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Mehul Srivastavain London andSteff ChávezandDemetri Sevastopuloin Washington

Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world

The US is moving B-2 stealth bombers into the Pacific, as President Donald Trump considers whether Washington will join Israel’s war against Iran.

According to flight trackers and a person familiar with their deployment, multiple B-2 bombers appeared to be travelling from Missouri to the US base on Guam in the Pacific early on Saturday.

It was not clear if the moves were a sign that the US was preparing for a potential strike on Iran. The person cautioned that it was not uncommon to reposition military resources to be ready for any possible deployment.

The bombers are also sometimes sent to particular areas to provide additional deterrence by reminding countries of the reach of the US Air Force.

The Pentagon referred questions to the White House, which did not respond to requests for comment.

US “bunker-buster” bombs carried by B-2 stealth bombers are deemed to have the best chance of destroying the crown jewel of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme, the sprawling uranium enrichment facility built deep under a mountain in Fordow.

Israel, which has sought to eliminate Iran’s nuclear infrastructure since its surprise attack on the country on June 13, is considered to have neither the bombs nor the aircraft to destroy Fordow, so would probably have to rely on US assistance to do so.

The White House said on Thursday that Trump would decide “within the next two weeks” if the US would strike Iran, a decision that would mark a significant escalation in the conflict.

The state department has begun evacuation flights for American citizens and lawful permanent residents from Israel, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Saturday. The US started evacuating diplomats from the country on Wednesday. Huckabee said this week that the US government was also looking for cruise ships to help Americans leave Israel.

The US president is due to hold a national security meeting at the White House on Saturday.

On Saturday, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi warned that it would be “very, very dangerous for everybody” if the US were to join the conflict.

“Unfortunately, we have heard that the US may join this aggression,” Araghchi told reporters. “That would be very unfortunate.”

Israel’s near-complete domination of Iranian skies has severely curtailed the Islamic Republic’s missile launch capabilities and eliminated much of its senior military leadership since the start of the conflict earlier this month.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rarely been seen in public since Israel’s defence minister said that he too could be assassinated.

The Israeli military’s success has left Trump reluctant to agree to an Iranian demand that any talks take place under the cover of a ceasefire.

“It’s very hard to stop when you look at it, Israel’s doing well in terms of war and I think you would say that Iran is doing less well,” Trump said on Friday, describing the first round of Europe-led negotiations in Geneva as ineffective. “Europe is not going to be able to help with this.” The US did not attend the talks.

A person briefed onFriday’s negotiationssaid the French, German and UK foreign ministers warned their Iranian counterpart that Tehran may have to give up its red line of refusing to negotiate with Washington while under Israeli attack to “prevent the US from joining the operation”.

“We sent them away to think very carefully about their red line,” the person said. “We told [the Iranians] that US military intervention is something that is actually being planned right now.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said he had been in contact with Masoud Pezeshkian, his Iranian counterpart, and planned to accelerate the Europe-led negotiations.

“Here again, my position is clear: Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons, and it is up to Iran to provide full guarantees that its intentions are peaceful,” he wrote on X on Saturday.

Trump has dismissed the US intelligence community’s assessment that Iran was not using Fordow’s uranium enrichment capabilities to build material for a nuclear weapon. Instead, he has agreed with Netanyahu’s claims that Tehran was weeks from building a bomb.

“She’s wrong,” Trump told reporters when asked about national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard’s testimony to Congress this year, which contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that Iran was building a bomb.

Gabbard said in March that the US intelligence community believed that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei had not revived the programme he suspended in 2003.

But late on Friday night, Gabbard wrote on X that if Iran decided to finalise the assembly of a bomb, it could “produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months”.

Earlier on Saturday, Israel struck Iran’s nuclear facility near Isfahan. According to the Iranian Fars news agency, the actions appear to have hit some parts of the nuclear facility, but there were no signs of radiation leakage.

Iran also launched a small volley of missiles and drones on Saturday. All but one were intercepted, the Israeli military said, with a drone damaging a house in northern Israel.

Additional reporting by Andrew England in London

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has freed jailed opposition leader Sergei Tsikhanouski and more than a dozen other political prisoners and journalists in a surprise move brokered by Donald Trump’s special envoy.

The decision to free Tsikhanouski, who has been imprisoned since challenging Lukashenko for the presidency in 2020, follows a meeting on Saturday between the Belarusian leader and Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine.

“It’s hard to describe the joy in my heart,” said Tsikhanouski’s wife,Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who stepped in to run for election instead of her husband after he was jailed and helped lead big protests against Lukashenko.

“We’re not done. 1,150 political prisoners remain behind bars. All must be released,” she added on X, after thanking the US president and European allies.

