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Zelenskyy thanks G7 leaders for ‘strong ideas on how to force Russia into peace’ – Europe live

But Trump did appear to suggest he could reimpose some sanctions on Russian oil, though (or, technically speaking, let waivers expire). Asked about the possibility of tightening sanctions on Russia, he said: “Well, soon we’ll be able to do that because the oil is now flowing. So we put, we took sanctions off, because obviously we’re not looking to impede the oil, so we’re in a position to do that soon … at some point.”

Trump says Iran ‘will never have a nuclear weapon’ and that deal is ‘going to second stage’ – Middle East crisis live

“I ‌think it’s going to go pretty quickly,” Trump told reporters about the next phase of negotiations with Iran, stipulated with a 60-day deadline. “Iran wants to get it done. They have to get back to business, and the relationship is now normalised, so I think ⁠it’s going to go pretty quickly,” Trump told reporters during his meeting with Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, on ‌the sidelines of the G7. “Could go faster, could take longer too, but it could go fast.“

European leaders urge Trump to host Zelenskyy-Putin talks

European leaders at the G7 summit have urged Donald Trump to try to break the deadlock over ending the Ukraine war by taking up the proposal for him to host talks in the US between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin. The US president lamented “the great antipathy” between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders that made it difficult to reach a settlement, and vowed to do what he could. He said Moscow “should make a deal”, noting that it had “lost a great many people, just like Ukraine”. Zelenskyy, attending the summit in the spa town of Évian-les-Bains at the invitation of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, is attempting to re-engage Trump in the hope that the US administration will be less distracted now it has agreed a 60-day ceasefire in Iran. Macron, caught on a hot mic at the summit, was heard admitting to Zelenskyy he had had difficult discussions with Trump on Monday concerning Ukraine. Speaking at a morning session of G7 leaders and Zelenskyy, Trump said he would do what he could, and German sources claimed Trump recognised that Russia was in a weaker position than previously. The leaders of the G7, which comprises the US, Japan, France, Canada, the UK, Italy and Germany, also agreed to step up sanctions on Russian energy. The European Union is already preparing its 21st sanctions package, including restrictions on the sale of LNG tankers to Russia. Zelenskyy – who did not initially have a bilateral meeting with Trump scheduled – eventually met the US president alongside Macron for his first face-to-face meeting in four months. Zelenskyy tried to convince Trump that Ukraine was no longer losing on the battlefield, and the US role should not be that of a messenger between the two sides but of a mediator supportive of Ukraine. The meeting delayed the start of the full summit. Trump spoke to Zelenskyy and Putin on Sunday before travelling to the G7 and claimed both men were open to a meeting. He described the death toll in the war as “ridiculous”. Trump – who lost patience with his inability to force home a deal in which Ukraine gave up territory it had not lost on the battlefield – still seems to regard the US as neutral in the conflict, and above all eager to see economic sanctions on Russia lifted so projects such as an Alaska-Siberia tunnel can be considered. Zelenskyy and his main European partners – the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer; the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and Macron – realise talks with Russia in the short term may be unlikely, but hope Trump’s engagement could make them possible in the autumn. The E3 – UK, Germany and France – also want to be directly represented at the talks, since they are now providing almost all the financial and military support to Ukraine. Putin’s special representative, Kirill Dmitriev, kept up a steady flow of social media posts denigrating the Europeans during the G7 talks, including welcoming Starmer’s political demise. “EU/UK warmongering ‘poison pills’ to derail peace discussions are too obvious and delay peace by pushing tired, unrealistic solutions,” he wrote. “Hypocrisy does not work well when exposed.” In his remarks at the G7, Zelenskyy told the leaders he was making reforms to army pay to make frontline recruitment levels sustainable. The US vice-president, JD Vance, the most consistent critic of Ukraine in the US administration, has repeatedly claimed that Ukraine is bound to lose the war because of Russia’s superior ability to recruit soldiers. Zelenskyy also confirmed Ukrainian drones had set on fire Moscow’s largest oil refinery, which is about 9 miles (15km) from the Kremlin and 300 miles (500km) from Ukraine. “Russia must be forced to end its war against our people. And Ukraine’s long-range weapons are one of the important components of such pressure,” he said. “This is a just response to Russian strikes – and to the dragging out of a war that must be ended.” European leaders are pushing to be involved in any talks. “The right negotiation is one in which Ukraine and Russia are at the table, but with Europeans and Americans present as well,” Macron said on Monday. German government sources said that the most realistic format would pair Ukraine and Russia with the United States and Europe but the hardest question was who speaks for Europe. They argued Kyiv now negotiated from a position of strength, because Russia cannot win on the battlefield and its economy is straining. Internal European discussions about appointing a special representative to lead Europe at the talks suffered a setback when the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, rejected taking up the possible post. “Personally, I do not see myself as a representative in this matter,” he said. “I believe this should be led by the major players, namely France, Germany and the UK.” Diplomats are looking for a heavyweight figure such as a former prime minister. But he backed the idea of talks, saying: “We are currently in a situation where Ukraine holds strong positions militarily, politically and economically. Therefore, I believe the time has come for Europe to establish contact with Russia’s leadership, specifically President Putin, in order to conduct diplomatic negotiations.”

