The News Agents

Donald Trump has urged Iran to “get serious” about reaching an agreement before it is “too late”. It’s nice having a world leader who takes peace so seriously. It’s just a shame Iran no longer believes a word he says. They’ve laughed at his fifteen point plan and insisted the Straits of Hormuz remain operational only to friendly traffic.
NATO’s general secretary is trying to encourage member countries to get behind Trump’s plan to smooth the wheels. We talk to an Iranian activist about why this conflict has made regime change much harder for protestors and ordinary Iranians.
Later, the government is changing the rules on politicalDonations to stop foreign interference. And we dig a little deeper with one government minister into those missing McSweeney messages...
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

The Met police took the unusual step of publishing a full transcript of a phone call that took place last October between Keir starmers chief of staff Morgan Mcsweeny and the 999 emergency services. In the call Morgan says his phone has been stolen out of his hand by a young man on a bike. He tells them it is a government device but doesn’t explain what his own role is or whether the material on it maybe confidential.
Why does any of this matter? Because the phone in question contained key messages between McSweeney and Peter Mandelson in the lead up to his appointment as ambassador to the United States.
Will we ever get to the truth of what happened between them? Will the public get past the “convenience“ of an apparently stolen phone? And were ministers sent out to fudge the truth on Morgan’s behalf as recently as this weekend?
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

"Unusual activity" was observed on the main US stock market just fifteen minutes before Donald Trump went public with the sudden and unexpected news that he would stop striking Iranian energy sites and talks with Tehran were apparently going well. Trading volumes were up to six times higher than normal - with oil futures seeing a sudden flurry of activity in the moments before Trump broke that news.
More than half a billion dollars was netted in that brief window, but it's not clear how. Experts and analysts are sounding the alarm about the activity - could some people close to Trump have known what was coming and gone straight to the market to place their bets? Why are Trump allies blocking investigators from looking into the Trump family and their allies? And what does this mean for the much bigger question of where the plans for peace actually stand ?
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

It's a funny old world when you have to check with Iran’s state TV before you know if the US president is telling the truth. In a post early this morning - just as the markets opened - Trump declared he’d had productive discussions to end with war with Iran. An hour later Tehran flatly contradicted him. But by then there had already been a market rally putting two trillion dollars back into the system. So what’s going on: Has Trump had enough of war? Has he had stern words from his Gulf allies? Or is he just trying to manipulate the price of oil?
Later, Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle on how to do business with America in the age of Trump and whether he’d call his actions "erratic".
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/

It can be hard to decipher the reasons behind the US-Israeli decision to strike Iran. With a flurry of hyperbolic - often contradictory - statements from the American leadership, the objectives, the progress, and the endgame of this war are not much clearer three weeks into it.
But Donald Trump has turned to one man to make the case for this war in a way he could never enunciate. Dr Muhanad Seloom has cut a somewhat isolated figure in the defence world outside of MAGA. An international security academic, he has been arguing that Trump's war is succeeding. Trump obviously likes what he is saying. The President posted Seloon's argument on Truth Social, with the caption: 'The US-Israeli strategy against Iran is working. Here is why'.
Lewis spoke to Dr Seloom from Doha to try and understand what the thinking might just be in the White House and what success would look like for America - with more and more voices sounding the alarm about the consequences of its failure.
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/