Scenario archive

Ukrainian strikes claim lives of 70 Russians, including two children over week — diplomat

Rodion Miroshnik said that more than 360 people, including 12 minors, have been injured

August 1, 2026

Nico Williams, Ferran Torres, and Spain’s adaptable World Cup excellence

The two substitutes combined on the World Cup winning goal not by changing the game, but by offering it what it needed, when it was needed As Spain built into the second half of extra-time of Sunday’s World Cup final, it was already clear that Argentina hoped to make them suffer. Every challenge left no stud unshown. Their defenders labored to prevent striker Mikel Oyarzabal from his typical lanes of service, with Spain taking eleven of their 20 attempts from beyond the box. Lionel Scaloni’s side may have been aggressive, but they were also just structured enough to withstand the endless monsoon of Spanish pressure. Ever since the 62nd minute, when Luis de la Fuente brought his first two charges off of the bench, Spain had adapted to find new avenues to attack, adjusting with Enzo Fernández’s sending off near the end of normal time. Continue reading...

August 1, 2026

Man stabs tourists near Greece’s Acropolis

A man stabbed and wounded two tourists Tuesday morning near the ancient Acropolis in Athens, Greece’s top tourist attraction, police said. The assailant attacked a man and a woman, both Greek Americans, with a knife on a pedestrian street near an entrance to the Acropolis itself and near the entrance to the Acropolis Museum, which lies at the foot of the Acropolis hill. The woman suffered light injuries to the leg, while the man was more seriously hurt with wounds to the arm, police said. The...

August 1, 2026

Meta’s smartglasses mean any child can be covertly filmed. In the age of AI, how do we tackle that risk?

The company argues that it’s for individuals to ensure they don’t ‘actively exploit’ this technology. That won’t keep children safe It took me a while to realise what the man sitting next to me on the train was doing. He was flicking through pictures of a little girl on his phone; zooming in on some, cropping the images. Hardly unusual, of course, except that on closer inspection the pictures were very clearly of the toddler sitting opposite us, playing with her parents. On a crowded train of people mostly staring obliviously at our own phones, a stranger had been covertly photographing that little girl over and over again. And if it hadn’t been for that very visible phone screen giving him away, he wouldn’t have been caught. That encounter was a while ago but my memory was jogged last week listening to a clip of Meta’s VP of wearables, Alex Himel, talk fondly to the BBC about using his new smartglasses to film his daughter singing in a talent contest. They let him capture the memory without having to watch her through a screen, he said, freeing him to be “kind of living in the moment, head up and hands free”. So far, so sweet. But what about the risk of creeps potentially using them to film other people’s daughters covertly, heads up and hands free? Meta’s smartglasses have a tiny flashing warning light on the frame to indicate when the wearer is recording, but the technology is still new enough that many people don’t think to look for it. And in the age of AI, stolen images of children matter. Taken in real life or scraped from the internet , they’re the raw material for generating realistic-looking child abuse material of the most extreme and disturbing kind. (If that sounds like a grim but ultimately fairly victimless crime, the Internet Watch Foundation warned in a recent report that AI-generated material risks fuelling sexual interest in children, normalising violence and increasing the risk of real-life offending.) Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here . Continue reading...

August 1, 2026

Inside the horrifying online network where children extort others to commit violence and self-harm

The 764 network is just one part of a growing online ecosystem that pushes young members into brutal and degrading acts. It has perpetrators and victims in dozens of countries In late 2024, in a quiet suburb of Stockholm, a 14-year-old boy approached a man in his 80s who was using a walker. He stabbed the man three times in the back. The video of the attack in Hässelby was streamed and spread quickly. It fed a global online ecosystem that actively encourages and glorifies acts of violence and degradation – the “gamification of harm”, as the researcher Marc-André Argentino puts it. Continue reading...

August 1, 2026

Bournemouth midfielder Scott rejects new contract

Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott rejects a new contract amid growing Premier League interest in the England international.

August 1, 2026

Why are there sanctions on Iran and when could they be lifted?

