US and Iran inch closer to peace deal as Trump faces criticism from GOP hawks | First Thing
US president says he is not rushing into a deal after proposed plan to end war prompts Republican backlash. Plus, mood in Russia turns against Putin
Good morning.
Donald Trump defended himself against criticism from fellow Republicans yesterday as he appeared on the verge of agreeing a deal with Iran to end the war.
As hawks in his party called the proposed agreement a disaster and questioned why the US president had launched the conflict in the first place, Trump claimed on social media that his deal would be “THE EXACT OPPOSITE” of the one agreed by Barack Obama, which Trump pulled out of in 2018.
He added that he was not rushing into a deal, saying “both sides must take their time to get it right … There can be no mistakes!”
What has Iran said? Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has been speaking at a news briefing about the contours of a potential deal with the US to end the war: “It is correct to say that we have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the issues under discussion. But to say that this means the signing of an agreement is imminent – no one can make such a claim.”
Trump has ‘alienated’ voters ahead of midterms, warns ousted Republican Thomas Massie
Donald Trump’s Republican party is on course for a damaging rejection at the ballot box in November, according to a maverick US congressman ousted by a challenger handpicked by the president.
Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, became the latest of Trump’s targets to be defeated in the party’s primaries this week. He had repeatedly broken with the president over military action against Iran, government spending and the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
As control of US Congress hangs in the balance, Massie warned on Sunday that Trump had “disenfranchised” many of the Americans who had voted for him – and their party – in November 2024.
Why does he think voters are becoming disenfranchised? Massie pointed to several significant constituencies – including “Make America healthy again” campaigners, fiscal hawks pushing for sweeping government budget cuts, and voters who don’t want the US engaged in wars – who he claimed had been “alienated” by the administration’s actions. “And so, I’m worried that in November, this is going to cost the party a lot.”
Overheated chemical tank in southern California may explode, says EPA chief
Government officials in Orange county, California, have warned that an overheated chemical tank “will fail” and could result in a chemical explosion in the area, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator said yesterday.
“We’re being told that the tank will fail, but there are different scenarios as to what that means,” Lee Zeldin told CNN’s State of the Union. Zeldin, a former Republican congressman with no prior experience in environmental policy, was chosen by Trump as the head of the EPA.
“The most catastrophic scenario” at the aerospace facility in the city of Garden Grove, just five miles from Disneyland, Zeldin said, would be “an explosion that results in other tanks to explode”.
What is being done to protect local residents? About 50,000 people in the area have now been evacuated from their homes so far given concerns of a possible leak or explosion.
In other news …
France is facing a child abuse scandal as “monitors” at dozens of state nursery and primary schools are investigated for violence, sexual assault and rape. Paris police are looking into more than 100 allegations of mistreatment by school monitors who supervised lunch breaks, nap times and after-school activities.
Politicians must be held accountable if their lies damage democracy, according to Andrew Weissmann, former US federal prosecutor and FBI general counsel who was pursued by Donald Trump.
Sweden’s prime minister has promised to put IVF at the heart of his re-election campaign as he tries to win over female voters amid the country’s record low birthrate.
Stat of the day: Films more likely to star an actor called Chris or a talking animal than a woman over 60, study finds
Box office hit films are four times more likely to star a talking animal than a woman over 60, according to a survey by Age Without Limits. The anti-ageism campaign studied the 100 highest performing films released in the UK in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and found that while five starred an older woman, about 20 featured creatures who chat.
Building power: Eva v Goliath – the 20-year-old climate activist taking on Trump and the fossil fuel industry
Young Americans are suing the president over executive orders they say worsen the climate crisis and violate their constitutional rights. One of them is Eva Lighthiser. She and 22 other plaintiffs accuse the US government of boosting planet-warming fossil fuels through a series of executive orders.
Don’t miss this: the Democrats’ 2024 autopsy ‘fails to confront the truth’
The Democratic National Committee’s long-delayed autopsy of the party’s 2024 election defeat has been overshadowed by the chaotic circumstances of its release, including the DNC chair publicly distancing himself from it. The document has two glaring omissions: the decision to let Joe Biden pursue re-election until it was too late, and the political impact of the Gaza genocide, writes Norman Solomon.
… or this: ‘There is profound disappointment in him’ – mood in Russia turns against Putin
Interviews with several people in the orbit of the Russian leader, as well as sources in the Russian business world and western intelligence officials, paint a picture of an isolated leader surrounded by an elite that is becoming rapidly disillusioned, both with the faltering war in Ukraine and the economic downturn at home. There is little doubt that Putin is entering the most challenging period of his long rule.
Climate check: could nature itself hold the solution to the climate crisis?
Many people believe the scale of the climate challenge calls for immense technological innovation, geoengineering, or the transformation of our economy. But with these solutions there are often painful trade-offs. There is one set of solutions, however, that present no trade-off at all when they are done right. The restoration of natural habitats like forests.
Last Thing: K-pop androids and automated artists – welcome to South Korea’s strange and ambitious robot theme park
Four child-sized humanoid robots take to the stage at an arena in eastern Seoul, and as the opening beats of a song by K-pop star G-Dragon begin, they start to dance, until – mid-performance – one of them seemingly malfunctions and has to be removed from the stage. Welcome to the “world’s first robot theme park”.
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