Hundreds of dogs to be sent to rescue as US beagle research facility shuts down

A beagle breeding and research facility in Wisconsin that has been the focus of animal rights protests is shutting down, and a rescue group in Florida is taking in the remaining dogs. “Not one dog will remain,” Lauree Simmons, founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Florida, said in a press conference announcing the news on Monday. “No more breeding, no more testing, no more anything.” Groups such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) celebrated Monday’s news as a substantial step toward ending the practice of using animals for research. “This victory is the culmination of years of pressure from Peta and other animal protection organizations … who challenged a system that breeds dogs and other animals only to be confined, mutilated, poisoned, and killed in laboratories,” said a statement from Peta. “Peta will build on this momentum by continuing to work to end the use of dogs, primates, and other animals in experiments altogether and replace these cruel, scientifically flawed practices with cutting-edge, superior methods that offer real promise for treatments and cures.” Protesters descended on the Ridglan Farms breeding and research facility in March and April in an attempt to free the beagles there. An estimated 1,000 activists clashed with police in April in another open rescue attempt for the dogs, resulting in 29 arrests, according to the Dane county sheriff’s department. “Before the open rescue, activists called upon law enforcement, prosecutors, the governor [of Wisconsin, Tony Evers], humane officers, licensing boards, and judges to protect the dogs from Ridglan’s established, lengthy record of cruelty – without success,” said a statement from Chris Carraway, staff attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. After the April protests, Big Dog Ranch Rescue and the Center for a Humane Economy announced they reached an agreement with Ridglan Farms to buy 1,500 of the 2,000 beagles at the facility for an undisclosed price. Animal rights attorneys then sought a court order to protect the remaining 500 beagles at the facility. Ridglan Farms in October had reached an agreement with a special prosecutor to resolve criminal animal abuse allegations against the facility. That settlement required the facility to surrender its license to sell and breed dogs – but did not require any changes for the dogs remaining at the facility. The facility denied mistreating animals. On Monday, Big Dog Ranch Rescue announced another agreement with Ridglan Farms for the permanent closure of the facility. That set the stage for the beagles remaining at the site to be transferred to Big Dog Ranch Rescue. The Big Dog organization said some of the beagles are bound for other rescue groups. Some of the beagles, though, are destined for the organization’s Florida and Alabama campuses, where the dogs are going to be spayed or neutered and then prepared for adoption. A statement from Ridglan Farms said all the dogs being transferred are “happy, healthy animals” with “extensive” state and federal inspection documentation. “We hope these dogs will continue to flourish in their new homes,” Ridglan Farms said. The statement said that the company hopes the “years-long harassment campaign targeting the research facility’s owners, staff and neighbors comes to an end”. The Associated Press contributed reporting

