Donald Trump said he would extend the ceasefire in Iran until “discussions are concluded”, but that the American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would remain in place, with forces poised to resume attacks. Tehran said the extension was a “ploy to buy time” and that the continued US naval blockade would be met with a “military response”. Children in the UK born after 2008 will be part of the “first smoke-free generation”, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said, after the Tobacco and Vapes Bill cleared parliament yesterday. The new legislation prevents anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 from ever legally purchasing cigarettes, and bans vaping in playgrounds, outside schools and at hospitals. Tonight’s clear skies will be lit up by the Lyrid meteor shower, with as many as 100 shooting stars visible per hour. The annual spectacle, first recorded in ancient China around 3,000 years ago, is the result of dust left by Comet Thatcher, which hasn’t been visible from Earth since 1861.

It is no mystery why younger Americans are as pro-Palestine today as their forebears were once pro-Israel, says Edward Luce in the FT. Those of us over 40 recall the courageous, peace-seeking Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated by an Israeli extremist in 1995. Today’s youth have grown up with Benjamin Netanyahu’s heavy-handed militarism. Few now think of Israel as plucky David standing up to the Arab Goliath: some 60% of Americans view Israel unfavourably, and three quarters of Americans aged 18 to 29 sympathise more with Palestinians than with Israelis. “As boomers die off, America’s anti-Israeli tilt is likely to harden.”

One especially striking turn is from Democrats, who only a few years ago eagerly courted pro-Israel lobbyists and their campaign funds. Last week, 40 out of 47 Democratic senators voted to block US arms sales to Israel, and many are pledging not to take what they see as “tainted money” from Israel-linked donors. Presidential hopeful and former Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel is promising to end America’s $3.8bn Israel subsidy, saying the Jewish state can buy weapons at market rates like any other ally. The fact that his middle name is Israel, and he once served as a volunteer in the IDF, reinforces the point. Tellingly, when Emmanuel was Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Netanyahu called him a “self-hating Jew” for opposing West Bank settlements. Anyone accusing prominent Jewish Americans of having a “dual loyalty” to Israel risks accusations of anti-Semitism; yet when a prominent Jewish American suggests America’s interests might diverge from Israel’s, Netanyahu brands him “disloyal or worse”. These double standards – and the abuse of one of history’s most deadly prejudices – only increase America’s disenchantment with Israel.

🇮🇱🇺🇸 There is a “non-trivial risk” that Israel will fall out with Donald Trump. At some point the US president will strike a deal with Iran, which the Israelis will almost certainly oppose. And Americans have noticed Netanyahu’s sway in encouraging Trump to wage war on Iran, against the varying degrees of scepticism expressed by top American officials. Netanyahu is not the puppet-master of anti-Semitic tropes, but his persuasion skills were “material” in launching a conflict most Americans wish they weren’t in.

I’m told that King Charles “viscerally” despises Donald Trump, says Tina Brown on Substack. The sovereign is a pro, so there will be “no whiff” of that at next week’s state visit to the US. But he isn’t afraid to leverage his influence with the president in private. After Trump’s “outrageous” assertion in January that America’s Nato allies in Afghanistan “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines”, the king ensured that a “private correction and rebuke” were discreetly transmitted by the palace to the White House. The following day, Trump made a point of mentioning on social media “the great and very brave soldiers of the United Kingdom”.

In America, so-called “consensual nonmonogamy” – relationships where partners are not sexually or romantically exclusive – is widely stigmatised, with just 14% of people saying they respect those who practise it. Yet it’s “quietly common”, says Faith Hill in The Atlantic. In a 2024 survey of singles, nearly a third of participants admitted to having been in a consensually nonmonogamous relationship at some point. As one psychologist pointed out, that’s similar to the proportion of Americans who have a pet cat, and “greater than the share who are left-handed”.

A few weeks ago, says Poppy Sowerby in UnHerd, I spent the bitter end of a mid-week drink trying to console a 24-year-old woman who was fed up with men. All of them, she said, “without exception”, were inherently bad. Anyone with a boyfriend was just setting herself up for the moment his “true, rotten form was revealed” and he found a way to destroy her. “Happy heterosexuality” was a myth to trick “big-titted bimbos” into sex, and the rest of us into servitude, and we were “suckers for believing it”. This was not my first such evening, nor did I find this woman’s views especially radical. But I do find them to be dead wrong.

Just as the “manosphere” grabs attention by painting the male psyche as a hellscape of rented sports cars, juiced biceps and performative misogyny, so the corresponding “femosphere” generates clicks by telling lovelorn women it’s not their fault, because men are all monsters. It’s a major bummer, but it’s also just a marketing ploy in a social media landscape that rewards, financially, the most grabby content. The easiest way not to fall for it is to put down your phone and go outside. The idea that men are all rapists and girls are conspiring to humiliate boys with weak chins evaporates on contact with a normal man or woman, of whom there are literally billions. Romantic love streaks through society like raspberry ripple, even among the imperfect-looking. “Life is not so unfair.” The only danger is spending too much time online, and not enough flirting in the world. Yes, someone might hurt your feelings, but if you don’t take the risk, you’ll miss the best moments of your life.

Iran is said to have scattered the Strait of Hormuz with mines, says Madeleine Rowley in The Free Press, and getting rid of them is essential before commercial traffic can restart. But it’s a major headache, especially as the Iranians admit they’ve lost track of some of them. That’s where the US navy’s dolphins could come in. Since 1959, these specially trained marine mammals have been finding and marking underwater explosives, serving in Vietnam and Iraq. In Puget Sound, Washington state, US submarines are guarded 24/7 by dolphins and sea lions working in shifts.

A recent TikTok trend has seen everything from hobbies to habits and clothing interpreted as an indicator of your political leaning, says Josie Rath in Die Welt. Telltale “left-wing” signs apparently include wired headphones, clothing with horizontal stripes, a tote bag, visiting a flea market, cycling, stickers on your laptop, sprinkling food with pumpkin seeds, and, somewhat specifically, a “green secondhand sweater”. Right-wing markers apparently include AirPods, vertical stripes, driving, sparkling water, filter coffee, an ironed shirt, going to the gym, and enjoying a beer after work.

It’s the White House Correspondents’ Association photo of the year, which was won by Getty snapper Andrew Harnik for capturing the moment a guest passed out in the Oval Office last November during an event on lowering the price of weight-loss drugs. Critics of Donald Trump claimed that the president’s apparent ambivalence at the events behind him demonstrated his lack of empathy, says Dan Diamond in The Washington Post. In reality, he had only looked away from the ailing visitor for a very brief moment as the press were being ushered out.