Donald Trump boosted speculation over whether the US could become involved in Israel’s conflict with Tehran on Tuesday, warning Iran’s supreme leader that he was “an easy target” and that America’s “patience is wearing thin”.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US president wrote:

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.” Trump added: “But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers. Our patience is wearing thin.”

The president followed up the post by bluntly calling for Tehran’s “unconditional surrender”.

Here are the key stories of the day:

Catching up? Here’s what happened on 16 June 2025.

Donald Trump dramatically left the G7 summit in Canada a day early to rush back to Washington, with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, claiming the US leader was considering the prospect of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

“There is indeed an offer to meet and exchange. An offer was made especially to get a ceasefire and to then kickstart broader discussions,” Macron told reporters at the G7. “We have to see now whether the sides will follow.”

Macron described the move as a positive development. “Right now I believe negotiations need to restart and that civilians reed to protected.”

He added that he did not believe things would change in the next few hours, but “since the US assured they will find a ceasefire and since they can pressure Israel, things may change”.

View image in fullscreen Donald Trump posted that his early exit had ‘nothing to do with’ working on a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/AFP/Getty Images

Trump told reporters he had to leave early for “obvious reasons”, but later posted that his early exit had “nothing to do with” working on a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

Trump described his reasons as “much bigger than that” in the post on his Truth Social platform.

At a morning meeting, the US president confirmed that he had received signals through intermediaries that Iran wants to de-escalate the fighting.

Trump, no fan of G7 summits, decided to fly to Washington to brief his national security council, in doing so avoiding a day in which he would have been pressed over Ukraine and trade by his G7 colleagues.

The development came after 48 hours in which several Gulf states attempted to mediate between the US and Iran in an attempt to secure a ceasefire and restart nuclear talks that were cancelled by Iran after the surprise attack mounted by Israel.

On Monday, the Israel military had called for 330,000 residents of a neighbourhood in Tehran city centre to evacuate, warning them of the imminent bombing of “military infrastructure” in the area in a social media post very similar to those regularly directed at Palestinians in Gaza over the past 20 months.

In a social media post, Trump also called on Iranians to evacuate the capital more generally, suggesting the president was not putting any brakes on the Israeli government.

View image in fullscreen Smoke billows from an explosion at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) building in Tehran on Monday. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Central Tehran appeared to be starting to empty out early on Tuesday, with many shops closed. The city’s ancient Grand Bazaar was also closed, which has only happened in the past during anti-government demonstrations or at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

On the roads out of Tehran to the west, traffic stood bumper to bumper. Many people appeared to be heading to the Caspian Sea area. Long lines could also be seen at gas stations in Tehran.

After the surprise Israeli attack on Friday morning, Iran has carried out retaliatory missile strikes on Israeli cities, focusing on the most populated areas between Tel Aviv and the port of Haifa. Both sides have targeted each other’s oil and gas facilities, increasing the threat of environmental disaster, and explosions were reported on Monday near oil refineries in southern Tehran.

Earlier, in a joint phone call the French German and British foreign ministers urged Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, not to escalate the conflict by attacking the US or other regional players.

View image in fullscreen Donald Trump (centre), with Emmanuel Macron, Mark Carney, Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz prepare for a family photo session during at the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/PA Media

They also pressed Iran not to go ahead with a new threat to leave the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), a move that could presage an attempt to build a nuclear bomb in the face of its inability to fend off Israeli attacks. The ministers also urged Iran to withdraw its threat to reduce cooperation with the UN nuclear inspectorate the IAEA. The trio warned escalation would only cut Iran off from the remaining path back to diplomacy.

At the same time some European officials admitted before the call they had no guarantees Trump would press Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to cease what was proving to be a devastatingly successful assault on the whole Iranian security apparatus.

Iran had said it would reopen talks with the US on its nuclear programme only once Washington orders Israel to stop its bombing campaign. Some European officials admitted they could not be sure whether Trump still wanted to reach a diplomatic deal with Iran or had irrevocably, if covertly, committed to backing Israel’s efforts to destroy Iran’s nuclear program through force.