Father of Australian girl shot by police while visiting Pakistan demands justice

The father of a nine-year-old Australian girl killed in Pakistan on holiday has demanded justice and to “reduce the harm” of a controversial new police wing whose officers opened fire with machine guns in response to a robbery. Hania Ahmed and her family were visiting her great-uncle Ali Ejaz last week at his home in Chakwal, Punjab province. Robbers confronted the family outside Ejaz’s home late on Wednesday, demanding they hand over cash, jewellery and other possessions, Ejaz told the Guardian. He said Hania’s father, Adeel Ahmed, her mother, Hania, and brother Aafan, 11, had pleaded with them “don’t harm my family” and agreed to hand over their possessions. But within 30 seconds of that exchange, shortly before midnight, according to CCTV footage seen by the Guardian, officers from the crime control department (CCD), a newly formed Punjab police wing, arrived from a nearby station armed with machine guns and opened fire on both the robbers and the family, who were attempting to flee in a car. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email An eyewitness, who requested anonymity, told the Guardian that they had watched the incident from about 20 metres away. “I could see the car speeding and the police officer firing straight at the car,” they said. “Then the two CCD officials stopped a passerby motorbike, sat on it and followed by three or four more police personnel in a car and chased the family car.” Nine-year-old Hania was killed in the exchange. The Guardian understands she was hit by four bullets and died before reaching the hospital. Her father, Adeel, 39, was reportedly shot twice but was not seriously injured, according to the CCD police chief, Sohail Zafar Chatta. The family had just returned from hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, and had been due to arrive back in Australia on Monday. The incident “has shattered the family and people in the area” and the family demanded justice, Ejaz said. Pictures of a blood-stained car with dozens of bullet holes spread on social media amid public criticism of the police response. On Monday, Punjab police said an officer had “mistakenly assessed that the suspects were attempting to flee in the victims’ vehicle and discharged his weapon”. The officer has been suspended from duty, formally arrested and faced court, where he was remanded to judicial custody in jail, with police promising a “thorough, impartial investigation”. The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has also called for a “transparent and proper” investigation. Hania was a year 4 student at Australian Islamic College in Perth. Her brother Aafan was shot twice and was recovering in Benazir Bhutto hospital in Rawalpindi. Chatta had visited the family on Sunday and promised a transparent investigation, he said. Adeel Ahmed, Hania’s father, was said by friends and family still to be in shock, struggling to process the tragedy. In a recorded message he said those responsible should be punished “so that this incident does not repeat, and the dangers of the CCD are reduced”. “It was started by the CCD. The thieves did not start the firing first. They only fired in retaliation,” Ahmed said. “There were at least four CCD officials and they should be charged,” he said in the recorded message. However, Chatta said the armed robbers had started the firing – though he accepted that the CCD officer should not have fired at the car without confirming the armed robbers were in the vehicle. “The continuation of firing by CCD officials without positive identification was a grave violation of the CCD rules,” he said. “We have registered a case and the family has expressed trust in the investigation.” The CCD was created last May as a new department. Punjab police have been criticised for “extrajudicial killings” across the province. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has called for a judicial investigation of at least 924 killings by the CCD in the last eight months of 2025. Its 45-page report said the CCD adopted encounter killings “as a matter of policy” in Punjab province, undermining the rule of law and constitutional safeguards. Chatta rejected the accusations, saying: “We have an extremely polarised political society in the country and that’s because of politics, we are facing criticism.”

