Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson did not give any indication of when the talks might resume

• Analysis: Iran is betting Trump does not have a plan for regime change

• US and Iran talks brought back from the brink after White House relents on move to Oman

It is the first time the US and Iran have sat down for face-to-face negotiations since June last year, when Israel launched attacks on Iran that sparked a war marked by tit-for-tat airstrikes, with the US also joining the fray. It effectively ended the US-Iran talks that were held in the weeks prior to the conflict aimed at reaching a nuclear peace agreement.

More recently, Donald Trump has been threatening to strike Iran for more than a month and just last week warned that an “armada” of US warships had reached the Persian Gulf. This recent clash began after Trump said he would strike Iran if it killed protesters during mass antigovernment demonstrations that swept the country last month. Human rights groups say thousands of people were killed during the brutal government crackdown on those protests.

Some backbenchers blame Pm’s chief of staff for Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador

After the release of a vast tranche of documents and emails that shed further light on the close relationship between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein, the government has come under intense pressure to release details about its vetting process before Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador in December 2024.

Below, we look at how much Keir Starmer knew about Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein, and what vetting process the former peer went through for the top diplomatic job in Washington.

New cache of files includes FBI documentation of meeting between prosecutors and Epstein’s defense team

• What have we learned from the newly released Epstein files?

According to one file, Mountbatten-Windsor was said to be “very focused” on financier Harlan Peltz’s girlfriend during a dinner with Maxwell.

The apparent FBI document details a 2020 interview with Peltz in which he provided information to agents about Maxwell.

Peltz was at a dinner with Maxwell and Prince Andrew and Peltz’s then girlfriend. Prince Andrew was very focused on Peltz’s girlfriend. Maxwell would sometimes mention Prince Andrew’s name and that they were friends.

Maxwell would have outrageous parties back then. She liked to put people in uncomfortable positions for her entertainment. Peltz realised that he was a pawn to her and she would try to use him. Sometime later on he found out that he was listed in Epstein’s black book.

People in the finance world never seemed to know how Epstein got his money.