trump before Trump”, while Kevin Roberts, the head of the Heritage Foundation thinktank that produced Project 2025, a far-right blueprint for Trump’s second term, once said: “Modern Hungary is not just a model for conservative statecraft, but the model.” While Trump has repeatedly endorsed Orbán, describing the rightwing populist leader as a “fantastic guy” and a “strong and powerful leader”, Heilbrunn saw Vance’s visit as a hint that Trump believed Orbán could lose the election. “Trump hates to be associated with a loser, so he is sending Vance to be the fall guy,” he said. The visit, during which officials have said Vance will hold a joint press conference with Orbán before the US vice-president speaks at a mass rally “on the occasion of Hungarian-American friendship day”, underscores the symbolic consequences the election will have for far-right movements across the globe. In January, nearly a dozen rightwing leaders from around the world came together to endorse Orbán in a video. If Orbán were to lose the elections, it would be a “crashing blow” for the Maga movement, said Heilbrunn. “They have staked almost everything on Hungary as a vanguard to erode and undermine the EU and to bolster Putin’s ability to threaten Ukraine.”

Greek PM vows to tackle ‘deep state’ in wake of farm fraud scandal

The Greek prime minister has vowed to tackle what he has called a “deep state” he says is plaguing the country, as he sought to address a growing political crisis over a farm fraud scandal that has forced the resignation of multiple government ministers. In a speech, aired on national TV, Kyriakos Mitsotakis attempted to limit the damage, describing the revelations as “a turning point” that had turbo-charged his commitment to rooting out entrenched corruption. “I am striving to transform Greece into a modern European state,” he said, acknowledging its pervasive clientelistic political system. “[This] is a new starting point in the fight against the ‘deep state’.” The leader’s intervention came days after he was compelled to reshuffle his cabinet for a second time after the scheme of fraudulent EU subsidy claims first surfaced last year. The scandal widened last week when the European public prosecutor’s office (EPPO) announced it was investigating 20 members of Mitsotakis’s centre-right New Democracy party. Close to €300m (£260m) is alleged to have been siphoned through a state subsidy agency that has since been dissolved, over a five-year period beginning in 2017. False claims allegedly involved banana plantations on Mount Olympus, olive groves on military air force installations and archaeological sites being cited as grazing land for livestock. With fallout from the scandal showing no sign of abating, calls for early elections have grown. Criticism of Mitsotakis, usually a deft handler of crises, has also mounted despite his pro-business government emphasising that the fraudulent scheme began two years before he assumed power in 2019. Georgios Samaras, an assistant professor of public policy at King’s College London, likened the leader’s address to “pure evasion and straightforward damage control”, more than nine months after he gave a similar speech revealing the state’s inadequacy in dealing with corruption. The farm fraud scandal was of such magnitude, Samaras said, it could “yet become this government’s most serious crisis to date”. EPPO, which has led the investigations, last week called for the parliamentary immunity of 11 New Democracy MPs to be lifted for acts of wrongdoing allegedly committed in 2021, two years after Mitsotakis assumed power. Several are prominent figures including Konstantinos Tsiaras and Ioannis Kefalogiannis, the agricultural and civil protections ministers, who both stepped down on Friday. Intercepted phone conversations in which politicians are allegedly heard attempting to secure subsidy payments for their constituents are reportedly included in the findings of case files EPPO has presented. “The investigation concerns alleged felonies and misdemeanours against the financial interests of the EU, namely instigation of breach of trust, computer fraud and false attestation with the intent to obtain for another an unlawful benefit,” EPPO said in a statement. Mitsotakis on Monday called on the agency to proceed swiftly in deciding who it will prosecute, saying his MPs “have already suffered personal and political harm. They have the minimal right to defend themselves”.

The dream truck stop was nearly a reality | Letters

Your long read (35,000 pints of stolen Guinness, 950 wheels of pilfered cheese: can the UK’s cargo theft crisis be stopped?, 31 March), which discusses the work of Mike Dawber, the UK’s leading detective in cargo crime, and Michael Yarwood, managing director for loss prevention at the global cargo insurer TT Club, refers to “a shared dream: a truck stop with perimeter fencing, full CCTV coverage, 24-hour guards”. This particular dream was actually proposed to be fulfilled in the early 1970s, when the government published a design specification that had all of the features referred to, plus a good deal more besides, with a view to establishing a nationwide chain of such facilities. The security fencing was proposed to be augmented by a semicircular “dry ditch” within the site, to prevent stolen vehicles ramming the fence to get out. Entry and exit for the vehicles was to be via “airlock” double gates, protected by rising plate anti-ram barriers, to prevent tailgating, all supervised from a control tower equipped with bulletproof glass. Within the compound there were to be fuel sales, catering and amenity blocks for the drivers, including overnight accommodation, to spare crew from sleeping in their vehicles. My then employer, the British Rail estates department, was asked if there were any suitable sites available. The Liverpool division’s offering of the former Langton Dock goods yard, in Liverpool’s North Docks area, was greeted with enthusiasm and ranked as one of the best sites identified by the government. Negotiations had barely started when it was announced that the whole concept had been dropped, like the proverbial hot brick, with little or no explanation as to why. Messrs Dawber and Yarwood would probably not be the only ones to consider that a somewhat unfortunate decision. Alisdair McNicol Wallasey, Merseyside • 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.

