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The lawyer defending fallen Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein from rape and sexual assault charges called those testifying against his client “women with broken dreams” as he made his final pitch to jurors. A New York state appeals court had thrown out Weinstein’s 2020 convictions after irregularities in the presentation of witnesses at his original trial, forcing two victims of his alleged abuse to testify a second time.”If there is a doubt about their case, you gotta throw it out. These are the people they want you to believe, they’re all women with broken dreams,” defense attorney Arthur Aidala said of the women who testified against Weinstein at this trial.Prosecutor Nicole Blumberg fired back saying that “we are here because (Weinstein) raped three people — that’s why we are here.”  Her closing argument will continue Wednesday.Judge Curtis Farber will then give instructions to the jury, who will deliberate on a verdictWeinstein, the producer of box-office hits “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” has never acknowledged wrongdoing.The cinema magnate, whose downfall in 2017 sparked the global #MeToo movement, has been on trial again since April 15 in a scruffy Manhattan courtroom.He is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in California of raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.Two of the accusers in this case — onetime production assistant Miriam Haley and then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann — testified at Weinstein’s original trial.Their accounts helped galvanize the #MeToo movement nearly a decade ago, but the case is being re-prosecuted at a new trial in New York.His 2020 convictions on charges relating to Haley and Mann, and his 23-year prison term, were overturned last year by the New York Court of Appeals.The tribunal ruled that the way witnesses were handled in the original trial was unlawful.- ‘He didn’t listen’ -Some 20 years after the earliest incidents were alleged to have taken place, Aidala sought to cast doubt on the credibility of the accusers. He said it was not a question of whether his client engaged in sexual relations with the three women, but if those encounters were consensual. He described the encounters as “transactional” and “casting couch” scenarios involving young women who used their beauty and charm to make an older man open doors for them. Prosecutor Blumberg countered that “this is not a transaction, it was never about fooling around, it was about rape.”But Aidala insisted Weinstein was the one who was used, countering prosecutors who portrayed Weinstein as an all-powerful Hollywood figure.Aidala loudly reeled off metaphors to explain his version of events, seeking to win over the jury with jokes. He mimicked the victims to highlight inconsistencies, likening one of them to a child caught in a lie. The veteran defense attorney stressed that victims continued to associate with Weinstein after the alleged assaults, something they did not dispute, explaining that they feared jeopardizing their careers. Blumberg said “they knew it was necessary to stay on his side. They feared his retaliation, they buried (their) trauma as if nothing had happened.”During the trial, the three victims testified that their sexual encounters with Weinstein were not consensual.The retrial also heard new evidence from Kaja Sokola, a Polish former model who testified that Weinstein first sexually assaulted her when she was a minor at age 16.She said one occasion Weinstein pushed her onto a bed and forced her to have sex.”I told him to stop,” she said, “but he didn’t listen.”Weinstein has appeared daily in a wheelchair, physically subdued, but laughing and joking with his legal team.This time, hearings have received less media attention, taking place in the shadow of the highly anticipated trial of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, on trial blocks away at federal court on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.

The family of a man suspected of attacking a Jewish protest march with Molotov cocktails in the US state of Colorado was being held by immigration officials Tuesday, the government said.Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, said the wife and children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman had been detained.”We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” she said.Criminal investigations are typically carried out by the FBI and local law enforcement, not by the Department of Homeland Security.Soliman’s immigration status has been at the center of President Donald Trump’s administration’s response to the attack in the city of Boulder on Sunday, in which 12 people were injured.Officials were quick to say he was in the United States “illegally” having overstayed a tourist visa.But they also acknowledged he had applied for asylum and had been granted a work permit.Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday said his department would clamp down on “terrorists” in the United States temporarily.”All terrorists, their family members, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump Administration we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you,” he wrote on social media.The White House took to social media on Tuesday, appearing to taunt the family.”Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids,” the official account posted on X.”Final Boarding Call Coming Soon.” Soliman is expected to appear in court in Colorado on Thursday. He is expected to formally face federal hate crime charges, as well as state charges of attempted murder.He is suspected of throwing flammable liquid at a group of older people marching to raise awareness of the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas after the October 7, 2023 attacks.Investigators said he had with him an improvised flamethrower made from a backpack weed sprayer filled with gasoline.In one video that purportedly shows the attack, a shirtless man holding bottles in his hands is seen pacing as the grass in front of him burns.He can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” towards several people in red T-shirts as they tend to a person lying on the ground.