Why are there sanctions on Iran and when could they be lifted? Submitted by Daniel Tester on Fri, 07/17/2026 - 11:03 For nearly 50 years the West has targeted Tehran, citing its nuclear ambitions, links with armed groups and human rights abuses Two Iranian men exchange rials against US dollars at an exchange shop in Tehran in August 2018 (AFP) On US President Donald Trump has called for further sanctions against Tehran amid fresh US strikes on Iran . “Republicans should add Iran to the Russian Sanctions Bill,” Trump said on social media on Sunday, referencing a much-delayed bill that aims to target Moscow financially for its invasion of Ukraine, It’s but the latest move against Iran under one of the broadest sanction programmes imposed by the West worldwide. The embargo regime introduced by the US, plus the more limited measures imposed by the UN, EU and others, have resulted in massive restrictions on Iran’s ability to trade oil and access the international financial system, devastating its economy for years. The sanctions have been imposed for several reasons according to Washington and others, including Iran’s alleged development of nuclear weapons to its poor human rights record and support for regional groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Today, they are a key bargaining chip on the table in negotiations to end the US war on Iran , used by the US to pressure Tehran to scale back its nuclear programme. Here, Middle East Eye explains how the sanctions came about, and whether they could be lifted in the current negotiations. When did the US first impose sanctions imposed on Iran? Sanctions were first imposed on Iran by the US in November 1979 when Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran after the Iranian Revolution, taking 52 Americans hostage. The measures froze more than $8bn of Iranian assets held in US banks. This was extended in April 1980 to include a full ban on US imports of Iranian goods and services. In 1981 the sanctions were eased and most of the frozen assets returned under the Algiers Accords, which brought an end to the hostage crisis. But in 1984 the US reimposed an arms embargo, designating the Islamic Republic a “state sponsor of terror” amid the Iran-Iraq war. Sanctions were initially imposed on Iran by the US amid the hostage crisis of 1979 (left) and the attack on the US Martine barracks in Beirut in 1983 (right, AFP) The move came after the 1983 bombing of the American and French barracks in Beirut, which Washington linked to the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah. US sanctions expanded in the coming decades amid growing fears about Iran developing nuclear weapons. In 1995, US President Bill Clinton passed executive orders placing a total ban on all US trade with and investment in Iran. He then passed the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act in 1996, which sanctioned foreign firms investing in Iran's energy sector. These sanctions, known as secondary sanctions, cut Iran off from much of the global oil trade. The sanctions were set to expire after five years, but the act has been continually renewed, although provisions on Libya have mostly been dropped. What about UN sanctions? The UN Security Council has also imposed more limited sanctions on Iran. The first of these came in 2006, after the International Atomic Energy Agency referred Iran to the UN Security Council over concerns about its uranium enrichment programme and its failure to cooperate fully with UN nuclear inspectors. The measures were expanded throughout the 2010s, although limited to an arms embargo and asset freezes against individuals and companies alleged to be involved in Iran’s nuclear programme. Unlike US sanctions, all countries are obliged to enforce UN measures under international law – but certain countries, such as Russia, have rejected several of the UN measures. Who else has imposed sanctions? In 2008, Iran was blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force, the international agency principally backed by western states that targets money laundering and terrorist financing. The move further hurt Iran’s access to the international financial system and caused problems for businesses wanting to trade with Iran. Today, it is one of just three states on the list, alongside Myanmar and North Korea. In 2012, the Swift payment transfer system, which is used by banks for international transactions, cut off Iranian access amid pressure from the US, financially isolating it still further. The EU introduced its own sanctions against Iran that same year amid concerns about its nuclear programme, embargoing oil exports and freezing assets held in European banks. The EU had previously been the largest recipient of Iranian oil. Since then, the EU has deepened sanctions over human rights abuses in Iran during the 2022 and 2026 anti-government protests , and over Iran’s ties with Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine. Why were many sanctions axed in 2016? Most nuclear-related US, UN and EU sanctions were gradually lifted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ( JCPOA ), an agreement between Iran and the US, UK, France, Germany , Russia , China and the EU which began to come into effect in January 2016. It was signed after years of negotiations to limit Iran’s nuclear program led by the US during the Obama administration. Under the deal, Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international nuclear inspections, primarily in exchange for relief from sanctions. Iranians celebrate in Tehran amid the nuclear deal struck in Vienna in July 2015 which potentially would see an end to sanctions (AFP) The JCPOA marked the biggest diplomatic breakthrough between Iran and the West in decades, returning tens of billions of dollars of frozen assets to Iran and restarting Iranian oil exports. But the deal unravelled when US President Donald Trump withdrew in May 