55 h. ago Starmer to meet Nato’s Rutte amid US pressure to spend 5% of GDP on defence – Europe live

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth says there is ‘near consensus’ on funding commitment for Nato member statesUK trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds has also called for reforms of the WTO including changes to the much-criticised dispute resolutions system which can also take years to settle disputes between trading nations.“We do recognise that reforming and repositioning the WTO so that it can respond more effectively to the challenges of today is the only way to safeguard long term stability and growth tomorrow. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago Europe confronts Trump’s triple threat on Ukraine, Nato and trade

Officials fear that the US president will play the big issues off against each other over five weeks of wide-ranging talks

Politics

6 d. ago Teen trans athlete at center of rightwing attacks wins track events in California

AB Hernandez, 16, ties for first place in two events as Trump administration threatens to withhold federal fundingA teenage transgender athlete in California, who has been at the center of widespread political attacks by rightwing pundits and the Trump administration, won in two track events over the weekend. The 16-year-old athlete, AB Hernandez, tied for first place alongside two other athletes in the high jump, and tied for first place in the triple jump.This comes as the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding from California for allowing trans athletes to compete in girls’ sports. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Trump administration sets quota to arrest 3,000 people a day in anti

The target was delivered by Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem, and triples figures from earlier this yearThe Trump administration has set aggressive new goals in its anti-immigration agenda, demanding that federal agents arrest 3,000 people a day – or more than a million in a year.The new target, tripling arrest figures from earlier this year, was delivered to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) leaders by Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, and Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, in a strained meeting last week. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago The market entrails look worrying after Trump’s ‘Triple B’ budget

Investor unease at the US’s fiscal position is growing

Politics

2 w. ago Man Utd star confronts Tottenham rival as he throws furious strop at full

Manchester United captain Harry Maguire was involved in an angry confrontation with Tottenham defender Cristian Romero after losing the Europa League final

Politics

2 w. ago This new EU deal is great for Britain. Now, Labour, focus on the future, not on Farage | Polly Toynbee

Cheaper food, passport e-gates, youth exchanges – we are finally on a path to repair the colossal damage Brexit has doneCircle the wagons: Europe draws together confronting an enemy to its east and a rogue state to its west. “Everything has changed,” said the prime minister and chancellor, and so it has. Once nestled in the arms of Nato, now alarmingly alone, we have no choice but to embrace neighbours we shunned. Thanks to Vladimir Putin, (nearly) all Europeans now see clearly what was always the case. In danger we need each other, never mind fish or dynamic alignment.But talking about less important things was always the British way. So headlines and the Today programme bang on about the 12-year continuance of the fishing deal struck by Boris Johnson, allowing French boats into our waters. It’s hard on fishing communities, but not worse than before. The Brexiters used and cheated fishers. But a government has to weigh up winners and losers when fishing contributes just 0.03% to UK...

Economics

3 w. ago Trump will destroy world trade, but democracies can defend themselves – and each other | Anders Fogh Rasmussen

We need a trade block, a D7, that would mirror Nato. An economic attack on one would be an attack on allAnders Fogh Rasmussen is a former prime minister of Denmark and former secretary general of Nato The postwar global economic order, with the United States at its centre, has created more prosperity than any other period in human history. Yet as Donald Trump takes a sledgehammer to that economic order, America’s democratic allies face a choice. We can accept the new cost of doing business with the US. We can follow the US down a path of mutually assured economic destruction with an ever-escalating trade war. Or we can find new avenues to keep free trade alive.My proposition? I believe we need a new platform for economic cooperation between the world’s seven leading democracies. Call it the “Democratic 7”, or “D7”. The EU, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea represent roughly 25% of global GDP and account for about 35% of global trade volume. Together, the...

Politics