We need to talk about population overshoot | Letter

Your article linking the decreasing birthrate with our housing crisis was infuriating to anyone familiar with the escalating global ecosystems collapse (Want to boost the UK’s birthrate? Fix the housing crisis, research suggests, 1 April). Recent research funded by Population Matters confirms that a sustainable global human population would be 2.5 billion. The Earth Overshoot website reveals that Britain is overpopulated by nearly 50 million. Growth economics, wealth inequality, patriarchy, colonialism, military supremacy, nationalism and pronatalism are all unwise behaviour patterns in global ecosystems collapse. These can all be categorised as a “fluency” response from our limbic system. Our limbic response is the reason that these unwise behaviour patterns persist; they bypass our critical thinking. There are wiser social paradigms trying to emerge to replace the ecocidal norms of the past. Eco-aware family planning and economic degrowth are two of the emergent paradigms. Until we can talk honestly about population overshoot, the conversation will always degenerate into racist discussions about immigration. Barbara Williams Yarnton, Oxfordshire

Is there any need for amputee octopuses? | Brief letters

You report on research in which “amputated specialist arms of male octopuses moved when in contact with progesterone” (Sex at arm’s length? Male octopuses use specialised arm to mate, scientists find, 2 April). How many octopuses were mutilated to discover this? Why? These are intelligent creatures that recognise themselves in a mirror, dream, understand deferred gratification, play, and recognise individual humans who interact with them. Why was this research procedure allowed? What overriding benefit could claim to justify it? Pam Lunn Kenilworth, Warwickshire • Last Wednesday’s Guardian print edition contained an advert for a model railway, based around a small branch-line goods train. A few weeks ago I bought a copy of the Times (the Guardian had sold out) with a more or less identical advert, but it had a much grander mainline Pullman passenger train. It seems clear what view Hornby has of the self-image of those who read the Times, but what should we make of its profiling of Guardian readers? David Budgen Durham • When I worked at the Eastman Dental Hospital and Institute some decades ago, I was widely addressed as “Uncle Prof” (Letters, 3 April). I was very happy about it. Prof John Galloway Croxley Green, Hertfordshire • Am I the only reader who was (until very recently) puzzled by the “alien facehugger” in your “Don’t miss a beat” subscription advert? Christian Gould Shepherds Bush, London • I’ve no problem with children in pubs (Letters 2, April). But I do have a problem with the parents who refuse to control them. Rob Parrish Starcross, Devon • 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.

Iran’s internet blackout is longest national shutdown since Arab spring

Iran’s internet shutdown, which began shortly after the first US-Israel strikes in late February, is now the longest national-scale blackout since the Arab spring, monitors have said. Iranian authorities cut all access to the internet on 28 February, the day the war began, after an earlier shutdown in January during nationwide protests. This current blackout has lasted more than 38 days. Its severity means many in Iran, beyond their own experiences, are receiving limited information about the war compared with others in the region. “When I speak with people inside Iran, they often are not aware of the full scale of the destruction and other developments,” said Amir Rashidi, director of Miaan Group, an Iran-focused human rights organisation. “Their only sources are Iranian state television and one satellite channel. They do not have access to major news sources, and both of these outlets report the news according to their own agendas. As a result, Iranians are unaware of many details, or even of the news itself.” Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Kentik, said while there have been longer outages at a sub-national level in Myanmar and in areas of Ukraine and Gaza during ongoing conflicts, this has been the longest and most severe nation-scale blackout since the Arab spring, when Libya lost internet connectivity for nearly six months. Sudan shut down its internet for 37 days in 2019. “The fact that the Iranian government continues to block internet access suggests that the structures of the regime have not changed very much,” said Madory. At present, most Iranians can only access the National Information Network (Nin), a domestic network under development for the past 16 years. Completely separate from the global internet, the Nin offers parallel services, such as search engines, an Iranian version of Netflix and messaging apps. It is also government-monitored and its platforms, including messaging apps, have been shown to hand over information on their users to Iranian authorities. A report from Miaan Group found “severe censorship is being imposed on domestic search engines and all local platforms.” In particular, on Gerdoo, Iran’s domestic version of Google, searches for keywords such as “war” or “ceasefire” yield no results: “As if no war exists either in Iran or anywhere else in the world,” wrote the report. In another Iranian domestic search engine, searching for “war” returns results about Iran’s decisive victory. Rashidi said: “Domestic platforms distribute information under very heavy censorship and control, in a deliberate effort to shape public opinion.” There are few options for Iranians who want to circumvent the shutdown and they are expensive. Some Iranians are travelling overland, crossing the border to Turkey, to connect online. Otherwise, internet access – either through a VPN or through a special sim – is being sold on the hidden market for between $6 and $24 a gigabyte, 5 to 20 times higher than the global average. This has turned internet access into a “luxury commodity” available to only a few, said the report from Miaan Group. Despite the human cost, Miaan Group suggests this blackout is likely to continue for some time as Iran continues to promote the national network. Many services on this network, however, are faulty – or do not work at all. “Given the Iranian government’s new policies, there is no clear prospect of internet connectivity being restored.”