US and Iran inch closer to peace deal as Trump faces criticism from GOP hawks | First Thing

Overheated chemical tank in southern California may explode, says EPA chief

A drone view shows water being sprayed during a chemical incident in Garden Grove, California, on 23 May. Photograph: David Swanson/Reuters

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 …

Mothers gather outside Paris city hall to protest against child sexual abuse by staff in schools and after-school care centres. Photograph: Amaury Cornu/Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty Images

• 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 lowbirthrate.

Stat of the day: Films more likely to star an actor called Chris or a talking animal than a woman over 60, study finds

Emma Thompson is among the voices supporting an anti-ageism campaign. Photograph: Matt Towers/PA

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

Eva Lighthiser. Photograph: Will Warasila/The Guardian

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’

‘I don’t endorse what’s in this report,’ Ken Martin conceded as the autopsy went public. Photograph: Allison Robbert/AP

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

‘There is little doubt that Putin is entering the most challenging period of his long rule.’ Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/EPA

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**?**

Technological interventions face huge financial or practical challenges, but there is another way. Illustration: Elia Barbieri/The Guardian

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

Galaxy Robot Park in South Korea hopes to attract tourists to concerts and fashion shows, but can robots ever replicate K-pop’s connection with fans? Photograph: Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA

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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