{"id":489508,"date":"2026-06-12T16:03:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T16:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/489508\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T16:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T16:03:17","slug":"first-thing-iran-peace-deal-remains-elusive-as-choice-of-us-targets-draws-legal-questions-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/489508\/","title":{"rendered":"First Thing: Iran peace deal remains elusive as choice of US targets draws legal questions | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Yesterday, Donald Trump spent the day promising he was going to hit Iran harder than ever before, then announced \u2013 again \u2013 that the US and Iran were close to signing a deal<\/a>. Iran\u2019s foreign ministry dismissed the claim, and Tasnim, the semi-official Iranian news agency, wrote that \u201cuntil a potential understanding is announced by Iran, any news from Trump on this matter should be dismissed\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

US legal showdown looms over nitrogen gas after supreme court blocks executionAlabama\u2019s lethal injection chamber. Photograph: Dave Martin\/AP<\/p>\n

The US\u2019s newest execution method, nitrogen gas, appears headed toward a legal showdown amid a widening controversy over whether it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.<\/p>\n

The supreme court late on Thursday rejected the state of Alabama\u2019s request<\/a> to execute prisoner Jeffery Lee with nitrogen gas, and the rebuke culminates a week of setbacks for Alabama.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Go data trained AI that could assist military drones in war zonesA Pok\u00e9mon Go player in Chicago. Photograph: Lucy Hewett\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon Go data collected from players who were given in-game rewards for scanning real locations using their devices could help military drones<\/a> find their location in war zones.<\/p>\n

Niantic, which created Pok\u00e9mon 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

What has been the response? Both companies confirmed the scans from Pok\u00e9mon Go were used to train Niantic\u2019s foundation models used by Vantor, with Niantic saying: \u201cAR Scans collected through Pok\u00e9mon 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.\u201d Tom Sulston, head of policy for the thinktank Digital Rights Watch, said the use of civilian data for military ends was troubling.<\/p>\n

In other news \u2026South Korea\u2019s ousted former president Yoon Suk Yeol. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon\/APStat of the day: SpaceX heads for record $1.78tn float \u2013 but is it overvalued?A 3D-printed miniature model of Elon Musk and a SpaceX logo. Photograph: Dado Ruvi\u0107\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Elon Musk\u2019s space exploration, satellite broadband and AI company will join the US stock market<\/a> 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<\/a> is worth only $63 a share \u2013 well below the anticipated IPO price of $135 \u2013 and warns there is \u201ca major disconnect between market expectations and underlying fundamentals\u201d. Meanwhile, a lawsuit is claiming Musk\u2019s xAI fired an engineer<\/a> for raising concerns about the Grok chatbot.<\/p>\n

Culture pick: Stop! That! Train! review \u2013 RuPaul-led zany drag comedy is a riotRuPaul, seated, and Matt Rogers in a scene from Stop! That! Train! Photograph: Bleecker Street and World of Wonder\/AP<\/p>\n

With a whip-smart drag queen cast and celebrity cameos, Owen Myers writes that<\/a> Adam Shankman\u2019s film is a refreshingly kooky twist on the summer movie caper. Also worth catching is Steven Spielberg\u2019s alien conspiracy thriller Disclosure Day, which Peter Bradshaw gave a four-star review<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss this: 20 ways Taylor Swift remade pop culture in her imageTaylor Swift. Photograph: Lev Radin\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Seeing the Eras tour at Wembley Stadium in London in 2024 was a real highlight for me, and this incredible interactive<\/a> marks 20 years since Taylor\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u2026 or this: \u2018Spy turtles\u2019 and \u2018spy fish\u2019 being used to monitor Chinese waters, Beijing claimsSea turtles hatchlings. Photograph: Aman Rochman\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

China\u2019s ministry of state security has claimed<\/a> that foreign espionage and intelligence agencies are using \u201cspy turtles\u201d and other marine animals that have been found \u201cattached to sensors\u201d as they swam in Chinese waters.<\/p>\n

Climate check: \u2018Super El Ni\u00f1o\u2019 is officially here, scientists say. What can we expect?A man watches the sunset in San Diego. Photograph: Kevin Carter\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

You will be seeing the words \u201cSuper El Ni\u00f1o\u201d 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<\/a> what it is and what to expect.<\/p>\n

Last Thing: can Albania\u2019s flamingo revolution keep its wetlands free from Trumps and tourists?A protest in Albania. Photograph: Fedja Grulovic\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to see the Mediterranean as it used to be, before it was wrecked by tourism, this is one of the last \u2013 if not the last \u2013 spots where you would find it\u201d. That quote sums up why Albania has been rocked by nearly two weeks of protests<\/a> after fences and heavy machinery came to a sensitive wetland to start building the tourism vision of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n

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If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning. Yesterday, Donald Trump spent the day promising he was going to hit Iran harder than ever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-489508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}