Trump Claims Iran Deal as Russian Missiles Hit Kyiv, Gas Tops $4.56

President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that an agreement between the United States, the Islamic Republic of Iran "and the various other countries" to end their two-month war "has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization", saying he discussed the deal in a "very good call" with regional leaders -- among them Türkiye's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan -- and separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The New York Times, citing three senior Iranian officials, reported Tehran has agreed to a draft plan to halt fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Five days earlier Trump postponed planned US strikes as Gulf leaders signalled a deal was close; four days earlier his call with Netanyahu over a Qatar- and Pakistan-drafted memo was described as tense.

Several specific terms Trump described were openly contested. A senior Iranian official denied Tehran had agreed to surrender its highly enriched uranium -- believed to be over 440 kilograms enriched to 60 percent after the June 2025 US strikes -- as part of any memorandum. Israeli officials told Le Figaro they feared the deal would prioritise de-escalation over Israel's core concerns, after Israel hit Beirut for the first time since the ceasefire and the Lebanese health ministry said 25 medical, nursing and administrative staff at Hiram Hospital in Tyre were wounded in Israeli strikes near the facility. The US national-average gas price reached $4.56 a gallon, with Washington state setting an all-time record at $5.79 and Alaska averaging $5.27; analysts warned that if the strait remains closed and OECD oil stocks continue to be drawn down at the April pace, critically low levels could be reached by end-June. World Central Kitchen halved its daily hot-meal distribution in Gaza from one million to 500,000 because of soaring food and fuel costs linked to the war, with 1.6 million Gazans facing acute food insecurity. Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot of France barred Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from French territory over what Paris called "unacceptable actions" against activists aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla, and the UK Maritime Trade Operations centre reported "suspicious activity" in the Gulf of Aden.

Russia hit Kyiv overnight on May 23-24 with 90 missiles, 600 strike and decoy drones and an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile that Ukrainian authorities said landed at Bila Tserkva in the Kyiv region. The barrage damaged the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, two museums, a philharmonic, a theatre, a university, a church and a monastery, and an apartment block at 9a Hrushevskoho Street containing flats of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and sanctioned businessman Tymur Mindich; the National Chornobyl Museum, recently reopened for the disaster's 40th anniversary, was closed for assessment, and the studio of German broadcaster ARD and the offices of Deutsche Welle were wrecked, prompting Germany's leading journalists' association to condemn the strike. Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko reported damage in "every district"; four people were killed and around 100 injured across Ukraine, two killed and 81 wounded in the capital, and Poland scrambled Polish and allied fighter jets. EU foreign-policy chief Kaja Kallas called the Oreshnik use "reckless nuclear-brinkmanship", Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged more EU air-defence support and described the strike as proof of "the Kremlin's brutality", Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha demanded an emergency UN Security Council meeting, and Tirana summoned the Russian ambassador after a residential complex housing Albania's envoy was hit. Ukraine struck back at the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal in Krasnodar, hit the Black Sea Fleet patrol ship Pytlivy and a missile hovercraft at Novorossiysk, and President Zelenskyy imposed sanctions on 127 Russian commanders and missile-unit personnel and on Russian civilian merchant vessels.

In Washington the US Secret Service shot dead a 21-year-old Maryland man, Nasire Best, who fired at a checkpoint at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW near the Eisenhower Executive Office Building shortly after 6 p.m. on Saturday, wounding a bystander; the White House -- where President Trump was in residence -- was briefly placed on lockdown, and officials said it was the third reported gunfire incident in the vicinity of the president in the past month. Anthropic's Claude Mythos and OpenAI's GPT-5.5 were able to identify and exploit software vulnerabilities at a pace exceeding human experts, with the UK AI Security Institute finding Mythos took over a corporate network autonomously in 60 percent of attempts and GPT-5.5 in 30 percent; the Trump administration has delayed signing an executive order that would establish voluntary AI model-testing. Texas Republicans head into Tuesday's Senate primary runoff between Trump-endorsed Attorney General Ken Paxton and incumbent Senator John Cornyn, with Democrat James Talarico polling level or ahead of both.

Thames Valley Police are investigating a Sunday Times report that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor behaved inappropriately towards a woman at Royal Ascot in 2002, widening their inquiry into the king's brother to cover sexual misconduct; the force says UK forces still hold only printouts from the US DoJ website and a formal international legal request for the original Epstein documents "could take months, if it is agreed to at all". An Insa poll for Bild am Sonntag found 72 percent of Germans believe the Bundeswehr could not adequately defend the country, with two-thirds worried about cyberattacks, sabotage or disinformation; Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul branded Russia's Oreshnik strike "missile terror", and a five-member Bundestag delegation led by Green MP Till Steffen landed in Taipei. Mistral AI cofounder Arthur Mensch and Dust cofounder Gabriel Hubert warned the conditions for long-term European AI sovereignty "are not in place at this stage" and Europe risks becoming a US "vassal state".

Türkiye and Armenia opened the Akhalkalaki-Kars freight railway line to Armenian imports and exports, with Yerevan PM Nikol Pashinyan saying the route gives Armenia rail access to Russia via Georgia and Azerbaijan, to China via Russia and Kazakhstan, and strengthens its link to the European Union; President Erdoğan said Türkiye is preparing to take the rotating presidency of the Organization of Turkic States, a bloc spanning more than 170 million people with combined GDP above $2 trillion. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a Quad meeting with Japan and Australia. Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers, meeting in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, said they would maintain "resilient" supply chains and continue cooperation on the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. At least eight people were killed when a coal mine collapsed in Qinyuan County in China's Shanxi province. Bangladesh reported 528 measles deaths in its current outbreak, mostly among children. Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) said 10 ISIS suspects, including one linked to the 2015 Ankara train-station attack, were captured in Syria in an operation with Syrian intelligence.

Africa is racing to contain a fast-spreading Ebola outbreak threatening 10 countries as infections spill from eastern Congo into Uganda. Juliana Lumumba, daughter of the assassinated Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, opened a campaign for secretary-general of the International Organisation of La Francophonie in an RFI interview from Paris, pledging a "Francophonie of the people" focused on youth and conflict mediation; member states vote in November 2026.