What happened
The US will maintain its naval restrictions on Iran until a nuclear agreement is secured, Donald Trump has said. The announcement effectively dismisses a proposal from Tehran that could have reopened the Strait of Hormuz and revived negotiations.

Who said what
“The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing,” said Trump. “They are choking like a stuffed pig.” In Tehran, parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the US of seeking to destabilise the country by trying to “weaken or even collapse us from within”. He vowed that Iran would prevail.

The US president said it was time for Iran to “cry uncle” and say “we give up”, however, the “bottom line” is that the Iranians have “made it clear they don’t share Trump’s assessment that they’ve been defeated”, said Barak Ravid on news site Axios.

What next?
Diplomatic efforts remain deadlocked. Iran insists sanctions relief must precede further talks, while Washington has demanded a full dismantling of Tehran’s nuclear programme.

What happened
Oscar-winning US actor Laura Dern (pictured above) has been announced to replace Helena Bonham Carter in the new cast of “The White Lotus” after the British star dropped out due to creative differences.

It had become “apparent” that the character written for Bonham Carter by series creator Mike White “did not align once on set”, said the show’s maker HBO.

Who said what
A spokesperson for HBO said the role originally held by Bonham Carter had “been rethought” and “is being rewritten”. Members of the creative team are “saddened” that they won’t get to collaborate with her, but “remain ardent fans and very much hope to work with the legendary actress on another project soon”.

The role is believed to be “central to the Season Four story”, with “Dern quickly emerging as a top choice” for the recast, said entertainment site Deadline. She is a “longtime collaborator and friend” of White, having worked with him on 2007 film “Year of the Dog” and the 2011-13 series “Enlightened”.

What next?
The series will be set during a week of the Cannes Film Festival, with filming already underway in the south of France. Details on Dern’s character are yet to be announced.

“Having an older sibling can be a mixed blessing,” according to The Times. You have a “ready-made playmate”, but younger siblings must endure hand-me-downs, while sharing toys and the attention of their parents.

But a new study shows that birth order could also affect the likelihood of developing certain health conditions. Research led by the University of Chicago has examined data from more than 10 million siblings in the largest ever analysis of its kind. It found associations between the order of birth and susceptibility to autism, anxiety, hay fever and migraines, among other ailments.

Although the findings should not be read deterministically and have not yet been peer-reviewed, more than a third of medical conditions (150 out of 418) showed “birth order associations”, according to the study. “Of these, 79 were more common in firstborns, while 71 were more common in those born second,” said New Scientist.

The study, which analysed individuals from more than five million families, found that elder siblings were more likely to be diagnosed with “neurodevelopmental conditions” such as autism, ADHD and allergies, as well as acne and childhood psychoses, said Scientific American. Second-born siblings, on the other hand, were more likely to be diagnosed with “substance use disorders, shingles and gastrointestinal disorders”.

Although the variations between siblings identified in the study are small, “they can have an effect” at the “population level”. As Julia Rohrer of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development said: “It could be that all of these small effects of birth order come together to make a difference.”