Good morning.<\/p>\n
The fate of the two-week ceasefire in the Iran conflict looked in peril<\/a> as both sides gave divergent versions of what had been agreed, Israel intensified its bombing campaign in Lebanon and Iran halted the passage of oil tankers because of an alleged Israeli ceasefire breach.<\/p>\n Iran and Pakistan, which brokered the 11th-hour truce, both asserted that the ceasefire included Lebanon.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, disagreed and Israeli forces unleashed their heaviest attack of the war so far on more than 100 targets, killing at least 254 people. Donald Trump, after initially remaining silent, said Lebanon was \u201ca separate skirmish\u201d and not part of the deal.<\/p>\n The UN rights chief Volker T\u00fcrk condemned the scale of Israel\u2019s attacks yesterday as \u201chorrific\u201d.<\/p>\n What has Iran said? In a sharply worded statement, Iran\u2019s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Israel and the US had violated several clauses of the provisional ceasefire, and he decried Israel\u2019s aggressive bombing of Lebanon and a US demand that Iran should have no right to enrich its own uranium.<\/p>\n This is a developing story. Follow our liveblog here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Man charged with US firebomb plot is linked to group whose leaders back violence against PalestiniansYisrael Yaacob Ben Avraham (center), the founder of JDL 613 Brotherhood, and Meir Kahane, the founder of the extremist Jewish Defense League. Illustration: Guardian Design<\/p>\n A man who has been charged with plotting to firebomb a pro-Palestine activist\u2019s home is tied to a group whose leaders support violence against Palestinians<\/a> and have platformed a convicted terrorist who fundraises for a violent settler movement in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n Video recordings by the group, called JDL 613 Brotherhood, also reveal its leaders possess an obsessive antipathy towards New York\u2019s mayor, Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n Alexander Heifler, who law enforcement officials say is a JDL 613 member, was arrested last month after FBI and New York police department agents foiled an alleged plot to attack the home of the activist Nerdeen Kiswani with molotov cocktails.<\/p>\n What was said in the video about Mamdani? The videos feature the organization\u2019s founder, Yisrael Yaacob Ben Avraham, describing Mamdani as a \u201cMuslim terrorist\u201d and a \u201ccancer\u201d, and his election as a \u201charbinger\u201d of \u201ca creeping Islamic takeover of America\u201d.<\/p>\n Hawaii doctor accused of trying to kill his wife found guilty of attempted manslaughterGerhardt Konig talks to his defense lawyer Thomas Otake after closing arguments. Photograph: Mengshin Lin\/AP<\/p>\n A Hawaii anesthesiologist who was accused of trying to murder his wife on a cliffside hike last year has been convicted of attempted manslaughter<\/a>, a lesser charge.<\/p>\n A Honolulu jury returned the verdict against Gerhardt Konig, 47, on Wednesday after a day of deliberations.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said Konig planned to kill his wife, Arielle Konig, during a weekend trip to Honolulu for her birthday in March 2025. They said he tried to push her off a cliff and stab her with a syringe, and then struck her with a rock, before the attack was interrupted by two hikers who heard her cries for help.<\/p>\n The defendant testified that it was his wife who first hit him with a rock and he hit her back in self-defense.<\/p>\n What else did prosecutors say in court? Konig had a plan and backup plans for killing his wife, the deputy prosecutor Joel Garner told jurors in a closing statement on Tuesday. The doctor\u2019s lawyer told jurors there were no such plans and sought to cast doubt on Arielle\u2019s account.<\/p>\n In other news \u2026In Asian stock markets, South Korea\u2019s Kospi lost 1.7% after rising 7.5% the day before, while Japan\u2019s Nikkei fell 0.7% after rising 5.4%. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon\/AP<\/p>\n Oil and gas prices rose<\/a> today and stock markets retreated across Asia and Europe as the two-week ceasefire in Iran looked increasingly shaky. Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose by 3.8% on Thursday but remained below $100 a barrel at $98.31, while New York light crude climbed by 4.8% to $99 a barrel.<\/p>\n The FBI has arrested a former military special operations employee accused of providing classified information to the media<\/a>, the agency\u2019s director, Kash Patel, announced yesterday.<\/p>\n Rex Heuermann, a Long Island architect accused of seven murders known as the Gilgo Beach killings dating back to 1993, pleaded guilty<\/a> yesterday \u2013 and added an eighth murder to his gruesome tally.<\/p>\n The Filter Recommends: Moka pot coffee: unlock cafe-quality iced lattes at home with this $50 Italian stapleAnyone for iced coffee? Photograph: Getty Images\/iStockphoto<\/p>\n Recommended by the Guardian and now subject of an endless library of TikTok tutorials, people have praised the moka pot for steaming mugs of cafe-quality coffee more cheaply than an espresso machine (or a Nespresso machine). As warmer weather arrives, one overlooked use of this versatile coffee maker is its ability to make a killer cup of iced coffee, writes Lauren Gould<\/a>.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t miss this: As RFK Jr allies hailed Mississippi\u2019s rollback of strict school vaccine rules, whooping cough surged and a baby diedA vaccine information poster in Hattiesburg clinic in Mississippi. Photograph: Rory Doyle\/The Guardian<\/p>\n When a federal judge in Mississippi ordered a sweeping rollback of the state\u2019s strict school vaccine rules in 2023, the ruling hit some doctors like \u201ca gut punch\u201d. The state health director warned of the dire possible consequences, including a comeback of preventable illnesses like measles, diphtheria and pertussis \u2013 known as whooping cough. The doctor\u2019s warnings were prescient. Whooping cough surged in Mississippi last year, ultimately claiming the life of a baby<\/a> \u2013 the first whooping cough death in the state in 13 years.<\/p>\n Climate check: Mass drowning of chicks puts emperor penguins at risk of extinctionThe emperor penguin has been added to a red list of species officially in danger of extinction. Photograph: AP<\/p>\n The mass drowning of emperor penguin chicks as sea ice is melted by the climate crisis has led the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to declare the species officially in danger of extinction<\/a>. Global heating has led to record lows in Antarctic sea ice since 2016. When sea ice breaks up early, entire colonies can fall into the ocean, leaving the chicks to drown. Even if some penguins escape the water, they are soaked and will freeze to death.<\/p>\n Last Thing: How KFC, AKA Korean fried chicken, took over the worldThe dish, adapted from one brought by US soldiers after the Korean war, has sparked thousands of variations and sits at the forefront of the K-food wave. Photograph: Oscar Wong\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Korean fried chicken is a humble dish that is relatively simple, and is not even traditional Korean cuisine, but it is part of a national obsession that has gone global as part of the K-food wave. The country has only half-jokingly been dubbed the Republic of Fried Chicken<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sign up<\/p>\n Sign up for the US morning briefing<\/p>\n First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you\u2019re not already signed up, subscribe now<\/a>.<\/p>\n Get in touch<\/p>\n