Elon Musk on Tuesday hammered US President Donald Trump’s proposed spending bill as a “disgusting abomination” as tensions between the pair burst into the open following the tech billionaire’s White House exit.Musk left his role as an official government employee last week, lauded by Trump for spearheading a federal spending cuts program, but disagreements between the duo have been building.”This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk posted on X, in by far his most caustic remarks on Trump’s spending plans.”Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong.”It was not Musk’s first comments on Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” which is set to add $3 million to US deficits over a 10-year horizon, despite deep cuts to health and food aid programs.But Musk’s previous criticism was restrained, with the ex-head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force offering only that it undermined his cost-cutting efforts.On Tuesday he said that the bill — being considered by Congress — would burden “citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”The escalation in rhetoric indicated bitter hostilities between the White House and Musk, who donated almost $300 million to Trump’s election campaign but has recently voiced frustrations.”The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill, it doesn’t change his opinion,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a rapid response to Musk’s tweet.”This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it.”As the world’s richest person bowed out of his role as Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief, their relationship appeared on an even keel as the Republican hailed his fellow billionaire’s “incredible service.”- Once inseparable -Trump even insisted that Musk was “really not leaving” after a turbulent four months in which the South African born tycoon cut tens of thousands of jobs, shuttered whole agencies and slashed foreign aid.Musk was once almost inseparable from Trump, glued to his side on Air Force One, Marine One, in the White House and at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.The right-wing magnate’s DOGE led an ideologically-driven rampage through the federal government, with its young “tech bros” slashing tens of thousands of jobs.But DOGE’s achievements fell far short of Musk’s original goal of saving $2 trillion dollars.The DOGE website claims to have saved taxpayers about eight percent of the $2 trillion figure so far — $175 billion — and fact checkers even see that claim as dubious, given previous serious inaccuracies in its accounting.But the non-governmental “Musk Watch DOGE Tracker” puts the verifiable figure at $16 billion — less than one percent of the goal.Tesla shareholders called for Musk to return to work as sales slumped and protests targeted the electric vehicle maker, while SpaceX had a series of fiery rocket failures.

The lawyer defending fallen Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein from rape and sexual assault charges called on jurors to give him the benefit of the doubt Tuesday before prosecutors make their closing argument at his retrial.A New York state appeals court had thrown out his 2020 convictions after irregularities in the presentation of witnesses at his original trial, forcing two victims of his alleged abuse to testify a second time.”If there is a doubt about their case, you gotta throw it out. These are the people they want you to believe, they’re all women with broken dreams,” defense attorney Arthur Aidala said of the women who testified against Weinstein at this trial.Prosecutors will make their case to the jury later Tuesday.Weinstein, the producer of box-office hits “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” has never acknowledged wrongdoing.He is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in California of raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.Two of the accusers in the case — onetime production assistant Miriam Haley and then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann — testified at Weinstein’s original trial.Their accounts helped galvanize the #MeToo movement nearly a decade ago, but the case is being re-prosecuted at a new trial in New York.His 2020 convictions on charges relating to Haley and Mann were overturned last year by the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that the way witnesses were handled in the original trial was unlawful.The retrial also heard new evidence from Kaja Sokola, a Polish former model who testified that the disgraced movie mogul sexually assaulted her when she was a minor at age 16.