2018 and reintroduced wide-ranging US sanctions on Iran. Washington said that the deal, which had been negotiated by the previous Democrat administration, would still allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, and that failure to act would prompt a “nuclear arms race in the Middle East”. Iran responded by increasing uranium enrichment beyond the limits set out in the deal. In 2020, despite having already quit the treaty, the US attempted to initiate a “snapback” mechanism that would maintain some UN sanctions on Iran that were set to expire under the JCPOA. The move was rejected by the other signatories of the treaty – the UK, France, Germany, China and Russia – as unlawful, and the UN sanctions were lifted that year. But then, in August 2025, France, Germany and the UK changed their position amid fears about Iran’s growing uranium stockpile, triggering the snapback mechanism to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran despite opposition from China and Russia. The UK introduced its own sanctions on Iran in 2023, after Brexit meant that it was no longer bound by EU measures that primarily target individuals and companies that London alleges are involved in “ hostile activities in the UK and around the world ”. Foremost among these was the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the powerful hardline military organisation that has extensive political influence in the country and is deeply embedded in the Iranian establishment and wider society. What has been the effect of the sanctions? Iran’s economy has been devastated by the sanction regimes of the past half century, and has been largely cut off from global energy trade, despite being a major oil and gas producer. To get around these, it exports discounted oil on the black market through a “shadow fleet” of aging shipping tankers, principally to China . The US and EU measures also mean that Iran is effectively cut off from the international financial system. Humanitarian goods such as food and medicine are generally exempt from sanctions under international law. But banks and shipping companies often avoid handling such transactions because of the legal and compliance risks. In Iran, this has caused massive inflation which contributed to the discontent and widespread protests in January 2026. Which sanctions might get lifted in the near future? Israel and the US attacked Iran in late February, with the two sides still engaged in hostilities. For Tehran, sanctions relief has been a major aim during negotiations to end the war, and was at the heart of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on 17 June. The MoU also stated that the US will “terminate all types of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the United Nations Security Council resolutions, IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] Board of Governors resolutions, and all unilateral US sanctions, primary and secondary, in an agreed upon schedule as part of the final deal”. It added that the US would “undertake” to release Iran’s frozen assets , held in banks around the world. Iranian lead negotiator Mohammad Ghalibaf said on 22 June that a deal had been reached to free $12bn in frozen Iranian funds. A smoke plume rises following a missile strike on a building in Tehran in March 2026 amid US and Israeli attacks on the country (AFP) T rump later said that this money would be released on condition that it be used “to buy food, and the food’s going to be bought exclusively through the United States from our farmers,” a claim that Iran dismissed . The US issued a 60-day waiver on sanctions of Iranian oil exports on 22 June in line with the agreement. All of this was negotiated in exchange for Iran placing limits on its uranium enrichment, and reopening the strategic Strait of Hormuz waterway. But the MoU has since frayed , with the US cancelling its sanctions waiver amid renewed attacks from both sides and statements from Trump saying the ceasefire is “over”. Meanwhile, the US has hit Iran with further sanctions and resumed its military blockade of Iranian ports, designed to thwart covert exports of Iranian oil. What will it take to lift sanctions? Even if a settlement is reached to end the war, an end to US-imposed sanctions still faces several issues. The first is domestic, with many of the sanctions imposed through acts of Congress. That means they will require congressional approval to be overturned, including majority agreement from both the Senate and the House of Representatives. But many members of Congress are hawkish on Iran, and have previously opposed sanction-ending deals . A second problem is the status of the IRGC, which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the US, EU and, since 13 July, the UK . As a result, even if sanctions are lifted, businesses could still face other legal restrictions on trading with entities deemed IRGC affiliates. Members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during a military parade in Tehran in September 2019 (AFP/Iranian Presidency handout) Thirdly, liftng UN sanctions will require approval from all five permanent members of the Security Council. Of these, China and Russia have long been open to the idea of ending sanctions; the biggest challenge is approval from the US, UK and France. The EU, meanwhile, has signalled that it is open to lifting sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear programme if Tehran gives evidence that it has curbed its uranium enrichment. But removing EU sanctions requires the unanimous consent of all 27 member states, and Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, implied on 19 June that sanctions imposed due to Iran’s human rights record could remain in place. Brussels imposed further measures following the Islamic Republic’s crackdown in January 2026. War on Iran Explainers Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:29 Update Date Override 0

