Your briefing on Thursday

US seeks informal deal with Iran

The Biden administration has been silently negotiating with Iran to limit its nuclear program and release imprisoned Americans, according to officials from three countries, as part of a larger US effort to ease tensions and reduce the risk of a military confrontation with it. reduce Islamic land.

The US goal is to broker an informal, unwritten agreement, which some Iranian officials are calling a “political ceasefire.” It should prevent further escalation in a hostile relationship that has become even more fraught as Iran builds up a stockpile of highly enriched uranium, supplies Russia with drones for use in Ukraine and brutally cracks down on domestic political protests.

Details: Iran would agree not to enrich uranium beyond its current production level of 60 percent purity. It would also stop deadly attacks on US contractors in Syria and Iraq by its proxies, expand its cooperation with international nuclear inspectors and refrain from selling ballistic missiles to Russia, Iranian officials said.

Reciprocity: In return, Iran would expect the US not to tighten sanctions that were already stifling the economy; not to seize oil-carrying foreign tankers, as happened most recently in April; and not to seek new punitive resolutions from the UN or the International Atomic Energy Agency for its nuclear activities.

Civilians killed in air strikes in Ukraine

Russian airstrikes across Ukraine have killed at least six people overnight, including at one far from the frontline in the southern port city of Odessa where a missile hit a warehouse, Ukrainian officials said.

Two people were killed and two others injured in rocket attacks in the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Wednesday, and one person was killed and another injured in nearby Kostyantynivka. Separately, in the northeastern Sumy region of Ukraine near the border with Russia, six people traveling in a vehicle were shot dead by Russian forces, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said.

While Ukrainian cities withstood these attacks, the Kiev counter-offensive plodded on without major breakthroughs. In the daily update, the General Staff of the Ukrainian army said fighting was ongoing in several villages in western Donetsk and eastern Zaporizhia.

Other news from the war:

• Russian soldiers left behind graffiti in a bar in a once-occupied Ukrainian village. “It doesn’t count as a war crime if you had fun,” one wrote over a smiley face.

The judicial crisis in Israel resurfaces

An attempt to resolve a long-running and acrimonious dispute over a plan to overhaul Israel’s judiciary suffered a major blow yesterday after opposition leaders said they were pulling out of talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government for at least a month .

The announcement was prompted by a move by Netanyahu to disrupt the normally routine vote in parliament to elect members of the committee that selects new judges. This was seen by the opposition as a backdoor to push through part of the judicial review without social consensus. Lawmakers called for an end to the compromise negotiations and a return to mass protests.

Context: For more than two months, Netanyahu’s representatives have been engaged in private negotiations with the opposition over a potential compromise brokered by President Isaac Herzog.

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SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICA

Senegal in crisis

At least 16 people have been killed this month in clashes in West African Senegal between police and supporters of a leading opposition figure, Ousmane Sonko.

Elian Peltier, our correspondent for West Africa, spoke to grieving families and collected evidence showing several victims died of gunshot wounds, raising questions about the police’s use of force. He talked about his reporting with Lynsey Chutel, a writer from Briefings in Johannesburg.

Senegal is a stable country in an unstable region. What does the violence say about the stability of the country at the moment?

Elian: The interior minister justified the use of force as a necessity to protect Senegal, which he called an “island of stability in a troubled region”. The government labeled protesters as rioters and said the death toll could have been much higher if police had not exercised restraint. On the ground at funerals in the deprived suburbs of Dakar, it was a completely different story. There is a feeling that the state has killed a brother, a son, a cousin, a neighbor, a friend.

Are tensions easing?

The situation is calmer now, but there are certainly concerns that this could spiral out of control as the presidential election, scheduled for February, approaches. Some are optimistic and believe that Senegal will solve this crisis just as it has solved others. Others are more pessimistic, wondering if the country has reached a point of no return.