A G7 leaders’ statement issued late on Monday urged de-escalation, but reiterated Israel’s “right to defend itself” and labelled Iran “the principal source of regional instability and terror”.

“We will remain vigilant to the implications for international energy markets and stand ready to coordinate, including with like-minded partners, to safeguard market stability,” the statement said.

Israel has been pressing for the US to join the assault, but there was no clear indication that Trump’s return to Washington was a prelude to direct US military action. The White House and the Pentagon strongly played down any suggestion that the US was about to join the conflict, saying instead the US was maintaining its defensive posture.

In his comments backing a ceasefire, Macron said any attempt at regime change through force would be a strategic error.

Speaking to media at the G7, Macron said: “Anyone who believes that by striking with bombs from outside you save a country in spite of itself and against itself has always been wrong.”

From 17h ago 13.21 BST Spanish blackout a ‘multifactorial’ event – snap analysis Jakub Krupa Obviously, we will still have to wait for the full document to be published and scrutinised in detail to allow for a more in-depth analysis. Sara Aagesen, Third Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, attends a press conference after the weekly cabinet meeting at the Moncloa Presidential Palace in Madrid, Spain in April. Photograph: MARISCAL/EPA But Aagesen was keen to stress that the blackout had a “multifactorial” origin as she went through some of the issues at length and stressed that there were lessons to learn from the incident – both on the cyber element, and the broader grid operation. There are also more questions to be asked of operators and other market participants, she suggested.

But the headline is: there is no single cause of the blackout, and, crucially, there is no evidence of cyber-attack being behind the outage. That’s important to note given earlier speculation and misinformation online insinuating some sort of hostile act by a third country.

In a way, it’s perhaps a sign of how successful Aagesen was explaining all of this that… almost all of the questions were not on the blackout, but on the broader political issues facing the government. Share

15h ago 15.53 BST EU proposes to include Ukraine in EU Roaming area The European Commission has proposed to integrate Ukraine into the EU Roaming area from January 2026, making it easier to call and text with millions of Ukrainians resident across the bloc. As the EU explains in its press note, “Roaming is the first area where the EU would extend internal market treatment to Ukraine. In practice, this means that travellers from Ukraine visiting the EU, and travellers from the EU visiting Ukraine will not pay any extra roaming fees. The use of all mobile services, including calls, SMS messages and data will be charged at domestic rates. The agreement also ensures consumers are entitled to the same mobile network quality and speed as at home and that access to emergency services is free of charge. Moreover, the current agreement between EU and Ukrainian telecommunications operators will be extended until 31 December 2025. This will ensure that Europeans and Ukrainians can continue to enjoy the benefits of the common roaming area until Ukraine effectively joins the EU Roaming area.” The Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said: “We want Ukrainian citizens to stay connected to their loved ones across the EU, as well as in their home country. That’s why we propose that Ukraine join our roaming family. Once more, we reaffirm our continued commitment to stand by Ukraine and its citizens.” Share

