This blog has now closed – our coverage of this crisis in the Middle East continues here

If the US genuinely wants a deal it will have to engage with Iranian demands on sanctions relief, says Danny Citrinowicz, the former head of the Iran branch of Israeli military intelligence.

Today’s exchange of strikes shows how easily both Iran and the US can slide towards another round of escalation, says Citrinowicz, who is now a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council.

If Washington is unwilling to accept that reality, it should recognize the likely alternative: continued confrontations with Iran that could eventually spiral beyond anyone’s control and lead to military conflict under less favorable conditions.

Even a limited military campaign designed to weaken Iran would not fundamentally alter Tehran’s negotiating position. It has not happened in the past, and there is little reason to believe it would happen now. Iran emerges from the latest exchange of blows convinced that it can absorb pressure and respond to attacks.”

Legal and moral responsibility of all countries in the region (especially those located along the southern shores of the Persian Gulf) to prevent the US military and Israel from using their territory or facilities to plan, organise, execute, or support hostile actions against Iran.

MEXICO CITY, June 12 — Dozens of protesters clashed with police yesterday outside the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City as South Africa and Mexico played the first match of the World Cup before 80,000 fans.

Groups of teachers, relatives of Mexicans who have gone missing, and student activists gathered early yesterday outside the stadium amid a heavy police presence.

Some protesters breached barriers and exchanged blows with officers guarding the stadium’s perimeter, moments after Mexico scored the tournament’s first goal.

A handful of youths smashed vehicle windows with bats as police fired tear gas and dispatched mounted officers to corral the protesters, who scattered on foot.

Mexico’s government has faced weeks of protests, mainly by teachers demanding better working conditions.

For a time it appeared the protests might prevent the city from staging an official World Cup fan zone in its famed Zocalo.

But thousands of fans poured into the plaza shoving and jostling their way through metal barriers, creating chaotic scenes shortly before kick-off in the opening game. — AFP

There was a time when researchers doubted that Neanderthals liked the beach. There was no trace of them in marine environments. It was suggested then that these were more complex ecosystems, requiring skills that only Homo sapiens, modern humans, possessed. Several studies have dismantled this ethnocentrism: Homo neanderthalensis had been feeding from the sea for many millennia before Homo sapiens arrived in Europe. Now, a new study published in PNAS shows that, around 115,000 years ago, in a Mediterranean cave, they used strategies that Homo sapiens would employ much later, such as gathering mollusks in the colder months, when the risk of contamination was minimal and their flavor at its peak.

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Thirty-nine people taken near Magamin Diddi village in Maradun municipality, north-west Zamfara state, police say

Armed bandits in north-west Nigeria abducted dozens of villagers whom they invited to a meeting about potential peace negotiations, authorities and residents said on Monday, highlighting the region’s worsening security.

According to local police, 39 people were seized on Sunday during a meeting in the forest near Magamin Diddi village in the Maradun municipality of north-west Zamfara state. But some residents and officials believe the number of those abducted could be as high as 50.