August 1, 2026

Five Palestinians die in fire after Israeli attack in Gaza

An Israeli air attack on an apartment in Gaza City set the building on fire, killing five people.

August 1, 2026

Moment terrifying floodwaters sweep through Afghan village

Moment terrifying floodwaters sweep through Afghan village

August 1, 2026

Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog review – time-travel fun for plucky hybrid critters

A half-chicken half-hare, a skunk and a tortoise go in search of a 3,000-year-old groundhog in this wholesome animation with a surprisingly complex plot Although this animated feature doesn’t have a title as utterly awesome as its predecessor, Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness , it’s still a perfectly adequate 90-ish minutes of creamy pastel-coloured picaresque entertainment. It feels like it’s skewed in the direction of younger viewers given the simple character designs, general wholesomeness and easy-on-the-jokes tone, but the plot is surprisingly complicated. The lead character is named Chickenhare because of course he is half-chicken half-hare, although in practice he looks more like a hare than a chicken other than a tuft of feathers on the crown of his head. He is best friends with a skunk named Meg, equipped with the awesome power of stink and who is very butch-coded with her waistcoat, faux-hawk and tomboy characteristics; there is also a tortoise named Abe, who as you might imagine is less keen on running about than the other two. After a pleasingly kinetic introductory action sequence that feels very Indiana Jones-inspired, during which the treasure-hunting trio run into a svelte but scratchy cat called Crolloq, an old school friend (girlfriend?) of Meg’s. Angry at Meg for assorted reasons, she leaves the other three in a pit but they eventually escape with the golden spork they were seeking all along, a doodah that proves useful later. One thing leads to another, like they do, and they end up on a new adventure in search of a 3,000-year-old groundhog with a backwards facing face who can turn back time. A new character accompanies them on the way: Gina, Chickenhare’s long-lost half-sister who is, wait for it, a harechicken – more aviform than mammalian. Continue reading...

August 1, 2026

Judge orders pause on Paramount-Warner merger after challenge from 12 states

$81bn merger halted for at least two weeks after US states sued to block deal, saying it would ‘extinguish competition’ A federal judge on Monday ordered Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery to halt their $81bn merger for at least two weeks, allowing states that are challenging the deal more time to see their case through in court. Twelve states, led by California , sued to block Paramount’s pending buyout of Warner last week – alleging that such a combination would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and lead to fewer choices for consumers, particularly moviegoers and cable customers across the US. Continue reading...

August 1, 2026

Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives review – Trewley Precious and her glorious family are a gift to reality TV

The TikTok star describes them as a broke version of the Kardashians, but they are far too funny and charismatic for that. Channel 4 has hit the TV jackpot! Channel 4 must have fallen on Trewley Precious and her family with sobbing gratitude. An articulate, charismatic gift to the camera who is also a member of the segment of the population with which the broadcaster has long been most pruriently fascinated. Jackpot!! I like to think of her standing there, in all her contoured, coiffed, lashed and fillered glory, patting the grovelling film-makers on the head with the satisfaction of knowing that her time has truly come. Trewley Precious, if you have not had what I suspect is soon to be the inescapable pleasure, is an online influencer (nearly a million people follow her on TikTok) and member of the Traveller community who now stars – alongside her four siblings and their magisterial mother Tina – in the new reality series Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives. Trewley describes the clan as “like the Kardashians if they were broke! If the Kardashians were fat and on benefits!” Which is fair comment, but they are also like the Kardashians if Kris’s pod people had a sense of humour, irrepressible energy, charm and an abundance of affection for each other. I cannot imagine Khloé replying to an inquiry from Kim about what she’s done to prepare for their mother’s birthday with a cheery “More than what you’ve done, fatty!” as Trewley does to brother Jamie. Secret Lives of Gypsy Wives is on Channel 4 now. Continue reading...