US-Iran deal may get oil flowing again, but region’s root problems are unsolved

In much of the Middle East, news that the US and Iran had come to a fragile agreement was greeted with relief tempered with doubt that any deal would resolve the turbulent region’s deep problems or even prevent a future return to war. In Kuwait, a frequent target of Iranian drone strikes during the 15-week conflict, Iyad Joumma, a 37-year-old Jordanian engineer, spoke for many. While the agreement may allow the region to catch its breath, he said, its success “will depend on the ability of the parties involved to address the root causes of the tensions”. Of a dozen analysts and experts consulted by the Guardian since the news of a potential end to hostilities broke at the weekend, not one suggested the interim deal to be signed on Friday by representatives of Iran and the US would be any more than a temporary solution. “It’s just a big Band-Aid and future conflict is like to come at some point,” said Neil Quilliam, a Middle East expert at London’s Chatham House. The memorandum of understanding provides for a 60-day cessation of hostilities during which the two sides will address some of the most contentious issues – Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile and nuclear programme, sanctions and the release of billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets – in the hope that a final settlement can be reached. Few analysts believe this is likely within such a short timescale – if at all. They point to the painstaking 18-month process that led to the 2015 agreement with Iran, which traded economic benefits for restrictions of its nuclear programme, and which Donald Trump tore up during his first term in office. The interim deal now agreed does little more than commit both sides to further talks, while obliging Washington to lift its naval blockade of Iran and making Tehran allow free passage to all shipping in the strait of Hormuz, which usually carries a fifth of the world’s oil and liquid gas supplies but was blocked by Iran early in the war. To the great displeasure of Israel, a ceasefire has been imposed once again in Lebanon as part of the interim deal and appears for the moment to be holding. But such ceasefires count for little these days, said several experts, pointing to Gaza as an example, where almost 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since Donald Trump brokered an end to the war there last year. Israel has occupied more than 60% of the territory, Hamas has not given up its weapons, and there has been almost no progress towards a projected second phase of the deal, let alone the third, which was to have brought a massive reconstruction effort. “Gaza is a case in point. The deal there didn’t contend with the past: the war crimes that had been committed. Nor the present: how to disarm Hamas. Nor the future: a pathway to a viable Palestinian state and a resolution of the conflict,” said Alia Brahimi at the Atlantic Council in Washington. “It’s almost as if … you can use the cover of a ceasefire to continue to achieve your aims, including military ones.” But this was not possible in the Gulf, Brahimi said, because the strategic geography was different. “The strait of Hormuz is of integral importance to the global economy, as the Iranians have demonstrated. They’ve shown us what we always knew in theory: that they can impose cascading stress globally by throwing a few projectiles towards a tanker or two.” Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor at al-Azhar University in Gaza and now in Cairo, agreed. “The ceasefire in Gaza is holding because Hamas knows that if they fire it will give a pretext for another full-scale Israeli ground invasion but the situation in Gaza is disastrous,” he said. In Israel there is dismay and disappointment at a deal that does not appear to address Iran’s ballistic missile armoury nor funding of its so-called Axis of Resistance, a loose coalition of militant Islamist movements including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen and a series of militia in Iraq. This, too, could threaten instability in the near future, analysts argue. Danny Orbach, a military history professor at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, said that that after the bloody surprise October 2023 Hamas raid which triggered the Gaza war, Israel had set out to bring about structural change in the Middle East. “The structural change [Israel wants] is that the ‘Axis of Resistance’ must no longer be allowed to threaten Israel with destruction. Israel’s destabilising instinct is to tell all regional actors you will not have stability until you solve our problem, and that problem is Iran. This will not change until the memory of [the] 7 October [attack] fades and that will take years and years.” The sharpest shock, however, is being felt in the Sunni Arab Gulf states, where the stability behind decades of economic growth and growing diplomatic heft has been sharply challenged. It will take months or even years for damage to civilian infrastructure done by Iran’s strikes on Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to be repaired, and the psychological scars will last much longer. Meanwhile, Washington’s clear unwillingness to accept significant losses, months of potential economic pain or domestic dissatisfaction send a clear message. “A ‘superpower’ that is not ready to bear 100 casualties is not a superpower,” said Orbach. H.A. Hellyer, of London’s Royal United Services Institute, said that Gulf states would now seek to contain a newly empowered Iran led by a more confident and possibly more belligerent regime. “The realisation that they can’t rely on the US is the point of consensus but otherwise [Gulf states] have all got different views of the best strategy going forward,” Hellyer said. “The Arab world has important and legitimate grievances with how Iran projects power and influence and none of these are being addressed.” Quilliam described a “new era”. “The [current] agreement will hold and in 60 days we will probably see positive headlines and the oil and gas will flow [again] but there’ll be no major breakthrough,” he said. “We know that Hormuz can be closed again, the Iranians have carried out strikes on Gulf states, and we have seen that whatever Israel and the US can do, Iran will take it. All the previous thresholds have been passed now.”