Russia on Tuesday said it was wrong to expect a quick breakthrough in Ukraine talks, a day after Moscow rejected Kyiv’s call for an unconditional ceasefire at negotiations in Istanbul.The sides agreed on a large-scale swap of captured soldiers and exchanged their roadmaps to peace, or so-called “memorandums”, at the discussions, which lasted under two hours.More than three years into Russia’s offensive — which has killed tens of thousands on both sides and forced millions from their homes in eastern Ukraine — the two sides appear as irreconcilable as ever.”The settlement issue is extremely complex and involves a large number of nuances,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.”It would be wrong to expect immediate solutions and breakthroughs,” he added.Moscow demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of four eastern and southern regions that Moscow claims to have annexed as a precondition to pausing its offensive, according to the document handed to the Ukrainians that was published by Russian state media.Kyiv had pressed for a full and unconditional ceasefire. Russia instead offered a partial truce of two to three days in some areas of the frontline, its top negotiator said after the talks.Peskov also dismissed the idea of a summit between the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and the United States.”In the near future, it is unlikely,” Peskov told reporters when asked about the chances of the leaders meeting, adding that such a summit could only happen after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reach an “agreement”.The White House had said on Monday US President Donald Trump was “open” to the idea, which is also backed by Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.- Targeting civilians -Zelensky on Tuesday accused Russia of “deliberately” targeting civilians in a rocket attack on the city of Sumy, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the Russian border, that killed three people.Russian troops have accelerated their advance, seeking to establish what Putin called a “buffer zone” inside Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.Zelensky posted a video from the emergency services showing destroyed cars and the body of one victim lying on the road.The attack “says everything one needs to know about Russia’s so-called ‘desire’ to end this war”, he added, calling for “decisive actions” from the United States and Europe to push Russia into a ceasefire.”Every day, Russia gives new reasons for tougher sanctions and stronger support for our defence,” he said.Three people were also killed in a rocket attack in the northeastern Kharkiv region.Moscow’s army said it had captured the village of Andriivka in the Sumy region, located around five kilometres from the Russian border.Zelensky said last week that Russia was amassing some 50,000 soldiers for an offensive on the region.Meanwhile Ukraine’s SBU security service claimed it had hit a pillar of the Crimean bridge, linking the annexed peninsula to Russia, with an underwater explosive device.The extent of the damage was unclear and cars were on Tuesday using the bridge following a temporary closure after the attack.A delegation of top Ukrainian officials also landed in Washington for talks with US officials on defence and economic issues, including the possibility of new sanctions, Zelensky’s office said.Trump, who said he could end the conflict swiftly when he returned to the White House in January, has repeatedly expressed anger at both Putin and Zelensky as the fighting drags through its fourth year with no end in sight.But he has held off from imposing new economic penalties on Moscow.

US President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping will likely hold a long-awaited call later this week, the White House said Monday, as trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies ratchet back up.Trump reignited strains with China last week when he accused the world’s second-biggest economy of violating a deal that had led both countries to temporarily reduce huge tit-for-tat tariffs.”The two leaders will likely talk this week,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters outside the West Wing when asked whether Trump and Xi would speak.Asked about the statement on Tuesday, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said Beijing had “no information to provide.”Trump and Xi have yet to have any confirmed contact more than five months since the Republican returned to power, despite frequent claims by the US president that a call is imminent. Trump even said in a Time Magazine interview in April that Xi had called him — but Beijing insisted that there had been no call recently.The US leader introduced in April sweeping worldwide tariffs that targeted China most heavily of all, accusing other countries of “ripping off” the United States and running trade imbalances.Beijing and Washington last month agreed to slash staggeringly high tariffs on each other for 90 days after talks between top officials in Geneva.But Trump and other top Washington officials last week accused China of violating the deal, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying Beijing was “slow-rolling” the agreement in comments to Fox News Sunday.Beijing rejected those “bogus” US claims on Monday, and accused Washington of introducing “a number of discriminatory restrictive measures.” Trump has separately ramped up tensions with other trade partners, including the European Union, by vowing to double global tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50 percent from Wednesday.