The 14 prisoners released on Saturday were brought to Lithuania, a neighbouring Baltic state, where reporters filmed Tsikhanouskaya hugging her husband as he stepped smiling out of a minibus.

A spokesperson for the Lithuanian prime minister said the prisoners were freed by Lukashenko following an agreement with Kellogg. They include five Belarusians, three Poles, two Latvians and citizens of Japan, Sweden and Estonia.

Tsikhanouski was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2021. A year earlier, he and other candidates had sought to run against Lukashenko, the country’s first and only president since 1994.

Three women spearhead the election campaign after his arrest, with Tsikhanouskaya joined by Veronika Tsepkalo, the wife of another barred candidate, andMaria Kolesnikova.

Lukashenkoclaimed victorybut the opposition contested the result, pointing to evidence that the vote had been rigged and triggering a wave of protests that rocked the country for months.

Thousands were jailed, including Kolesnikova. She remains imprisoned, as do Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, opposition leader Viktor Babariko and many others.

Ihar Karnei, a former journalist from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who worked with the outlet for two decades and was detained in 2023, was also released, according to the station.

“We are deeply grateful to President Trump for securing the release of this brave journalist, who suffered at the hands of the Belarusian authorities,” the media outlet’s chief executive Stephen Capus said.

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

A British citizen has been arrested for allegedly spying on behalf of Iran near a UK air base in Cyprus, which serves as the RAF’s main hub for Middle East operations.

Cypriot authorities said on Saturday that they had detained a man on “terrorism and espionage” charges.

People in the UK familiar with the arrest did not dispute local Cypriot media reports that the alleged spy was suspected of working for Iran.

He is alleged to have monitored the UK’s Akrotiri base on the eastern Mediterranean island as well as the Cypriot Andreas Papandreou air base, which is sometimes used by the US air force.

The Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office said that the man was British and they were “in contact [with] the authorities in Cyprus regarding the arrest”.

Cypriot officials initially described the suspect as an Azerbaijani. The UK was unable to confirm immediately if he held dual nationality.

After appearing in court in Cyprus on Saturday, the man was detained for eight days on suspicion of espionage.

“Today following a co-ordinated operation by the police headquarters a person was arrested who seems to be related to terrorists acts,” the Cypriot government said.

They added that a regional court had issued a detention order “for criminal acts related, among others, to terrorism and espionage”.

They declined to comment further citing national security reasons.

A Cypriot official said they had been monitoring the individual with allies for the past month. Cypriot media reported the local police operation had been supported by the UK’s overseas intelligence service, MI6, and Israel’s Mossad.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar said on Saturday that a planned attack on Israeli citizens by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been averted due to co-operation between Israeli and Cypriot security services.

“Thanks to the activity of the Cypriot security authorities, in co-operation with Israeli security services, the terror attack was thwarted,” Sa’ar said on X, without elaborating.

The UK Ministry of Defence directed enquiries to the FCDO, which works closely with MI6, as well as assisting British nationals when they are arrested overseas.

It is the UK government's long-standing policy to neither confirm nor deny claims relating to intelligence matters.

The arrest comes as Israel’s war with Iran enters its eighth day and as the US weighs entering the conflict to destroy Tehran’s nuclear programme.

The UK has moved additional fighter jets and other military assets to the region in what Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has called a contingency measure. Some of the Typhoon jets were expected to be sent to Cyprus.

On Friday, UK military aircraft were sabotaged at Brize Norton, the RAF’s biggest base, by the Palestine Action activist group, which breached security and sprayed paint into the engines of several planes.

The UK is expected toproscribe Palestine Actionas a terrorist organisation next week.

There has been little indication that the UK would join strikes on Iranian territory. Starmer has emphasised de-escalation and diplomacy this week but has also said Iran must not acquire a nuclear weapon.

Starmer hinted last weekend that UK military assets could be used to defend Israel as it trades strikes with Iran. Iran has threatened to strike UK forces in the region if it supports Israel.

RAF jets helped shoot down Iranian projectiles launched against Israel in April last year and assisted with target identification in October, but the UK has not been involved in the latest fighting.

Israel’s ambassador to London said this week they had not requested or discussed help from the UK.

Starmer may also have to weigh whether to allow the US to use the joint UK-US base of Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago if the Trump administration decides to enter the war.

B2 stealth bombers, some of which are positioned on the island, are the only military aircraft capable of delivering the largest ‘bunker-buster’ bombs believed to be capable of penetrating Iran’s underground nuclear site near Fordow.

On Friday UK foreign secretary David Lammy met Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and his counterparts from France and Germany.

Lammy said they were trying to offer Iran a diplomatic “off-ramp” but have also warned Tehran that it should hold talks with the US even without a ceasefire with Israel.

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