Spanish households save €10 a month thanks to renewables expansion, report finds

Spanish households save €10 a month on electricity bills because of wind turbines and solar panels installed in the last five years, a report has found. Typical energy bills would be 19% more expensive if electricity costs were still as tightly coupled to gas prices as in 2021, according to Ember, a climate thinktank. It found Spain’s “strategic” expansion of renewables since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 has shielded Spanish households from the latest rises in fossil fuel prices caused by the Iran war. “We just had a 60% rise in gas prices and electricity bills in Spain basically haven’t reacted – they actually got a bit cheaper in April,” said Chris Rosslowe, an analyst at Ember and the lead author of the report. “That’s a clear and obvious contrast to the previous gas crisis, when electricity bills were climbing immediately.” Burning fossil gas is one of the most expensive ways to generate electricity in Europe, even before considering the health costs of the carbon emissions. The influence of gas on electricity prices in Spain fell from 52% of hours in 2021 to 9% of hours in the first five months of 2026, according to the analysis. In Italy, which has the highest wholesale electricity prices in Europe, gas influences the price 75% of the time. The report found electricity prices in Spain rose by about 50% in the first half of 2021 – in line with European gas prices – but remained “largely unaffected” by higher gas prices in 2026. The effects of volatility in the wholesale gas markets was seen only as higher price peaks during the dwindling periods when large volumes of gas had to be burned. Mar Reguant, an energy economist at Northwestern University, who was not involved in the report but whose research findings painted “the same picture”, said ambitious policy helped Spain make the most of favourable conditions. Compared with the rest of Europe, these include decent wind, “unbeatable solar” and pre-existing pumped hydropower storage. “There is no question that Spain and Portugal are greatly benefiting from their early transition,” she said. “The Iberian peninsula has a privileged position and has acted smartly.” Wind and solar generated 33% of Spain’s electricity in 2021. By 2025, the share had risen to 42%. In other European countries that also expanded renewables at great speed – such as Germany, which increased its share of wind and solar in power generation from 28% to 45% in the last five years – the consumer benefits have been more muted as they have displaced other forms of energy, such as coal and nuclear. The analysis, which used data from March and April 2026, took a regulated electricity tariff paid by about one-third of Spanish households and modelled the size of the bill under a scenario in which renewables added in the last five years had not been installed. It accounted for balancing costs paid during periods when renewables generate too much or too little but did not consider the hidden costs society pays for different forms of power generation, such as increased health costs that fossil fuel pollution brings. Dr Diego García Gusano, a senior energy planning researcher at Tecnalia, a Basque technology centre, who was not involved in the analysis, said Spain’s gas-fired power plants still set the price during key hours and that frequent periods of very low prices were weakening the investment signal for further renewables. The slow deployment of storage and limited flexibility in electricity demand had “intensified” the situation, he added, preventing the system from efficiently absorbing excess renewable generation. “Spain is less exposed to gas shocks than other countries, but it is not immune,” Gusano said. “The bet on renewables is very sound, but much more is needed to make that bet structural and not circumstantial.”

Tuesday briefing: How the UK’s military spending row exposes Starmer’s defence dilemma

