First Thing: White House correspondents’ dinner suspect to be charged as motive examined

Hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations between Iran and the US faded further yesterday, amid a deepening sense of deadlock in the nearly two-month conflict despite intense regional diplomatic activity.

Washington and Tehran appear unwilling to moderate rhetoric or make concessions, and there are no negotiations scheduled that might bring the war to a definitive end.

Yesterday, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, returned to Pakistan for a second consecutive day of talks with mediators after a brief trip to Oman for discussions there.

• What has Donald Trump said about it? Trump has said Iran can telephone if it wants to negotiate an end to the war and that it must agree never to have a nuclear weapon, while Pakistan’s leaders have sought to revive the stalled peace talks between Washington and Tehran.

Texas tornado kills at least two people as wildfires rage in parts of Georgia

Smoke rising from a fire in Clinch county, Georgia, on 22 April. Photograph: Georgia Department Of Natural Resources Handout/EPA

At least two people are dead after a powerful tornado struck northern Texas on Saturday night, as extreme weather continued to devastate homes and put millions across the south and midwestern US at risk, with wildfires also raging on in parts of Georgia.

Officials from Wise county in Texas said the storm reached the area at around 10pm and caused significant damage across multiple neighborhoods. In addition to the confirmed deaths, six people were treated or transported by emergency responders to be treated for storm-related injuries.

At least 20 families have been displaced, and many homes sustained major damage, according to initial reports.

• What’s the forecast for the next few days? The National Weather Service has reported that severe weather is likely to continue over the coming days, and that flash flooding is possible. Storms have battered the central US over the past week, with more than 30 tornadoes and 230 reports of hail, according to AccuWeather.

In other news …

The US military said three men were killed when it struck a boat ‘engaged in narco-trafficking operations’. Photograph: US Southern Command/AFP/Getty Images

• The US military said yesterday it killed three men when it struck what it claimed was a drug boat in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The number of deaths in such strikes under the new Trump administration is now at least 186.
• California voters will decide in November whether to require photo identification to cast a ballot, making the state the latest battleground in a long-running effort by conservatives to push voter ID laws.
• Israeli forces in Gaza killed a water engineer and two drivers who transported water to displaced families over four days in mid-April, exacerbating severe shortages of clean water that are fuelling the spread of preventable disease.

Stat of the day: Michael moonwalks to $217m opening weekend, shattering box office records for a biopic

Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson in a scene from Michael. The film has broken box office records for a biopic in its opening weekend. Photograph: Glen Wilson/AP

Michael, the big-budget Michael Jackson biopic, has shrugged off bad reviews and a troubled production to launch with a $97m opening in North American theaters, contributing to its enormous $217m worldwide box office taking, shattering the record for the biggest biopic opening of all time.

‘Counter to the message of Jesus’ – progressive Christians stake claim to their religion amid Trump-pope feud

Pastor Fabian Arias speaks with a woman at a US immigration court in New York in 2025. Photograph: Kylie Cooper/Reuters

Anti-war, anti-ICE, anti-authoritarian Christians are organizing around their faith in opposition to the version of Christianity claimed by Trump and the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. Since the first time Trump was in office, Christian groups have protested against the militarization of ICE in American communities, provided physical shelter to migrants, hosted vigils and coordinated mutual aid. More people are joining them.

Don’t miss this: My husband and son dived to see the wreck of the Titanic, and never came back

Suleman Dawood and his father, Shahzada. Photograph: DAWOOD HERCULES CORPORATION/AFP/Getty Images

In 2023, Suleman Dawood died alongside his 48-year-old father, Shahzada, and three other men in the Titan submersible as it attempted to dive to the Titanic. During the four-day search, Christine Dawood found herself trapped on the ship, waiting for signs that the Titan submersible would surface. She talks in detail for the first time about those harrowing four days.

… or this: ‘I should not have wished for war’ – six ordinary Iranians on how the US-Israel conflict has changed them

A huge poster of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

In Tehran, the Guardian spoke to people about how war is transforming their feelings toward the regime and their country’s future. One of them, Amir, joined the mass street protests in January, but does not believe foreign powers care for ordinary Iranians: “[Trump’s] pursuing his own interests. He isn’t thinking about us.”

Climate check: Toxins plus climate harms likely cause of reduced fertility, study finds

The study found that toxic chemicals’ harms were often the same across organisms from invertebrates to humans. Photograph: rez-art/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Simultaneous exposure to toxic chemicals and climate change’s impacts likely generates an additive or synergistic effect that increases reproductive harm, and may contribute to the broad global drop in fertility, new peer-reviewed research finds.

Last Thing: Sabastian Sawe breaks two-hour barrier to make history in London Marathon

Sabastian Sawe crosses the finish line in London. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Not very long ago, the idea of anyone running an official marathon in under two hours lurked only in the realms of the fantastical and theoretical: part holy grail, part scientific curiosity. But over the course of one hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds of a tumult­uous spring day in London, Sabastian Sawe turned it into a brain-spinning reality.

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