15h ago 15.31 BST Expert report rules out cyber-attack for Spain and Portugal April blackout Earlier today, I promised you a longer update from our Madrid correspondent Sam Jones on that government report into the causes behind the blackout in Spain and Portugal. Here it is. View image in fullscreen Spanish minister for ecological transition and demographic challenge Sara Aagesen addresses a press conference after the weekly Cabinet Meeting held at Moncloa Presidential Palace in Madrid, Spain. Photograph: JJ Guillen/EPA The unprecedented blackout that brought the Iberian peninsula to a standstill at the end of April was caused by surging voltages triggering “a chain reaction of disconnections” that shut down the power network, an expert report commissioned by the Spanish government has found. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday afternoon, the country’s environment minister, Sara Aagesen, ruled out a cyber-attack as the cause of the outage on 28 April, saying it had been down to a “multifactorial” system failure caused by the network’s inability to control grid voltage. The minister said the system had lacked “sufficient capacity to control the dynamic voltage” because Spain’s national grid operator, Red Eléctrica, did not have enough thermal power stations online to control the surge. She also noted that some of the power-generating companies paid to manage and absorb voltage surges had failed to do so. The catastrophic power loss, which left people in Spain and Portugal without trains, metros, traffic lights, ATMs, phone connections and internet access, led the government to commission the expert report. Aagesen said the blackout had a “multifactorial origin … In other words, it was caused by the confluence of a combination of factors. The cause of the zero [power event] was a phenomenon of surging tensions [and] a chain reaction of control disconnections that cause further disconnections.” The expert investigations focused on what happened at 12.33pm on Monday 28 April when, for five seconds, 15GW of the energy being produced – equivalent to 60% of all the energy being used – suddenly disappeared. Aagesen said the research had uncovered “voltage instability” on the morning of the blackout and in the days leading up to it, followed by “oscillations” in the system between noon and 12.30 that day. “A second phase saw power losses, and a third phase led to the peninsular collapse,” she added. The minister said the report’s key recommendations included strengthening supervision and compliance, and ensuring that Spain was properly protected against future voltage fluctuations. … The report’s publication comes as Sánchez struggles to contain the fallout from a series of corruption allegations that have engulfed his administration and his Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE). Last week, the prime minister apologised to voters but ruled out a snap election after a senior PSOE member resigned hours after a supreme court judge found “firm evidence” of his possible involvement in taking kickbacks on public construction contracts. But he has insisted he is doing all he can to tackle corruption and said there would be no return to the polls until the next scheduled general election, in 2027. “This isn’t about me or the socialist party or PSOE MPs; it’s about a political project that’s doing good things for the country,” he said last Thursday. Full story: Expert report rules out cyber-attack for Spain and Portugal April blackout Read more Share Updated at 15.48 BST

15h ago 15.14 BST Denmark willing to invest more in Greenland in new arrangement, prime minister says Denmark is willing to invest more in Greenland’s society, including in dual-use critical infrastructure, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen told a joint press conference with her Greenlandic and Faroese counterparts, Reuters reported. View image in fullscreen Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen arrives for the contact committee meeting between Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, in the Faroe Islands. Photograph: Ida Marie Odgaard/Reuters Her comments obviously come amid a push from the Greenlandic authorities to renegotiate its status in relation to Denmark, and heightened interest in Greenland from the new US president, Donald Trump, with a flurry of (not-so) diplomatic activity from his senior team, including vice-president JD Vance during his visit in March. Earlier this week, French president Emmanuel Macron criticised Trump’s threats to take over Greenland as he became the first foreign head of state to visit the vast, mineral-rich Arctic territory since the US president began making explicit threats to annex it. Macron criticises Trump’s threats to take over Greenland during visit Read more Share

16h ago 14.51 BST Serbia’s Exit festival may go ‘into exile’ amid government pressure over student protests Philip Oltermann One of Europe’s largest music festivals will no longer be held in Serbia and could go “into exile” in Germany or a neighbouring Balkan state after Belgrade withheld funding over its support of the country’s anti-corruption student protesters. View image in fullscreen Visitors to the Exit music festival dance on one of the stages in Novi Sad, Serbia. Photograph: Darko Vojinović/AP Exit festival, which is held every July in a medieval bastion fortress in Serbia’s second city, Novi Sad, was founded in 2000 by student activists from the protest movement that helped topple Slobodan Milošević. Affordable ticket prices and starry lineups mean it has acquired a reputation as Europe’s premier music event with a social conscience, with 210,000 people from more than 80 countries attending in 2024. On Friday, however, Exit’s organisers announced that its 25th anniversary edition from 10 to 13 July this year “will be the last to take place” in Serbia, citing “undemocratic pressures” from the government of the president, Aleksandar Vučić. Novi Sad has emerged as the hub of the protests that have swept the Balkan state since a concrete canopy collapsed on to a busy pavement at the city’s central station last year, killing 14 people. On its social media channels, Exit has endorsed the demands of student protesters, calling for the resignation of the responsible minister and a full investigation into the disaster. ‘We’ve proved that change is possible’ – but Serbia protesters unsure of next move Read more The festival has donated food and sleeping bags to protesters blocking access to universities and municipal buildings, and plans to give student activists their own stage at this year’s festival. The festival’s outspoken stance appears to have drawn the ire of the government, with authorities withholding about €1.5m in national and regional tourism grants and some sponsors dropping out. “The only way we could continue the festival beyond this year is if we decided not to be free from political influence,” said Exit’s founder, Dušan Kovačević, explaining that his festival needs about 15% direct government funding to remain affordable but usually brings approximately €25m into the Serbian economy every year. “And we cannot be threatened.” Share

