Minister calls on Burnham to show path to 3.5% target on UK defence spending

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Dan Jarvis, who wants to stay on as defence secretary, says he is confident PM-in-waiting values national security

The new defence secretary, Dan Jarvis, has called on Andy Burnham to increase defence spending dramatically from 2030 and “evidence the trajectory” towards a Nato target that would mean £25bn a year more for the military by the middle of the next decade.

The former paratrooper said he was confident that the prime minister-in-waiting valued national security, as he openly lobbied him for cash that would probably have to come from cuts elsewhere.

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‘Nepotism and bias’ rife in England and Wales police leadership, report finds

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Inquiry co-chaired by David Blunkett uncovers loss of focus on fighting crime, plus low standards and need for reform

Police leadership in England and Wales is plagued by “nepotism and bias” and too many chiefs have lost focus on fighting crime, a government-backed report has found.

The inquiry, co-chaired by former home secretary David Blunkett, found a reset was needed at all levels, with scores of top officers facing misconduct inquiries.

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Mobile internet coverage in UK worse than any EU or G7 country, Which? says

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Analysis finds services cheaper but country ranks 57th in network performance and 70th for download speeds

British holidaymakers watching online videos while they sit on a European beach this summer are likely to be pleasantly surprised: the signal should be better than at home.

Mobile coverage in the UK is worse than in any of the 27 EU member countries, and every other member of the G7 group of large economies, according to analysis by consumer group Which? of data from Opensignal.

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Anthony Albanese apologises ‘unequivocally’ for podcast comment about Kylie Minogue

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Prime minister picked pop singer in game of ‘shag, marry, date’ on comedy podcast

Anthony Albanese has apologised “unequivocally” for his comments while playing a “shag, marry, date” game on a comedy podcast when he nominated Kylie Minogue for all three categories.

The prime minister issued a statement on Monday morning after receiving criticism at the weekend for his appearance on the Bush Deep podcast with the comedian Nikki Osborne.

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Rodríguez defends Venezuela’s emergency earthquake response as number of bodies expected to soar

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Interim president says unrest will not break out despite anger at official response to the 24 June disaster

Venezuela’s interim president has defended her country’s emergency response to the twin earthquakes that have killed more than 3,000 people, vowing the country would not descend into social unrest.

Many Venezuelans have expressed anger at what they see as the US-backed government’s inadequate response to the 24 June disaster before international teams arrived.

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Florida Republican says deporting Haitians with TPS would be ‘huge mistake’

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‘Haiti is a failed state’, says Carlos Giménez, congressman and Miami Cuban exile, after controversial court ruling

Carlos Giménez, a Republican congressman from Florida, broke with the Trump administration on Sunday, calling on the White House to reconsider its push to eliminate temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitian migrants.

Returning some 350,000 Haitians to their chaotic, dangerous homeland following the US supreme court’s ruling that the Trump administration can cut off temporary legal protections, would be a grave error, Giménez said.

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At least 25 people die in US as record heatwave scorches swaths of country

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More than 20 states reported temperatures above 100F as heat dome sits over eastern US during holiday weekend

At least about two dozen people have died amid the perilous climate crisis-driven heatwave that has scorched swaths of the US with record temperatures.

As a huge heat dome sits over the county’s eastern half, extreme heat gripped millions of people in the days leading up to the US’s semiquincentennial on Saturday – and beyond it. More than 20 states experienced have reported stifling temperatures more than 100F (38C), marring celebrations. And more than 140 million people remained under active heat alerts across the US on Sunday.

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Calls for killing of Trump at funeral of Iran supreme leader Ali Khamenei

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New supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei still absent from public view as his three brothers stand beside father’s coffin

Beside the coffin of the assassinated former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei at a packed prayer hall in Tehran on Sunday there were calls for the killing of Donald Trump.

Iran is staging a week of mass funeral processions ⁠for Khamenei, who was killed along with other members of his family on the first day of the US and Israeli war on 28 February. The funeral was delayed because of the war.

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The Atlantic republishes JD Vance’s anti-Trump essay from 10 years ago

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Magazine invites readers to judge Vance’s ‘assessment’ of Trump, whom he called ‘cultural heroin’ during first term

The Atlantic on Saturday republished a JD Vance essay that dismissed Donald Trump as “cultural heroin” exactly 10 years earlier, bringing back to the fore his evolving from a critic of the president to his vice-president.

In an editor’s note, the magazine said it was republishing the essay on the occasion of its 10th anniversary – and the US’s semiquincentennial – “so that our readers can judge for themselves how well his assessment [of Trump] … has stood the test of time”.

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FBI seized more than 600 drones flying over World Cup games in US cities

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Agency says drones had been caught across all 11 US host cities in restricted airspace since tournament began

More than 600 drones flying over restricted World Cup airspace in the US have been seized since the tournament began in June, the FBI said on Saturday – including 99 captured flying in Miami, 77 in Atlanta and 32 in Kansas City.

In a statement on X, the law enforcement agency said that drones had been caught across all 11 US host cities by FBI and the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

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Paul McCartney performs I Want to Hold Your Hand for first time in 60 years at Taylor Swift wedding

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McCartney reportedly played Beatles No 1 hit at star-studded reception at Madison Square Garden

Paul McCartney performed the beloved Beatles No 1 hit I Want to Hold Your Hand for the first time in 60 years at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding.

McCartney performed the number at the star-studded reception at Madison Square Garden in New York on Friday, People magazine reported. The track was the Beatles’ first American No 1 hit, sparking Beatlemania in the US and the wave of British bands’ success nicknamed “the British invasion”.

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Coal is back in AustralianSuper’s portfolio. What happened to that net zero pledge?

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In 2020 Australia’s biggest super fund dumped its Whitehaven shares. Fast forward to 2026 and it is now the coalminer’s single biggest investor

Almost six years ago, the country’s biggest superannuation fund announced a major policy update: AustralianSuper’s investment portfolio would be subject to a net zero carbon emissions target in line with the Paris agreement.

To make the point, the fund dumped its holdings in the large thermal and metallurgical coalminer Whitehaven Coal.

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Fears Queenslanders could be forced to pay for mine cleanup as LNP reviews environmental ‘red tape’

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Mining minister Dale Last says the state has an ‘enormous opportunity’ to become a global leader in critical minerals

Queenslanders are being warned they could be left to pay for the clean up of abandoned mines if rehabilitation laws are weakened, after the state government announced a bid to cut environmental “red tape” for resources companies.

The state’s treasurer, David Janetzki, and the mining minister, Dale Last, this week announced a review of a scheme that requires resources companies to provide surety to cover remediation and rehabilitation costs when mines close.

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