US-Iran peace deal remains elusive as choice of US targets draws legal questions | First Thing
Trump claims strikes called off as deal is close, but Tehran denies agreement near, while legal experts question if US targets may be a war crime
Good morning. Yesterday, Donald Trump spent the day promising he was going to hit Iran harder than ever before, then announced – again – that the US and Iran were close to signing a deal. Iran’s foreign ministry dismissed the claim, and Tasnim, the semi-official Iranian news agency, wrote that “until a potential understanding is announced by Iran, any news from Trump on this matter should be dismissed”.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said large parts of the text under negotiation had been finalised but Iran would not compromise on its red lines. Two days of escalating attacks between the warring nations had threatened to collapse the fragile ceasefire.
What is the issue around the US choice of targets in Iran? Military strikes on 10 June that damaged two water storage facilities in southern Iran may constitute a war crime, legal and military experts say. The attack on the Bemani district destroyed a key reservoir serving about 20,000 people, raising critical legal questions over whether the strike hit a valid military objective or unlawfully targeted a civilian object.
US legal showdown looms over nitrogen gas after supreme court blocks execution
The US’s newest execution method, nitrogen gas, appears headed toward a legal showdown amid a widening controversy over whether it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
The supreme court late on Thursday rejected the state of Alabama’s request to execute prisoner Jeffery Lee with nitrogen gas, and the rebuke culminates a week of setbacks for Alabama.
Why is there a legal challenge to the method? The method has raised concerns for its apparent brutality. Eugene Smith, the first person to die by nitrogen hypoxia, thrashed and writhed on the gurney, according to witnesses. The last nitrogen execution, of Anthony Boyd, appeared to take more than 30 minutes as Boyd shuddered and gasped.
Pokémon Go data trained AI that could assist military drones in war zones
Pokémon Go data collected from players who were given in-game rewards for scanning real locations using their devices could help military drones find their location in war zones.
Niantic, which created Pokémon in partnership with Nintendo, collected the data before the company sold its gaming division in 2025. The historical scans were used to train the company’s AI models to recognise and interpret spaces in the physical world. Niantic confirmed a partnership with Vantor, a company that specialises in spatial detection software for drones, including those used by some militaries.
What has been the response? Both companies confirmed the scans from Pokémon Go were used to train Niantic’s foundation models used by Vantor, with Niantic saying: “AR Scans collected through Pokémon Go were submitted voluntarily by players who opted into the feature and were subject to the applicable Terms of Service and Privacy Policy at the time.” Tom Sulston, head of policy for the thinktank Digital Rights Watch, said the use of civilian data for military ends was troubling.
In other news …
South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for sending drones into North Korea, a move prosecutors argued was aimed at creating a pretext for his failed martial law declaration.
Donald Trump’s hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade before a court-ordered deadline to remove it.
California officials have recovered the body of a five-year-old girl who this week was swept into the ocean by turbulent waters.
The former NFL linebacker Darron Lee has been indicted on a murder charge in the death of his partner.
The six-time major winner Phil Mickelson has reportedly had his membership cancelled at a San Diego golf club after alleged “inappropriate contact” with a female employee.
Stat of the day: SpaceX heads for record $1.78tn float – but is it overvalued?
Elon Musk’s space exploration, satellite broadband and AI company will join the US stock market at a valuation of $1.78tn. The offering is oversubscribed by three or four times, according to Reuters, but investment research group Morningstar has calculated that SpaceX is worth only $63 a share – well below the anticipated IPO price of $135 – and warns there is “a major disconnect between market expectations and underlying fundamentals”. Meanwhile, a lawsuit is claiming Musk’s xAI fired an engineer for raising concerns about the Grok chatbot.
Culture pick: Stop! That! Train! review – RuPaul-led zany drag comedy is a riot
With a whip-smart drag queen cast and celebrity cameos, Owen Myers writes that Adam Shankman’s film is a refreshingly kooky twist on the summer movie caper. Also worth catching is Steven Spielberg’s alien conspiracy thriller Disclosure Day, which Peter Bradshaw gave a four-star review.
Don’t miss this: 20 ways Taylor Swift remade pop culture in her image
Seeing the Eras tour at Wembley Stadium in London in 2024 was a real highlight for me, and this incredible interactive marks 20 years since Taylor’s debut single. As Laura Snapes notes, whether you like her or not, Swift has become the lens through which we understand so much of pop, pop culture, womanhood, the music industry, and much, much more.
… or this: ‘Spy turtles’ and ‘spy fish’ being used to monitor Chinese waters, Beijing claims
China’s ministry of state security has claimed that foreign espionage and intelligence agencies are using “spy turtles” and other marine animals that have been found “attached to sensors” as they swam in Chinese waters.
Climate check: ‘Super El Niño’ is officially here, scientists say. What can we expect?
You will be seeing the words “Super El Niño” a lot in the coming weeks. Scientists predict the climate pattern could be the strongest of the century, which will supercharge extreme weather events and push temperatures to record highs. Gabrielle Canon and Cecilia Nowell explain what it is and what to expect.
Last Thing: can Albania’s flamingo revolution keep its wetlands free from Trumps and tourists?
“If you want to see the Mediterranean as it used to be, before it was wrecked by tourism, this is one of the last – if not the last – spots where you would find it”. That quote sums up why Albania has been rocked by nearly two weeks of protests after fences and heavy machinery came to a sensitive wetland to start building the tourism vision of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
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