16h ago 14.26 BST Portugal arrests six linked to a far-right groups, seizes explosives, weapons Portuguese authorities arrested six people linked to a far-right group and seized explosive material and several firearms, police said. Associated Press reported that the detainees are believed to belong to the so-called Movimento Armilar Lusitano (MAL), which sought to establish itself as a political movement supported by an armed militia, according to a police statement. They are suspected of crimes related to terrorist groups and activities, discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence, and possession of prohibited weapons, police added. Authorities seized several explosives, firearms – some built with 3D printers – and rounds of ammunition and knives in the operation, police said in a statement. AP noted that the arrests come a month after the anti-immigration Chega party won the second-most seats in parliament and will lead the opposition after the third general election in Portugal in as many years. Share

16h ago 14.06 BST EU proposes ban on Russian gas and LNG by end-2027 The European Commission proposed the EU bans all Russian gas and liquefied natural gas imports by the end of 2027, with a ban on short-term contracts starting next year, Reuters reported. Imports under short-term Russian gas deals would start being banned from January 1, 2026, before imports under existing long-term Russian contracts would be banned from January 1, 2028 – effectively ending the EU’s use of Russian gas by this date, the Commission said. In an EU press statement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Russia has repeatedly attempted to blackmail us by weaponising its energy supplies. We have taken clear steps to turn off the tap and end the era of Russian fossil fuels in Europe for good.” Share

17h ago 13.23 BST Jakub Krupa Our Madrid correspondent Sam Jones, who helped me with live coverage of the presser, is now writing our report on this press conference. I will link to it here when it’s live. Share

17h ago 13.21 BST Spanish blackout a ‘multifactorial’ event – snap analysis Jakub Krupa Obviously, we will still have to wait for the full document to be published and scrutinised in detail to allow for a more in-depth analysis. View image in fullscreen Sara Aagesen, Third Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, attends a press conference after the weekly cabinet meeting at the Moncloa Presidential Palace in Madrid, Spain in April. Photograph: MARISCAL/EPA But Aagesen was keen to stress that the blackout had a “multifactorial” origin as she went through some of the issues at length and stressed that there were lessons to learn from the incident – both on the cyber element, and the broader grid operation. There are also more questions to be asked of operators and other market participants, she suggested.

But the headline is: there is no single cause of the blackout, and, crucially, there is no evidence of cyber-attack being behind the outage. That’s important to note given earlier speculation and misinformation online insinuating some sort of hostile act by a third country.

In a way, it’s perhaps a sign of how successful Aagesen was explaining all of this that… almost all of the questions were not on the blackout, but on the broader political issues facing the government. Share

17h ago 13.19 BST Sam Jones When asked whether Beatriz Corredor, the former socialist minister who is now the president of Spain’s national grid operator, Red Eléctrica, would resign, Aagesen also said everyone involved needed to reflect on what had happened. “What we’re talking about here is an analysis report; it’s not any kind of trial. It set out to determine the causes and to make recommendations. But it obviously calls for all the operators to reflect on all this.” She said it would be up to the relevant courts and authorities to decide whether any action should be taken. Share

