MIDDLE EAST - The US and Iran have reached an agreement in principle to extend their ceasefire and begin negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear programme, a US official told The Telegraph. But the framework for a memorandum of understanding must still be signed off by Donald Trump, which could take days, the official added. The agreement would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and require Iran to remove its mines from the crucial shipping lane within 30 days. It would see the US waive some sanctions to allow Iran to sell its oil, but Tehran would have to put in writing a commitment not to develop a nuclear weapon. JD Vance, the vice president, said good progress had been made towards a ceasefire extension, but Mr Trump was not yet ready to approve it. While the US was buoyant about the potential agreement, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency was more cautious. “Iran has not yet informed the Pakistani mediator of the finalisation of the text. If the text is truly finalised, Iran will announce the matter to the Pakistani mediator and to the public,” an Iranian source said.

IRAN - If Donald Trump is to be believed, Iran’s surviving leaders want nothing more than to “make a deal” to end the war. “I don’t think they have a choice,” said the US president on Wednesday. “They’re negotiating on fumes.” Yet the actions of the Islamic Republic tell a very different story about its intentions. Anyone reading recent statements from US Central Command (CentCom) encounters a litany of Iranian ceasefire violations. Iranian negotiators, meanwhile, are believed to be insisting on the immediate release of $12 billion (£9 billion) in frozen assets as a precondition for any agreement to end the war. Back in Tehran, the most hardline figures are denouncing the very idea of talking with the enemy, let alone reaching a settlement. Does this amount to the behaviour of a regime that just wants to “make a deal” and believes it has no other choice? Far more likely is that Trump is projecting his own fervent wish to end the conflict on to his Iranian enemies. He yearns to be able to declare victory and walk away from an offensive that he started without troubling to define a clear and consistent objective. The Iranian regime believes it can withstand America’s blockade for longer than the global economy can endure the closure of the Strait.

USA - A war between the US and China over Taiwan would risk nuclear escalation, a leading British think tank has warned. The research suggests the stakes of such a conflict between Washington and Beijing would be “so high as to make escalation to nuclear war likelier than not”. The report, by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said: “A direct conflict between the world’s two most powerful militaries would bring the world closer to nuclear conflagration than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis.” A nuclear escalation between the world’s largest economies would have a devastating effect on the rest of the world, IISS said. Washington and Beijing would be expected to launch large-scale operations against their rivals, targeting command and communication hubs across the region. “The prospect of nuclear escalation ⁠will thus continue to loom large in a major US-China conflict.”

SWEDEN - Sweden has passed a law forcing food shops and pharmacists to accept cash payments, as the world’s pioneer of cashless banking rethinks its reliance on digital systems amid fears of Russian sabotage. The legislation, approved by the Swedish parliament on Wednesday, will require food shops and chemists to provide staffed cash tills that accept coins and banknotes. Banks will also be obliged to accept cash deposits and offer services for businesses wishing to deposit daily takings. The move underlines how far Sweden has travelled towards becoming a fully cashless society. Alongside neighbouring Norway, the Nordic nation has one of the world’s lowest levels of cash circulation, with consumers overwhelmingly favouring card and smartphone payments. Shops, cafés and restaurants routinely refuse cash, while many bank branches no longer handle physical money at all. The country’s central bank has repeatedly warned about the dangers of relying on payment systems that require a constant internet connection.

ISRAEL - Last week, we celebrated Shavuot, the festival commemorating the giving of the Torah. The Sages called it the “elixir of life.” But an honest assessment of the Israeli reality shows that it is becoming, in some hands, an elixir of violence and death, of exploiting others and shirking responsibility. Yeshiva heads and TikTok rabbis are leading large groups of believers down a path that heads in the opposite direction from the Torah path. The festival of Shavuot, and these days in particular, are an opportunity to recalibrate our moral compass and steer those who seek to receive the Torah toward better places – out of responsibility for a country whose Jewish identity and values should be a moral beacon to the world. Judaism is the moral foundation for Israel. Judaism, expressed also through the Torah, is no longer the private affair of the believer or of the community in the ghetto. It is the central moral foundation for renewed Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. Therefore, we are obliged to reveal its luminous and ethical face: the face grounded in the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself” – even when the other does not share our values or belong to our people. We must not turn it into an elixir of death.

ISRAEL - Today, 62 years ago, on May 28, 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was established. For many around the world, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still presented as a conflict that was born as a result of the Six Day War in 1967. According to this view, had Israel withdrawn from the territories captured in the war, the conflict could have been resolved and peace achieved. History, however, tells a different story. The PLO was established three years before the Six Day War. Three years before Israel controlled Judea and Samaria. Three years before it controlled Gaza. Three years before there was an Israeli presence in eastern Jerusalem. In other words, when the organization intended to lead the Palestinian national struggle was founded, the “occupation” of 1967 did not yet exist. So what exactly was the PLO seeking to liberate? The answer lies in the PLO’s own founding documents. The original Palestinian National Charter did not deal with an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria or Gaza, since these territories were not under Israeli control when it was written. Moreover, the charter denied the national rights of most Jews living in the State of Israel and presented Zionism as a project that must be eliminated.

USA - Fully 60% of family offices plan to make strategic changes to their investment allocation in the next year – about twice the level of the past five years, according to the UBS Global Family Office Report. North America is the only region where family offices plan to reduce their allocation in the next 12 months. America’s highly concentrated stock market and fears of an AI bubble, tariffs, a falling dollar, volatile economic policies and rising debt and bond yields have caused many family offices to dial back their US exposure.

USA - The personal savings rate fell to its lowest level in roughly four years on Thursday as Americans continued to dip into their earnings to pay for increasing prices on goods caused in large part by the Iran war. The personal savings rate fell to 2.6% in April from a revised 3.2% in March, marking the third straight month of declines, according to Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis data. The savings rate hit its lowest level since inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 and is approaching levels seen during the run-up to the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Americans have turned to credit cards and personal loans to confront higher prices, with credit card debt at $1.25 trillion in 2026’s first quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

IRAN - Iran will sign a peace agreement with the United States only if $24 billion (£17.8 billion) worth of frozen assets are released. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran’s chief negotiator, and Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, delivered the ultimatum during meetings with Qatari officials in Doha. They insisted that the Islamic Republic would not proceed with any agreement until half the frozen assets – worth $12 billion – are transferred when the memorandum of understanding is announced, with the remainder released over the following 60 days. “Our demand is the release of the frozen assets – not in the future, but right now,” one Iranian official close to the negotiations said. “No negotiations are possible without depositing Iran’s blocked funds.” Donald Trump has been warned that accepting the deal would be tantamount to rewarding the Iranian regime, and paying to end a war he began.

IRAN - In Iran, trust is an invaluable currency. But it is in short supply. For more than 100 days, the Islamic Republic – one of the world’s most militarised theocracies, a state built on the idea of unimpeachable authority – has been governed by a supreme leader no one has seen. And now it is expected to do a deal with the United States. But the system of government is fractured. Not everyone can be controlled, and hardliners within the parliament and military are doing their best to scupper any agreement. That includes taking to the water and laying sea mines, inviting the US to launch missiles during a ceasefire and putting the entire deal in jeopardy. The Islamic Republic is built on the principle that elected institutions exist beneath an unelected supreme leader who holds final authority on all strategic matters. This concentrated power worked – however repressively – when Ali Khamenei wielded it for 36 years. Mojtaba Khamenei, his son, does not have that control. Peace is hard to make when one side bombs during talks and the other sabotages its own negotiators.