August 1, 2026

Richard Dadd review – can his mental illness help explain these arresting, bizarre images?

Royal Academy, London Dadd was already a remarkable artist – with fairies as his hit theme – before he was locked up for murder. Yet it was within the confines of Bedlam that he saw nature and art afresh The young man in the garden must be one of Richard Dadd’s fellow patients in Bedlam, you think. His unkempt hair and ruffled clothes are sure indications of a distracted mind as he sits, half his face in shadow, hands nervously clasped, on a fabulously twisted wooden bench surrounded by greenery that’s almost too lush for comfort. Yet the subject of Dadd’s 1853 Portrait of a Young Man is probably the superintendent of Bethlem Hospital, Dr Charles Hood. The painter sees reflections of his own mental state in this frail-seeming young clinician. Patient and doctor are not so different, he suggests. There is the finest of lines between “sanity” and “madness”. Dadd crossed that line when he murdered his father whom he thought was the devil, then tried to kill a stranger while fleeing to Paris. He was quickly caught and would spend the rest of his life in Bedlam and Broadmoor. But how much does his mental illness explain his arresting, bizarre, sometimes unforgettable images? Is he a kind of Victorian acid casualty whose visions of fairies are the peculiar fruit of his psychosis? Continue reading...

August 1, 2026

Gruel and graft: museum asks if you could survive a Victorian workhouse

Revamped Ripon attraction reopens as a more immersive experience telling ‘national story’ of poverty and welfare Visitors to one of Britain’s most complete surviving Victorian workhouses won’t have to strip and bathe in someone else’s bath water. But they might get some gruel, they can sweep the yard and there are “schoolmaster” volunteers happy to tell children how to behave. “You are literally going to walk in the footsteps of people who have experienced this place,” said the director of the Ripon Museums Trust, Alexa Vernon. Continue reading...

August 1, 2026

Fall in line or resign: Malaysia’s Anwar reins in coalition partners ahead of state poll

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has threatened to remove ministers and federal appointees who use public office to attack their own government partners, drawing a new red line as the ruling coalition’s rival camps collide again ahead of the Negeri Sembilan state election on August 1. Anwar said senior officials were free to campaign for their parties but must step down to avoid weaponising their official positions against allies in his unity government. “If they wish to do so, they...