17h ago 13.00 BST Closing her opening statement, Aagesen says the report offers a solid base of evidence to understand the outage and reflect on it. But she pointedly defends the need to continue with energy transition to cleaner, more renewable sources of energy, as she says “this is not an ideological issue, and one of the main drivers of growth” and Spain’s attractiveness. And we go into Q&A, with the first question focusing on Spain’s domestic politics and the political crisis surrounding the government. Share

17h ago 12.57 BST Aagesen says that “there was a lack of voltage control capacities,” either because of scheduled maintenance work, below standard performance, or a mix of both.

She then sets out a complex response from the grid operator’s side.

The minister also praises the restoration effort as “a success,” but again says the committee identified some issues that resulted in “different speeds” and “could be improved in the future.”

The report, she says, includes measures to help make any future recovery, if needed, “as swift as possible.”

The proposals include a push for stronger supervision and compliance requirements on operators and more focus on the infrastructure, including for renewables, that can be used to increase the overall capacity across the country.

She also repeats the need to act on cybersecurity and identified vulnerabilities.

She says that a draft law advancing some of these measures will be put forward at the next government meeting. Share

18h ago 12.50 BST Aagesen then explains in detail how the system’s response could not keep up with the swings to adequately regulate the voltage in the system, contributing to the blackout. Disconnections then followed in many places, including Sevilla, Badajoz and Segovia. Another large disconnection the followed in Huelva, Sevilla, Cáceres and Badajoz. Some were automatically triggered shutdowns, but some happened “in an improper manner,” she says. She explains the wave of disconnections followed and through a chain reaction, Spain supply disconnected from that of the rest of Europe. “The escalation of overvoltage was such that at that point we can say there was nothing we could do,” she said. She said the blackout had “a multifactorial origin, a combination of factors came together” to cause the outage, as the system did not have sufficient capacity to react to, or to contain, the sudden tension. Share Updated at 12.55 BST

18h ago 12.42 BST Continuing the briefing Aagesen goes through the technical reasons behind the outage, talking about system tension, reactive power, a dispersed network, and voltage control measures happening in the system every day to ensure the grid’s stability. She explains the concept of sharp swings in power, or oscillations, that are well known and occur within the European system regularly, but zooms in on an “atypical” oscillation identified within the system within the Iberian peninsula, going beyond what the system could deal with. Share

18h ago 12.32 BST No evidence of cyber-attack behind Iberian blackout, but security shortcomings found, minister says Presenting the findings of the report, environment minister Sara Aagesen praised the resilience of the Spanish society and said the focus was on understanding what caused the blackout and ensuring it would not happen again. The report was divided into two parts focusing on cybersecurity and digital systems, and on the operation of the electricity grid. It looked at more than 133 gigabytes of data from 14 companies, including system operators. Aagesen said the committee had to navigate some incomplete or contradictory data, which restricted its ability to conduct full analysis. Some data in the final report are also not fully published in the public version of the report or anonymised “to protect the integrity of the procedures.” In the first conclusion of the report, she said there was no evidence that a cyber incident or a cyber-attack caused the crisis. But she confirmed they found a number of “vulnerabilities, deficiencies or poor configurations” identified as potentially exposing the system to risks in the future and requiring urgent attention. Share

18h ago 12.16 BST Jakub Krupa The Spanish government’s press conference (12:13) is starting now. I will bring you the key lines here. Share Updated at 12.16 BST

19h ago 11.32 BST Russia remains ‘unrelenting’ in attacks on Ukraine, shows ‘not interested in peace,’ EU’s foreign policy chief warns Kallas also addressed the Russian attack on Ukraine overnight, calling it “one of the most devastating airstrikes on Kyiv in the war.” She said: “Russia remains unrelenting in its attacks, targeting civilians and prolonging its war. This is yet another sign Russia is just not interested in peace. So we must keep up the pressure.” She also expressed her support for lowering Russian oil price cap. Kallas also rejected the idea of Russia acting as a mediator in any other conflict, saying “while we see actions like this and he’s not mediator that can really be considered.” Share

Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for most countries except China, whose tariffs he raised to 125% on Wednesday.