Three robotic arms extended under the water in a Canadian lake, delicately selecting pebbles from the bed, before storing them back inside the machine. The exercise was part of a series of tests the robot was undergoing before planned deployment in the ocean, where its operators hope the machine can transform the search for the world’s most sought-after metals.  The robot was made by Impossible Metals, a company founded in California in 2020, which says it is trying to develop technology that allows the seabed to be harvested with limited ecological disruption.Conventional underwater harvesting involves scooping up huge amounts of material in search of potato-sized things called poly-metallic nodules.These nodules contain nickel, copper, cobalt, or other metals needed for electric vehicle batteries, among other key products. Impossible Metals’ co-founder Jason Gillham told AFP his company’s robot looks for the nodules “in a selective way.”The prototype, being tested in the province of Ontario, remains stationary in the water, hovering over the lake bottom.In a lab, company staff monitor the yellow robot on screens, using what looks like a video game console to direct its movements.Using lights, cameras and artificial intelligence, the robot tries to identify the sought-after nodules while leaving aquatic life — such as octopuses’ eggs, coral, or sponges — undisturbed.- ‘A bit like bulldozers’ -In a first for the nascent sector, Impossible Metals has requested a permit from US President Donald Trump to use its robot in American waters around Samoa, in the Pacific.The company is hoping that its promise of limited ecological disruption will give it added appeal.Competitors, like The Metals Company, use giant machines that roll along the seabed and suck up the nodules, a highly controversial technique.Douglas McCauley, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told AFP this method scoops up ocean floor using collectors or excavators, “a bit like bulldozers,” he explained.Everything is then brought up to ships, where the nodules are separated from waste, which is tossed back into the ocean. This creates large plumes of sediment and toxins with a multitude of potential impacts, he said.A less invasive approach, like that advocated by Impossible Metals, would reduce the risk of environmental damage, McCauley explained. But he noted lighter-touch harvesting is not without risk. The nodules themselves also harbor living organisms, and removing them even with a selective technique, involves destroying the habitat, he said.Impossible Metals admits its technology cannot detect microscopic life, but the company claims to have a policy of leaving 60 percent of the nodules untouched.McCauley is unconvinced, explaining “ecosystems in the deep ocean are especially fragile and sensitive.” “Life down there moves very slowly, so they reproduce very slowly, they grow very slowly.”Duncan Currie of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition said it was impossible to assess the impact of any deep sea harvesting. “We don’t know enough yet either in terms of the biodiversity and the ecosystem down there,” he told AFP.According to the international scientific initiative Ocean Census, only 250,000 species are known, out of the two million that are estimated to populate the oceans.- High demand -Mining is “always going to have some impact,” said Impossible Metals chief executive and co-founder Oliver Gunasekara, who has spent most of his career in the semiconductor field.But, he added, “we need a lot more critical minerals, as we want to electrify everything.” Illustrating the global rush toward underwater mining, Impossible Metals has raised US$15 million from investors to build and test a first series of its Eureka 3 robot in 2026.The commercial version will be the size of a shipping container and will expand from three to 16 arms, and its battery will grow from 14 to nearly 200 kilowatt-hours.The robot will be fully autonomous and self-propel, without cables or tethers to the surface, and be equipped with sensors.While awaiting the US green light, the company hopes to finalize its technology within two to three years, conduct ocean tests, build a fleet, and operate through partnerships elsewhere in the world.

US President Donald Trump is “open” to meeting his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts in Turkey, the White House said, after the two sides failed on Monday to make headway towards an elusive ceasefire.Delegations from both sides did, however, agree another large-scale prisoner exchange in their meeting in Istanbul, which in mid-May also hosted their first round of face-to-face talks.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed that Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump come together for a third round later this month in either Istanbul or Ankara.Putin has so far refused such a meeting. But Zelensky has said he is willing, underlining that key issues can only be resolved at leaders-level.Trump, who wants a swift end to the three-year war, is “open” to a three-way summit “if it comes to that, but he wants both of these leaders and both sides to come to the table together”, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in Washington.But despite Trump’s willingness to meet with Putin and Zelensky, no US representative took part in Monday’s talks in Istanbul, according to a State Department spokesperson.Zelensky said that, “We are very much awaiting strong steps from the United States” and urged Trump to toughen sanctions on Russia to “push” it to agree to a full ceasefire. In Monday’s meeting, Ukraine said that Moscow had rejected its call for an unconditional ceasefire. It offered instead a partial truce of two to three days in some areas of the frontline.Russia will only agree a full ceasefire if Ukrainian troops pull back entirely from four regions — Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — according to its negotiating terms reported on by Russian state media. Russia currently only partly controls those regions.Moscow has also demanded a ban on Kyiv joining NATO, limiting Ukraine’s military and ending Western military support.