August 1, 2026

How to stop US-Iran conflict from becoming endless war

How to stop US-Iran conflict from becoming endless war Submitted by Seyed Hossein Mousavian on Mon, 07/20/2026 - 16:16 The only credible path forward lies in diplomacy, which must focus on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and securing a nuclear agreement People walk past a mural that depicts missiles hitting an aircraft carrier, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, in Tehran on 26 May 2026 (Atta Kenare/AFP) Off The 14-point memorandum of understanding signed between Iran and the US in June appeared to offer the most significant diplomatic opening between the two countries since 1979. Yet before confidence-building measures could take hold, renewed military confrontation overwhelmed diplomacy. US President Donald Trump’s Iran deal collapsed , leaving Washington with few good options. Over the past two weeks, clashes between the US and Iran have disrupted maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which more than 20 percent of global oil and gas shipments typically pass, contributing to renewed volatility in energy markets. Oil prices surged on Friday, with Brent crude reaching more than $88 a barrel, posting gains of over 16 percent to hit its highest level in more than a month. The fighting has also expanded now beyond direct US-Iran exchanges, highlighting the growing risk of a wider regional conflict. The apparent shift in US strategy suggests a transition from seeking a rapid military victory, to pursuing a prolonged campaign of attrition - one designed to weaken Iran’s military capabilities, logistics, economic resilience, and domestic cohesion over time. The US recently reimposed its blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, in a move aiming to dismantle the Iranian economy. As the strategic focus moves towards the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman , Washington appears to be emphasising sustained military pressure, maritime disruption, and enhanced protection of its regional forces, while allowing Israel time to rebuild its military capabilities. Evolving campaign Trump’s recent statements about the US potentially “taking over” Kharg Island, together with reports that American and Israeli planners have considered supporting cross-border operations by Kurdish armed groups, suggest that their future strategy may increasingly combine conventional military pressure with efforts to disrupt Iran’s critical energy infrastructure, while exploiting security vulnerabilities along its western and southeastern borders. In response to the evolving US campaign, Iran appears to be adopting a broader strategy aimed at mobilising the nation, while raising the military, economic and political costs of prolonged confrontation. In March, Iran announced the mobilisation of one million fighters to counter what it described as a “suicidal” US ground war on Iranian soil, with a particular focus on defending the strategic Kharg Island, which handles around 90 percent of the nation’s oil exports. Three successive rounds of war ... have produced enormous human and financial losses, without delivering a decisive victory for any side At the regional level, Iran may seek to expand pressure through its partners, including the Houthis, whose potential disruption of shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, together with continued risks to navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, could increase the economic costs of the conflict. On Monday, the Houthis declared a naval embargo against Saudi Arabia . As tensions boiled over, Iran said it had hit US bases, aircraft and radar systems in Kuwait , Oman, Syria , Jordan , Bahrain and Qatar . And after Trump said in June that he had spoken with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa about the possibility of Syria taking on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon , Iran last week said it had targeted an American command centre in Syria’s al-Tanf, in retaliation for US strikes. A central element of Iran’s approach is the regionalisation and internationalisation of the costs of war. Tehran seeks to signal that states providing bases, infrastructure and operational support for US military actions cannot remain insulated from the consequences of the conflict. An Iranian army spokesperson recently warned that if US strikes persist, “the war will be dragged into new arenas”. War of attrition Although the broader confrontation was fuelled by the long-running conflict between Israel and Iran, the latest phase has primarily evolved into a direct military clash between Iran and the US. The principal strategic and economic costs are now being borne by Iran, the US, regional Arab states, and the international economy, through higher energy prices and maritime instability. Three successive rounds of war over the course of a little more than a year have produced enormous human and financial losses, without delivering a decisive victory for any side. This suggests that the conflict has become a classic war of attrition. Amid this backdrop, recent remarks by US Vice President JD Vance during an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, published last week, deserve careful attention. He argued that the US has no strategic interest in an endless war with Iran, and that diplomacy remains the only sustainable solution. Perhaps the most striking aspect of Vance’s interview was his assertion that certain elements within the Israeli government actively sought to derail US-Iran negotiations, preferring to extend the military campaign “indefinitely” by supporting a well-funded influence effort aimed at weakening public support for talks. Vance said American policymakers must ultimately base their decisions on US national interests, rather than external political pressures, noting that the two issues central to achieving a durable peace include reopening the Strait of Hormuz to guarantee freedom of navigation, and securing a negotiated agreement to ensure that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon. His public defence of diplomacy, along with his criticism of efforts to derail negotiations and his warning against another prolonged Middle Eastern war, underscore the urgency of launching an immediate diplomatic initiative focused on these priorities. The real choice Firstly, a new regional maritime framework should recognise that the Strait of Hormuz lies within the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. These two states should assume the primary responsibility for navigational safety under international law , while a broader agreement among Arab Gulf states, the US and Iran guarantees freedom of navigation. Iran and Oman could receive reasonable service fees for maritime safety and navigation assistance, without making such services compulsory. To ensure its durability, international legitimacy and legal enforceability, any framework should be endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution. Secondly, Washington and Tehran should negotiate a permanent bilateral nuclear agreement based on the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Under such a deal, Iran could permanently renounce nuclear weapons under comprehensive International Atomic Energy Agency verification, while the US could permanently remove nuclear-related sanctions and recognise Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear technology. Why the US-Iran escalation over Hormuz will not be the last Read More » Unlike the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action , this agreement should be ratified by both the US Congress and the Iranian parliament. Neither Washington nor Tehran is likely to force the other into submission. The real choice is between perpetual war and sustainable diplomacy. Washington and Tehran should revive direct dialogue, including a new meeting between Vance and Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, to restore diplomatic momentum and finalise agreements on Hormuz and the nuclear issue. The most credible and legitimate basis for any settlement is the freely expressed will of the peoples of both countries. Both governments should respond to the preferences of their own publics: polls shows that Americans broadly disapprove of the war, which has become even more unpopular than Vietnam , while Iranians want “security without permanent confrontation, reform without revolution, sovereignty without isolation, and diplomacy without surrender”. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye. War on Iran Opinion Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:29 Update Date Override 0