After insisting for days that he would hold firm on his aggressive trade strategy, Trump announced that all countries that had not retaliated against US tariffs would receive a reprieve – and only face a blanket US tariff of 10% – until July.

The White House’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Trump had raised tariffs against China because “when you punch at the United States of America, President Trump is going to punch back harder”.

Here is a look at the full list of tariffs Trump originally threatened – and the new updated rate country by country:

There is cautious optimism in Kyiv over the terms of the long-discussed US-Ukraine minerals deal, signed on Wednesday, which appear to be more advantageous for Ukraine than most had expected.

Many details are still to be finalised and will be written into a yet-to-be-signed further technical agreement, suggesting that the long saga over the deal may not be quite over. But Ukrainian analysts have noted that Kyiv has apparently been able to extract some major concessions, despite Donald Trump’s repeated claim that Ukraine “has no cards” to play.

“Ukraine held the line. Despite enormous pressure, every overreaching demand from the other side was dropped. The final deal looks fair,” Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics, wrote on X.

Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said on Thursday that his country would retain “full control over its subsoil, infrastructure and natural resources”. Notably absent from the final text was the insistence that Ukraine should repay previous military US assistance via the deal, something Trump has previously repeatedly demanded. Volodymyr Zelenskyy had rejected signing something that would obligate “10 generations” of Ukrainians to repay. Future potential military assistance to Ukraine, however, will count as investments.

The signed agreement also makes it clear that its terms will not jeopardise Ukraine’s potential future integration with the EU, and also does not subject Ukraine to US legal jurisdiction. It does not lock Ukraine in to partnering only with the US on projects in future, and guarantees only access to bidding processes for US companies on fair terms.

“There’s no requirement to sell everything to the US, or to channel all investment through the fund. The obligation is to give the fund fair market access to future projects,” wrote Mylovanov.

The original idea of some kind of “rare earths” deal was thought up by Zelenskyy’s team. It was part of a “victory plan” unveiled before the US election last year, with the specific goal of interesting Trump in an economic partnership, amid fears that a potential Trump administration would not be as amenable to a values-based argument to support Ukraine as the Biden administration had been.

However it seemed that the gambit had backfired when, soon after taking office, Trump dispatched the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to Kyiv with the draft of an agreement that “looked like it had been written on the train”, according to one source. The plan appeared to lock Ukraine into all kinds of obligations, while offering Kyiv nothing in return by way of security guarantees, save the rather thin claim that Washington taking a stake in Ukraine’s economy was itself a kind of security guarantee.

Since then, there have been various attempts to revise and revisit the terms of the deal. In late February, Zelenskyy was meant to sign it during a meeting in Washington, but after the vice-president, JD Vance, goaded him into an argument in front of the cameras in the Oval Office, Ukraine’s president was kicked out of the White House without signing.

Earlier this month, it transpired that the Ukrainian justice ministry had hired the US law firm Hogan Lovells to advise on the deal, according to filings with the US Foreign Agents Registration Act registry.

The deal will need to be ratified by Ukraine’s parliament, while discussions will continue over the “technical agreement” that also needs to be finalised and signed. The overall agreement is unlikely to have a huge impact in terms of contracts signed as long as fighting between Ukraine and Russia continues, but the Zelenskyy team hope that getting it signed will increased goodwill towards Kyiv in the Trump administration. The US president in recent days has continued to paint Zelenskyy as a bigger obstacle to a peace deal than Vladimir Putin – although he has gradually inched towards criticism of the Russian leader.

The first rhetorical noises from Washington on the deal were positive. After signing the agreement, Bessent called it the start of a “historic economic partnership” and claimed it showed that the US remained committed to Ukraine as an ally.

“This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centred on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term,” said Bessent.