- Prisoner swap -Top negotiators from both sides agreed to swap all severely wounded soldiers and captured fighters under the age of 25.Russia’s lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said it would involve “at least 1,000″ on each side. The two sides also agreed to hand over the bodies of 6,000 soldiers, Ukraine said after the talks.”The Russian side continued to reject the motion of an unconditional ceasefire,” Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters after the talks.Russia said it had offered a limited pause in fighting.”We have proposed a specific ceasefire for two to three days in certain areas of the front line,” Medinsky said, adding that this was needed to collect the bodies of dead soldiers from the battlefield. Zelensky hit back on social media: “I think ‘idiots’, because the whole point of a ceasefire is to stop people from becoming dead in the first place.”Kyiv said it would study a document the Russian side handed its negotiators outlining its demands for both peace and a full ceasefire.Zelensky said after the Istanbul talks concluded that any deal for lasting peace must not “reward” Putin, and has called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to cover combat on air, sea and land.- ‘Constructive atmosphere’ -Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who led his country’s delegation, called for a next meeting to take place before the end of June. He also said a Putin-Zelensky summit should be discussed.Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said after the talks — inside a luxury hotel on the banks of the Bosphorus — that they were held “in a constructive atmosphere”.”During the meeting, the parties decided to continue preparations for a possible meeting at the leader level,” Fidan said on social media.Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed and millions forced to flee their homes in Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.In the front-line town of Dobropillya in eastern Ukraine, 53-year-old Volodymyr told AFP he had no hope left for an end to the conflict.”We thought that everything would stop. And now there is nothing to wait for. We have no home, nothing. We were almost killed by drones,” he said.After months of setbacks for Kyiv’s military, Ukraine said it had carried out an audacious attack on Sunday, smuggling drones into Russia and then firing them at airbases, damaging around 40 strategic Russian bombers worth $7 billion in a major special operation.

US senators have begun weeks of what is certain to be fierce debate over the mammoth policy package President Donald Trump hopes will seal his legacy, headlined by tax cuts slated to add up to $3 trillion to the nation’s debt.The Republican leader celebrated when the House passed his “big, beautiful bill,” which partially covers an extension of his 2017 tax relief through budget cuts projected to strip health care from millions of low-income Americans.The Senate now gets to make its own changes, and the upper chamber’s version could make or break Republicans’ 2026 midterm election prospects — and define Trump’s second term.  But the 1,116-page blueprint faces an uphill climb, with moderate Republicans balking at $1.5 trillion in spending cuts while fiscal hawks are blasting the bill as a ticking debt bomb.”We have enough (holdouts) to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit,” Senator Ron Johnson, one of half a dozen Republican opponents to the bill, told CNN. Democrats — whose support is not required if Republicans can maintain a united front — have focused on the tax cuts mostly benefiting the rich on the backs of a working class already struggling with high prices. The White House says the legislation will spur robust economic growth to neutralize its potential to blow up America’s already burgeoning debt pile, which has ballooned to $36.9 trillion. But several independent analyses have found that — even taking growth into account — it will add between $2.5 trillion and $3.1 trillion to deficits over the next decade.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, meanwhile, found that the combined effects of tax cuts and cost savings would be a giant transfer of wealth from the poorest 10 percent to the richest 10 percent.Republicans muscled the measure through the House by a single vote on May 22 by a combination of bargaining vote holdouts on policies and deploying Trump himself to twist arms.House Speaker Mike Johnson is now pleading with the Senate not to alter the bill too much, as any tweaks will need to go back to the lower chamber.- Faultlines -The Senate wants to get the bill to Trump’s desk by US Independence Day on July 4 — an ambitious timeline given Republicans’ narrow three-vote majority and wide faultlines that have opened over the proposed specifics.Independent analysts expect around seven million beneficiaries of the Medicaid health insurance program will be deprived of coverage due to new proposed eligibility restrictions and work requirements. Polling shows that the vast majority of Americans oppose cutting Medicaid — including Trump himself, as well as some Republicans in poorer states that rely heavily on federal welfare. Senate moderates are also worried about proposed changes to funding food aid that could deprive up to 3.2 million of vital nutrition support.One thing is almost certain — Trump himself will get involved at some point, though his negotiation tactics may be more subtle than they were when he threatened “grandstanders” holding up the tax bill in the House.Trump took to his Truth Social website on Monday to decry “so many false statements (that) are being made about ‘THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL'” — and to falsely claim that it would not cut Medicaid.”The only ‘cutting’ we will do is for Waste, Fraud, and Abuse, something that should have been done by the Incompetent, Radical Left Democrats for the last four years, but wasn’t,” he said.  One more wrinkle for Trump: tech billionaire Elon Musk — no longer one of his closest aides but still an influential commentator — has already broken with the president to criticize the mega-bill. “A bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don’t know if it can be both,” Musk said in a CBS interview criticizing its effect on debt.