Good morning. What conflict has raged longer than the hundred years war? The fight between the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury over defence spending. I’d love to claim this as my own, but avoid patter theft this early in the day. So I’ll credit my colleague Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian’s defence and security editor, who spoke to me ahead of this week’s G7 meeting, in France, where Keir Starmer arrived yesterday for what could be his final international summit. The prime minister can anticipate candid discussions about international partnerships in conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, both of which may soon demand increased involvement from the British military. The political row over whether the UK government is spending enough to keep Britain safe and fulfil its international commitments broke into the public sphere with the resignation of defence minister John Healey last Thursday. It continues today as Al Carns, who resigned from his post as armed forced minister on the same day, tells the Guardian in an exclusive interview about “unbelievable” waste at the MoD, and suggests mismanaged programmes such as tanks investment should be scrapped in favour of new technology. The resignation of two highly respected ministers, only one of whom reportedly fancies a shot in Downing Street, further weakens the prime minister’s position ahead of Andy Burnham’s return to the Commons if he is victorious in this week’s Makerfield byelection. I spoke to Dan about how an argument about money exposes domestic and international uncertainties around Starmer’s leadership, Britain’s place in the world and the changing face of warfare. Five big stories Middle East | Donald Trump has declared that the strait of Hormuz will be “completely open” from Friday, as western leaders gathering at the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains battled to prevent the fragile US deal with Iran from almost immediately unravelling. UK politics | Political hatred and division in the UK is probably worse now than during the Brexit referendum, when Jo Cox was murdered, says Kim Leadbeater, Cox’s sister who is now also a Labour MP. Crime | A schoolteacher described as a “serial manipulator and a serial liar” has been found guilty of sexually abusing and murdering a baby he and his partner had adopted. Environment | Half of the world’s children are exposed to at least three overlapping climate hazards threatening their health, education and survival, according to a Unicef report. US news | Eight people are presumed dead after a B-52 bomber crashed shortly after takeoff on Monday morning at a US air force base in California’s Mojave Desert, officials said. In depth: Starmer’s defence-spending ‘rhetoric-to-reality gap’ There isn’t a lot of agreement about what Starmer has got right in government, but our lobby team will tell you that some MPs remain swayed by his record on the international stage. He got two things right, says Dan: support for Ukraine and keeping Britain largely out of the US-Israel war on Iran. “He’s also weathered the sheer difficulty of being a British Labour prime minister when a turbulent Republican in the White House is shifting position daily between being your friend and trying to destabilise you.” But where Starmer has failed to shift the dial is on the strategic problem of Britain’s place in the world during a volatile time. He spoke to this at the Munich Security Conference in February, suggesting that – as the Trump administration disengaged with former allies – it provided an opportunity for “radical renewal” and a more European Nato able to “stand on our own feet”. Taken together, these factors point to the need to progressively spend more on defence to meet Nato’s target – which Starmer has signed up to, of 3.5% of GDP by 2035. Instead, Dan explains, “we’ve got a modest step up to 2.6% by 2027 and then ‘a big blank’”. Here the essential criticism that Healey and others are making kicks in, says Dan, with “this rhetoric-to-reality gap”. *** A lack of narrative Healey resigned on a point of principle about long-term defence spending, but he also quit because the prime minister is weak, Dan says bluntly. Circumscribed by Rachel Reeves’s much maligned fiscal rules, the Treasury has limited room for manoeuvre beyond further reallocation of spending from other parts of government, and Starmer has scant goodwill among remaining ministers. The trouble, Dan reminds me, is that Starmer’s dilemma is not only about cash that may be spent on future projects, but it is also about honouring the international commitments Britain already has signed up to. If you’ll indulge me a tangent: spending is often presented as a zero-sum scenario between welfare and defence, and not only in the rightwing media. In April, Lord Robertson, who led the government’s Strategic Defence Review in 2025, said: “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.” But as the Resolution Foundation’s Ruth Curtice said recently, the peace dividend – the uptick in available funding for other departments from the declining defence spend after the end of the cold war – has been spent on the entire welfare state, with the most dramatic increases in health spending, not just working-age social security. According to latest Ipsos polling, British voters are pretty evenly split on whether they favour an increase in defence spending or keeping it the same, although they are cautious about the tax-and-spend trade-offs. The case for increased defence spending is harder to make with a population who experience no direct threat while bombs continue to drop elsewhere. This is despite the general acceptance in military circles that Britain is already under threat on home soil, be that electoral interference from foreign agents, targeting of synagogues by Iranian state proxies. Only yesterday a handler with ties to Russia appeared to have directed arson attacks on property connected to Starmer. But the problem is that the prime minister had already – very publicly – argued for that increase, warning voters to beware “peddlers of easy answers” such as Reform UK and the Greens risking national security. A more effective narrative-builder than Starmer could have made the argument stick with voters – and his own cabinet. *** Rebalancing Europe and Nato Starmer’s words at Munich about rebalancing the relationship between Europe and the US is a thread likely to be