August 1, 2026

Chinese loans to Philippines stay resilient despite maritime row

New findings on Chinese financing in the Philippines are challenging the assumption that Beijing reduced its funding under President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr because of worsening tensions in the South China Sea. Instead, Chinese capital has continued to support Filipino businesses in recent years, including a US$3.9 billion syndicated loan to telecommunications company Dito Telecommunity in 2023, the largest ever China-backed private-sector loan to the Philippines, AidData, a US-based research...

August 1, 2026

Donbass Dome system neutralizes 23 drones over DPR over past day

It was reported on July 20 that 40 drones were neutralize in Donbass

August 1, 2026

IN BRIEF: Russia expels Italian military attache in retaliatory move

The measure comes in response to Italy’s actions, Maria Zakharova stressed

August 1, 2026

Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead review – final part of the Harlem Trilogy is freewheeling fun

The grit and grandeur of 80s New York drive this rollicking story of an underground wheeler-dealer In the summer of 1977 a bolt of lightning struck a substation on the Hudson River, knocking out power across New York City. Two nights of darkness sparked a wave of looting as Harlem and Bronx teenagers swiped high-end items from the downtown stores. They took speaker systems and turntables to experiment with at home. They taught themselves how to scratch and mix, and sang self-styled scat lyrics into stolen microphones. Hip-hop, according to urban legend, was the child of a lightning strike and a robbing spree. It’s art from crime, thinks Ray Carney, the hardscrabble hero of Colson Whitehead’s rollicking Cool Machine, the final part of his Harlem Trilogy. Or possibly vice versa, given that the man dislikes rap music and nurses a sneaking affection for old-school smash-and-grab. For years Carney has led the sort of intrepid double life that would make Spider-Man proud, supplementing his furniture business on 125th Street with a lucrative sideline as an underworld fence. In his stealthy, dogged fashion, he helps facilitate a process he describes as “the churn”: the movement of stolen goods through New York. The churn fuels the economy and helps refresh the culture. It’s the city’s equivalent of an endocrine system. Continue reading...

August 1, 2026

‘New Girl was so scary I had to stop smoking pot’: Jake Johnson on perseverance, pickleball and Prince

As Nick in the blockbuster TV comedy, the actor was adored by millions. So will his new comedy The Dink, which he jokes is a ‘sexier Challengers’, make him even more popular? You might assume that Jake Johnson would know a little something about pickleball. The actor is starring in The Dink, a sort of spiritual heir to Dodgeball – it has a Ben Stiller cameo – and he plays Dusty Boyd, a former tennis pro turned plucky pickleball upstart. Presumably Johnson took the gig because he has a deep love of the sport, a fondness for its pockmarked balls and weirdly smooth paddles? “No experience of it whatsoever,” says the actor, cheerfully, on a video call from Los Angeles. Yet this underdog of a racket sport, loved by retirees, found him anyway. At the climax of the movie, Dusty must play against an old foe, which meant Johnson had to undertake months of real-life training in pickleball and tennis, so it looked as if he could play. “It was like WWE. They call it fake wrestling. The outcome is there, but you still have to wrestle. That was probably the most stressful part of the film to me.” Continue reading...

August 1, 2026

판 커진 이란전쟁 , 전 세계 미국인 여행 주의보

August 1, 2026

LIran attaque radars et systèmes de défense américains en riposte à des frappes

August 1, 2026

« Σταματήστε να καταστρέφετε ό , τι λειτουργεί »

August 1, 2026