US President Donald Trump on Monday ruled out allowing Iran to enrich uranium under any nuclear deal between the foes — as Tehran defended what it said was its “peaceful” pursuit of fuel for power generation.Uranium enrichment has remained a key point of contention in five rounds of talks since April to ink a new accord to replace the deal with major powers that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.”Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!” Trump said on his Truth Social network after the Axios news outlet said Washington’s offer would let Tehran enrich some of the nuclear fuel.Republican Trump also blamed predecessor Joe Biden for the impasse, saying the Democrat “should have stopped Iran a long time ago from ‘enriching.'”Axios said the latest proposal that Washington had sent Tehran on Saturday would allow limited low-level uranium enrichment on Iranian soil, for an amount of time that has yet to be determined.Iran has insisted that Iran has “nothing to hide” on its nuclear program.Speaking in Cairo, where he met the UN nuclear watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said: “If the goal is to deprive Iran of its peaceful activities, then certainly no agreement will be reached.”The remarks came after Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday called for more transparency from Iran following a leaked report that showed Tehran had stepped up uranium enrichment.- ‘Need for more transparency’ -The IAEA report showed that Iran has ramped up production of uranium enriched up to 60 percent — close to the roughly 90 percent level needed for atomic weapons.”There is a need for more transparency — this is very, very clear — in Iran, and nothing will bring us to this confidence (besides) full explanations of a number of activities,” Grossi said ahead of meeting Araghchi.Grossi added that some of the report’s findings “may be uncomfortable for some, and we are… used to being criticized”.Iran has rejected the report, warning it would retaliate if European powers that have threatened to reimpose nuclear sanctions “exploit” it.”Some countries are trying to abuse this agency to pave the way for escalation with Iran. I hope that this agency does not fall into this trap,” Araghchi said of the IAEA.Iran meanwhile pushed for the United States to drop sanctions that have crippled its economy as a condition for a nuclear agreement with Trump’s administration.Araghchi said on Saturday that he had received “elements” of the US proposal for a nuclear deal following the five rounds of talks, mediated by Oman.- ‘With or without a deal’ -Both Araghchi and Grossi met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who praised the US-Iran talks and called for “de-escalation in order to prevent a slide into a full-fledged regional war”.On Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told a news conference: “We want to guarantee that the sanctions are effectively lifted.””So far, the American side has not wanted to clarify this issue,” he said.The US envoy in the nuclear talks said last month that Trump’s administration would oppose any Iranian enrichment.”An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line. No enrichment,” Steve Witkoff told Breitbart News.Following a phone call with Witkoff the day before about the ongoing nuclear talks, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty urged a peaceful solution and a nuclear-weapon-free Middle East, saying in Monday’s press conference that “the region is already experiencing enough problems and crises”.He warned that military confrontation would create “a state of chaos from which no one will be spared”.Iran has vowed to keep enriching uranium “with or without a deal” on its nuclear program.The United States has sent Iran a proposal for a nuclear deal that the White House called “acceptable” and in Tehran’s “best interest” to accept, US media reported on Saturday.The New York Times, citing officials familiar with the diplomatic exchanges, said the proposal calls on Iran to stop all enrichment and suggests creating a regional grouping to produce nuclear power.