picked up by Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, who pledged en route to the G7 meeting that “the new world order will be built starting with Europe”. “Do not underestimate how many European countries, particularly smaller ones and those to the east, now look to Britain, as well as to France and Germany, and want leadership,” says Dan. While initially encouraged by Starmer’s rhetoric, Dan says some Baltic states most exposed to Russian aggression are now asking: “Is Britain for real?” As he puts it: “They want nothing more than Britons to be strong and engaged, but suspect we haven’t really got the capability we say we have.” Britain’s reliability in a moment of crisis was exposed at the start of the Iran conflict in March, when it took three weeks to deploy a warship from Portsmouth to bolster security at the British RAF base in Cyprus after a drone attack. *** Changing face of warfare There has been a “huge shift” in British military thinking, says Dan, even in the past year, as regards the type of future investment our armed forces need and one directly influenced by Ukraine’s success in transforming itself into a “drone superpower”. When the Guardian interviewed Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, just after his Downing Street meeting with Starmer, he was upbeat, saying the military situation was the most promising it had been for Kyiv for two and a half years. Having dramatically built up Ukraine’s drone capability – with the help of US technology – long-range strikes on Russian oil refineries, runways and military installations are now affecting the country’s economy and wartime logistics, and – in what Zelenskyy said was a very deliberate tactic – bringing the conflict home to ordinary Russians. Many military analysts argue that this techno-centric warfare is likely to become the model for 21st-century conflicts. But Dan offers a caution “against simplifications, that war is about one technology or another. Israel bombed Gaza quite effectively without drones; Iranian drones or missiles did not knock out US warships”. “Neither Russia or Ukraine has sufficient combat air power, or ability to mass force numbers – meaning that in Ukraine drones have become the weapon of choice,” he adds. “Drones are additive in a modern military, not a replacement for other weapons.” What else we’ve been reading Jonathan Jones has written this heartfelt piece about his email exchanges and intimate dinners with the late David Hockney when the artist returned to Yorkshire from LA. Sinéad Campbell, newsletters team I enjoyed this Science Weekly episode on the evidence for a social media ban for under-16s and how we make the online world a better place for all ages (clue: hold big tech to account). Libby Zoe Williams has a moving interview with the actor Laverne Cox about how her identity as a transgender woman has become a challenge to the politics around her. Sinéad World Cup 2026 On the pitch Spain 0-0 Cape Verde | No, that’s not a typo – the 64th-ranked World Cup debutants really did hold the perennial favourites to a no-score draw. “Wow, just wow”, Sid Lowe’s match report begins. Belgium 1-1 Egypt | Romelu Lukaku’s threat on the pitch drew two defenders on to his first run into the box, which resulted in an equalising own goal to salvage a point from a closely fought contest. Saudi Arabia 1-1 Uruguay | Maximiliano Araújo scored a late equaliser in Miami as Uruguay battled back for a 1-1 draw against Saudi Arabia. Iran 2-2 New Zealand | Iran did not seem bogged down by political baggage as they let their football do the talking in an entertaining 2-2 draw against New Zealand. Off the pitch England | Reporting from the Three Lions camp in Kansas City, Jacob Steinberg reveals how Jordan Henderson’s changing room leadership could make the difference after the veteran midfielder was dropped from the Euro 2024 side. My World Cup | Live in an America, Canadian or Mexican host city? The Guardian community team want to hear from you on what the mood’s like in your city right now. Japan | For his newsletter (sign up here!), Jonathan Wilson writes on how Japan’s great result against the Netherlands is the clearest symbol yet that Asian teams are catching up to the titans of Europe and South America. Today’s fixtures • France v Senegal, 8pm BST on BBC • Iraq v Norway, 11pm BST on BBC • Argentina v Algeria, 2am BST on ITV • Austria v Jordan, 5am BST on ITV The front pages “Social media firms hit back as PM vows to ban under-16s”, is the Guardian’s front page today. The Times runs “Age checks on phones to access social media”, The Telegraph says “Starmer’s social media ban ‘a rush job’” and Metro has “PM: My ban will keep our kids safe”. The FT leads with “Arson attacks on Starmer properties were run by pro-Kremlin hacktivists”, on the same story the Independent runs “Arson attack on Starmer linked to Russia”, and the i Paper also says “Plot to burn down Starmer’s home linked to Russian mastermind”. The Mirror splashes “In their name” in memory of murdered MPs Jo Cox and David Amess. And the Express says “Our hope has been restored” on the assisted dying bill. Today in Focus: The Latest Will US-Iran peace deal hold? The US and Iran have reached a tentative deal to end the conflict in the Middle East, but competing claims from Donald Trump and Tehran have left the details shrouded in uncertainty. Questions remain over the reopening of the strait of Hormuz, Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, and the future of Iran’s nuclear programme. Nosheen Iqbal speaks to Julian Borger, the Guardian’s senior international correspondent – watch the episode on YouTube here. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Nick Dowling worked for decades in manufacturing and consultancy but when he saw a poster advertising voluntary work for the ambulance service, he signed up immediately. Soon after, the pandemic hit. Dowling’s work went online. “Suddenly, you’re just talking to a screen,” he says. “You’re getting nothing back from it … I got bored quickly.” Meanwhile, volunteering with the ambulance service became more vital, and it led to a change of heart about his career goals. Now, at 60, Dowling has undertaken an apprenticeship and hopes to qualify as a registered nursing associate. He’s never been one to stick to a career path. “I value learning,” he says. “And I think learning and change are synonymous.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply