Iranian air defenses have been activated against drones in the northwestern city of Tabriz on Tuesday evening, according to two Iranian news sites, amid a shaky US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Reuters reports there is yet to be official confirmation from Iranian authorities, so we’ll bring you more clarity on this as we get it.
Keir Starmer has said the government will stand firm on its welfare plans as ministers and party whips struggled to contain a growing Labour rebellion before next week’s vote. The tally of rebels already stood at 108 by Tuesday morning and, as Labour heavy-hitters waded into the row, there were fears inside government that the number would rise and scupper Starmer’s changes to benefits. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, was among those urging the prime minister to drop his plans, warning they would “destroy the financial safety net” for millions of people. While cabinet ministers were deployed to win over Labour rebels, some whips and government aides were accused by MPs of threatening deselection and suggesting a defeat could blow up the government. No 10 denied the claims. The Labour rebels, including senior committee chairs, have tabled an amendment that calls for the government to pause the legislation and bring forward the promised £1bn to get more people into work first. If ministers do not agree, they will try to vote the bill down. The scale of the rebellion appeared to take Downing Street, and even some of the Labour backbenchers, by surprise, amid concerns that thousands of vulnerable people could be plunged into poverty as a result of losing their disability benefits. Starmer, however, said on Tuesday that he would press ahead with the overhaul, insisting there was a “clear moral case” for change. Speaking on his way to the Nato summit in The Hague, the prime minister defended the plans to tighten the eligibility criteria for personal independence payment (Pip). “There is a clear moral case, which is: the current system doesn’t help those who want to get into work,” he said. “It traps people. I think it’s 1,000 people a day going on to Pip. The additions to Pip each year are the equivalent of a city the size of Leicester. That is not a system that can be left unreformed.” Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, spent much of Tuesday locked in talks with MPs as she sought to win over opponents. Cabinet ministers including Angela Rayner, Jonathan Reynolds and Wes Streeting were also understood to have been deployed to try to convince anxious backbenchers. The size of the rebellion – which one rebel source suggested on Tuesday night had risen to 127 – is enough to threaten Starmer’s working majority of 165 and defeat the government’s plans if opposition MPs side with the rebels. No 10 could opt to pull the bill rather than face defeat. Vicky Foxcroft, a former government whip who resigned over the welfare plans, has signed the amendment, along with the former cabinet minister Louise Haigh. More frontbenchers, who would then have to stand down, are expected to join the rebellion. On Tuesday evening Kemi Badenoch offered Conservative support to help the government pass its welfare bill in exchange for three commitments from Starmer. Badenoch told Sky News: “I’m just making it very clear to Keir Starmer that if he will make commitments at the dispatch box to meet our conditions, which are to reduce the welfare budget, to get people into work and not to have tax rises, then we can support his bill. “The bill is a bit of a mess. It needs some work. It looks like it’s been rushed for Rachel [Reeves] to fix other problems that they’ve got. But our welfare budget is far too high, and we really need to bring it down.” With the government unlikely to bow to Tory pressure to make commitments, particularly on tax rises, it appeared that she was giving the opposition political cover to vote against or abstain on the bill. The rebel amendment, led by the Treasury select committee chair, Meg Hillier, raises concerns the proposals could push up to 250,000 people – including 50,000 children – into poverty. It also criticises the government for failing to publish the Office for Budget Responsibility’s impact assessment before the vote, and for pursuing changes without adequate consultation with disabled people. The proposed legislation would make it harder to qualify for Pip by requiring claimants to meet a higher threshold in their assessments. It also includes plans to halve the health top-up in universal credit for new claimants from 2026 and phase out the work capability assessment. Khan urged ministers to look again at the hardship the changes would force on vulnerable and disabled people. He said the additional employment and training support should be brought in as soon as possible, and proper transitional protections put in place before cuts. “I have always said that more must be done to support people to go from relying on benefits to getting back into work. It’s vital for a healthy and prosperous London. What we can’t do is take away the vital safety net that so many vulnerable and disabled Londoners rely upon,” he said. Asked whether concessions would be offered to rebels, a No 10 spokesperson said: “We’ll talk to them over the next week but the government believes this is a good package of reforms. We hope that colleagues will engage positively over the next few days.” The Cabinet Office minister, Pat McFadden, said on Tuesday morning it would be a “very serious thing” for Labour MPs to effectively vote down the legislation at its first major outing in the Commons. . Disability charities have criticised the changes, warning they will disproportionately impact people with mental health conditions, women with fluctuating illnesses and unpaid carers. Experts warned that up to 1.2 million people with disabilities are expected to lose thousands of pounds a year under Kendall’s plans to save £5bn a year by overhauling the welfare system, including by cutting Pip. An extra 250,000 people will fall into relative poverty by 2029-30, according to the government’s own impact assessment.
In The Hague, the Nato summit waits for Donald Trump – and no one more so than the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte. “You are flying into another big success,” Rutte wrote in a text on Tuesday, one of several released shortly afterwards by a hyperactive Trump as he travelled across the Atlantic in Air Force One. The sycophantic messages from the Dutchman had compared Nato’s plan to dramatically increase defence spending to the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites over the weekend: “Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else dared to do.” That tone underlined how keen the head of the alliance and most other western allies are to ensure the summit passes off well, knowing full well that Trump’s commitment to Nato has been unpredictable – and that every step has to be taken to keep the freewheeling US president on message. Meanwhile, as Air Force One flew over the Atlantic to the Dutch capital, it did not take Trump long to drift off message. Would, the president was asked, the US abide by Nato’s article 5 guarantee that says that if one member of the alliance is attacked, it is considered as an attack on all, and other allies should take the actions deemed necessary to assist the country attacked? “Depends on your definition,” Trump said. “There’s numerous definitions of article 5, you know that, right? But I’m committed to being their friends.” The president was asked to explain this watery response, prompting him to say he was “committed to saving lives” and “committed to life and safety”, before adding that he did not want to elaborate while flying. At the 2018 summit during his first term, Trump hinted that the US might leave Nato, but at this year’s specially shortened get-together, every step has been taken to ensure that he is in an upbeat mood and supportive of the military alliance that the US contributes so much to and Europe has benefited so much from. The US president flew in the early evening for a leaders’ dinner held at Paleis Huis ten Bosch, the royal palace and a home of King Willem-Alexander. But in a change announced at the last minute, it emerged that Trump would be staying there overnight, not at the Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin in Noordwijk as planned, and would be breakfasting with the Dutch monarch. Over the past few months, Rutte has been negotiating directly with Trump and other Nato leaders to persuade the alliance’s 32 members to agree what amounts in most cases to a substantial hike in defence spending, lifting core military budgets to 3.5% of GDP by 2035, reaching 5% when an extra 1.5% of related spending on cyber, intelligence and infrastructure is factored in. One Nato military leader praised Rutte’s diplomatic skills. “The way he has handled Trump has been brilliant, from the moment he went to visit him in Mar-a-Lago,” he said, referring to a trip made in November last year, when Trump was still president-elect. It was a deal, he said, that had been hammered out between the two before, country by country, almost every Nato member was brought around. On Monday, Rutte was circumspect when asked about how he managed to work with Trump and bring him on board with the plan, or his role in trying to make the summit a success. “I’m holding the gavel. I opened the meeting, I closed the meeting, and in the meantime, I travel a lot between allies and talk and discuss,” he said. The tone of the texts, however, reveal the reality of the Rutte approach – perhaps the only one calculated to bring success. “It was not easy but we’ve got them all signed onto 5%!” he wrote to Trump. “You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done. Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win. Safe travels and see you at His Majesty’s dinner.” After Tuesday’s dinner, on Wednesday there will be a cut-down summit, with a single two-and-a-half-hour meeting where Trump and other leaders will sign off a short communique of a handful of paragraphs that will confirm the 5% deal. The hope is that Trump – flushed also with a feeling of success after the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites – will be pro-Nato in private and again at the mid-afternoon press conference. But some unhappy diplomats in The Hague worry that there could yet be a row with Spain. Though its prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said he would not block the 5% commitment, he has insisted that Spain can meet its Nato responsibilities by spending less: 2.1% of GDP. Of the dozen or so social media postings Trump made from the flight was a media graphic headlined: “Spain threatens to derail summit.”
The Iranian ballistic missile landed a little over an hour before the ceasefire was to take effect on Tuesday morning, crumpling the seven-storey apartment block in Beersheba, south Israel, killing four residents and wounding 30. Jessica Sardinas felt the blast 300 metres away in her safe room, where she had slept every night for the past 10 days. She had read the news of a ceasefire before sleeping, but did not believe it. “I never thought there would be a ceasefire,” said Sardinas, a 27-year-old psychologist, while watching rescue workers comb through rubble and flattened cars. “But I hope there will be one because we are in danger every day here.” Sardinas, like many Israelis, was weary after nearly two weeks of war with Iran. Unlike the Gaza war, which has killed more than 56,000 people in the territory, ordinary Israelis could not afford to ignore the conflict with Iran. Tehran’s ballistic missiles could not be batted away like the rockets Hamas fired from nearby Gaza. Scenes like that of the struck building in Beersheba, which had its top two floors crumpled, while shredded clothes and broken appliances hung off the sheared-open back wall of the structure, were rare in Israel. “I told all my family and friends that I would always feel safe here, this was true until this war. I don’t know if I would have moved to Israel if I knew this war would happen,” said Sardinas, who emigrated from Argentina about three years ago. As she spoke, it was still unclear if the ceasefire announced by the US president, Donald Trump, at 1am local time, to begin “in approximately six hours” would hold. Israel had launched its most intense barrage of strikes in the hours before the ceasefire took effect, hitting sites belonging to internal security forces and killing hundreds of Iranian security personnel. Iran let off five waves of missiles before the truce and Israel accused it of shooting three missiles three hours after the deadline – a claim Iran denied. Trump quickly reigned in the Israelis and warned them not to respond to the Iranian missiles, letting off an expletive in front of reporters in a clear sign of impatience with both countries. After announcing their commitment to the ceasefire, both Iranian and Israeli officials claimed victory. “The enemy was left with no option but to retreat, express regret and unilaterally bring its aggression to a halt,” the Iranian supreme national security council said in a statement. “This is a great success for the people of Israel and its fighters, who removed two existential threats to our country, and ensured the eternity of Israel,” an Israeli government statement said. In Israel, there was a palpable sense of victory – and relief that the fighting was over. “I want to be safe. For 10 years Iran has said they want to kill us. If what the president of the US says is true, that we’ve gotten rid of the atomic bombs, then this war is finished,” said Gil Cohen, a 51-year-old who lives near the struck building. Israel started the war with Iran by launching hundreds of airstrikes across the country without warning on 13 June, in what it said was a pre-emptive operation meant to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran quickly responded by shooting off a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel, kicking off 12 days of tit-for-tat fighting. Iran has long insisted that its nuclear programme was meant purely for civilian purposes. US intelligence assessments put it two to three years away from obtaining a nuclear bomb – an estimate with which Israel and Trump disagreed. In total, 29 people were killed and hundreds more wounded by Iranian attacks in Israel. At least 430 people were killed and more than 3,500 wounded by Israeli strikes in Iran, according to official sources, though the real number is suspected to be higher. Hundreds of thousands of people were also displaced within Iran by the attacks. To Sardinas, that toll was justified. She said Israel was “doing the world’s dirty work” by setting back Iran’s nuclear programme. “Of course the war was worth it, it’s not worth it to stop nuclear weapons? Someone needed to do it. We are attacking them first to prevent their attacks,” she said. Another passerby pushing his two daughters in a stroller said he thought a ceasefire had come too soon, as he was sceptical that enough damage had been done to Iran. Amnesty International said the 12 days of fighting had had devastating effects on civilians in both countries, as attacks struck non-military targets on both sides. “Both Israeli and Iranian authorities have time and again demonstrated their utter disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law, committing grave international crimes with impunity,” Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International, said in a statement on 18 June. The rights body later condemned Israel’s strike on the Evin prison in Tehran on Monday, which held hundreds of prisoners, including defenders of human rights. What happens after the ceasefire remains uncertain. Western leaders have urged a return to US and Iranian negotiations, and Israeli defence officials have indicated that their military gains could translate to a nuclear deal that was more favourable to them. Iranian officials have not yet made a comment on their stance on negotiations. After the initial Israeli attack on Iran, the country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said he felt negotiations with the US had been a ploy to catch the country off-guard and he accused Israel and the US of “blowing up” diplomacy. “The war should definitely stop, the best option for everybody is a ceasefire. I don’t want anything to do with this war,” said an Israeli soldier supervising relief work, confessing he had been sending memes to his friends about being forced to fight in “world war three” after Israel began attacking Iran.
Palestine Action has condemned a briefing by Home Office officials that it could be funded by Iran as “baseless smears”. The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced plans on Monday to ban the protest group, which takes direct action against Israeli arms companies in the UK, under anti-terrorism laws. She made no mention during her statement of suspected Iranian links but the Times reported that Home Office officials had said they were investigating whether the group is funded by Iran. A Palestine Action spokesperson said: “This is a baseless investigation and ridiculous investigation. We are funded by ordinary people who support us. “They are doing it because they don’t believe that banning an organisation causing damage to weapons factories and companies who enable the production of weapons sits well with a lot of the public, and therefore they’re trying to create a smear campaign in order to justify the proscription. “You would think that politicians would want to vote based on hard facts. Instead, it’s just saying you’re investigating someone for X, Y, Z.” The group also pointed out that a crowdfunder posted on CrowdJustice on Tuesday afternoon to raise £10,000 in legal fees to fight proscription had raised more than £5,000 in its first hour. It said Gareth Peirce from Birnberg Peirce solicitors, who represented the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six, has been instructed to represent the group. The anonymous Home Office briefing about Iran came two days after the advocacy group We Believe in Israel tweeted: “Behind Palestine Action’s theatre of resistance stands a darker puppeteer: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps … Palestine Action is the mask. The IRGC is the face.” The only evidence it provided was saying that the IRGC’s vocabulary “echoes in Palestine Action’s slogans”. We Believe in Israel launched a campaign to ban Palestine Action this month and language from a report it published was similar to that used by Cooper in her statement. The decision to proscribe Palestine Action – the first time such a proposal has been made in relation to a direct action protest group – came after activists from the group broke into RAF Brize Norton on Friday and defaced two military aircraft with spray paint in an embarrassing security breach. The ban would place the group alongside the likes of al-Qaida, Islamic State and National Action, and make it a criminal offence to be a member of the group or show support for it. The proposal, which will go before parliament next week, has been heavily criticised by groups such as Amnesty International and Liberty. Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director, Areeba Hamid, said: “Proscribing Palestine Action would be a grave mistake. Unlike al-Qaida, Wagner group and the other groups classed as ‘terrorist organisations’, Palestine Action does not advocate for violent armed action or for people to be harmed. “They exist to decommission the weapons used to commit war crimes. Proscribing them would mark a dark turn for our democracy and a new low for a government already intent on stamping out the right to protest. “The police already have laws to prosecute any individuals found guilty of a crime. And as a non-violent organisation with ‘peace’ in our name, we would never defend violence. But outlawing an entire organisation and all of its supporters would be a dangerous step.” The former justice secretary Charlie Falconer said on Sunday that the “sort of demonstration” at Brize Norton would not justify proscription, “so there must be something else that I don’t know about”. Cooper’s statement appeared to offer no new information about the group. It also referred to an action against “a Jewish-owned business in north London” as neither “legitimate or peaceful”, but did not mention that Palestine Action said it had targeted the business in question because it is registered as a landlord of the Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems UK’s factory in Kent.
People from the Tehran area said the hours of darkness before Donald Trump’s ceasefire took hold were the most terrifying of the war as Israel intensified its bombardment. “We felt jets flying so low above our apartment that the windows shook. The bombing intensified to a level I’ve never experienced before. People ran into the streets, terrified and panicking,” said Mariam, 39, from the village of Kordan, about 30 miles (50km) north-west of the capital. Like everyone quoted in this article, she chose to use a pseudonym. When residents ventured out in the streets after the sun rose on Tuesday, their first question was what kind of country the bombers had left in their wake. “There’s a silence now, like a pause in breath before something worse,” Mariam said. “We live in a nightmare that won’t end. I’m scared, and I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I don’t know if the war will really end.” Most of the Iranians the Guardian talked to were pessimistic, fearing the regime would use the war as a pretext for rolling back some of the liberties carved out by the female-led resistance of the past few years. “We had neutralised the ideology of these people. They were culturally and in everyday life bent to our will,” said Shirin, a middle-aged Tehrani woman. She was referring to the fact that before the war the regime’s enforcers had for the most part given up making women who did not want to wear the hijab. The regime had largely retreated from the private sphere of ordinary Iranians. Shirin was worried it would now return with a vengeance. “They now can become as powerful as they were 10 years ago,” she said. In the course of the war, Trump and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, made direct appeals to the Iranian people to rise up against their rulers. Such appeals mostly fell flat, however, even among ardent opponents of Iran’s theocratic establishment. For many Iranians, they were just two more angry old men telling them what to do. “I do not trust Trump. He changes his mind every few seconds. We Iranians deserve better than people like him, Khamenei and Netanyahu who are deciding our fates,” said Nazanin, 28, a Tehrani movie producer. “The whole time we were screaming that we didn’t ask for this war. “Today they’re going to parade on the streets and all the people you will see in the victory parade are just pro-regime hardliners. Now we will suffer the consequences because a wounded regime will pounce on us like prey.” The authorities staged a “victory celebration” in the capital’s Enghelab, or Revolution Square, on Tuesday night. Posters and online propaganda drew in part on Persian folklore, and the image of Arash Kamangir or Arash the Archer, a mythic hero who shot an arrow with superhuman strength. Where it landed marked the border with a hostile neighbour. Most Tehranis also predicted the regime would try to galvanise support through the special significance given to the holy month of Muharram, which begins on Sunday, with its climax falling on its tenth day, Ashura, which in Shia Islam is a day of remembrance and celebration of martyrdom. “The regime is expected to intensify its repression in various areas, including stricter enforcement of mandatory hijab, following the ceasefire,” Mahdi, 42, from Tehran, said. “During the month of Muharram, the government will likely emphasise the culture of martyrdom even more.” “The regime will use it for its political gains and power,” he said. Saeed, 23, a student leader and activist, pointed to Tuesday’s festivities and the air of triumphalism the authorities were trying to spread. “The Islamic Republic is already acting like it won the war, like the whole thing was just a performance for Khamenei, Netanyahu, and Trump to inflate their egos,” he he said. Unlike most people the Guardian spoke to, he did at least see a possible upside for ordinary people. “The ceasefire gave us a bit of hope but also a lot to think about,” he said. “The Islamic Republic’s shallow propaganda about ‘security’ has collapsed. The idea that they’ve always used as an excuse to suppress us is now broken. “One possible gain from all this might be the space to build a real third way, something beyond just Islamic Republic loyalists or monarchists, or regime change activists who ignored us when we needed support most. “Maybe we can create movements that actually care about us, and about Iran as a whole without having to choose between fascism and Islamo-fascism. But I also know from history that it will be hard.”
At least 40 Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza have died in new shootings by Israeli forces, local medics and officials said, raising the total killed in the last two weeks in such incidents in the devastated territory to more than 500. Though the fragile ceasefire declared between Israel and Iran has boosted hopes in Gaza that the 20-month-long war in the territory may end soon, there were further Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday and reports of at least two incidents involving Israeli troops opening fire on civilians seeking humanitarian assistance. Hatim Abu Rajliya, 24, said he had been waiting since 5am for food to be distributed from one of the new hubs set up near what is left of the southern city of Rafah by a secretive private organisation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which started operating in the territory last month with Israeli and US backing. “There is a sheltered place where we stay and take cover from bullets and shrapnel near the hub in Shakoush [a former neighbourhood of Rafah]. Some people there warned us not to move forward … Shortly after, Israeli military vehicles advanced toward us and began firing bullets and shells directly at the civilians waiting for aid. Many people around us and in nearby areas were wounded. We tried to pull them into our shelter, some were already dead, others were bleeding out,” Abu Rajliya said. “Among those we pulled in was my cousin, he had been shot in the head, the bullet tore his skull open. We carried him in an empty flour sack, running under gunfire. We eventually found a [three-wheeled motorised cart] and got him to the Red Cross hospital. They told us he should be transferred to Nasser medical complex [in Khan Younis] where his condition is now stable.” The exact details of the shootings on Tuesday are unclear. Mahmud Bassal, a civil defence spokesperson, told AFP that 25 people were killed and dozens wounded when Israeli forces targeted civilian gatherings near the neighbourhoods of al-Alam and al-Shakoush with bullets and tank shells as they attempted to reach an aid centre in north-west Rafah, about 2km from a US-backed aid distribution point. Medics in Gaza said they had received casualties from a second incident near the Netzarim corridor, a strategic road that separates the northern third of the territory and is partially held by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Dr Marwan Abu Nasser, director of al-Awda hospital in Jabaliya, said 18 dead and 146 injured civilians were brought in from 11pm to midnight on Monday , with more following during the early hours of Tuesday. All had been waiting for aid near the Netzarim corridor, he told the Guardian. “The condition of the wounded is extremely critical – around 100 cases are in very serious condition. Almost all of the injuries were caused by gunfire, with bullets striking various parts of the body, especially in the trunk,” Abu Nasser said. Dr Khalil al-Daqran, spokesperson for al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, said dozens of injured civilians had been brought in, with nine dead. Israel’s military said that a gathering overnight was identified adjacent to forces operating in Gaza’s central Netzarim corridor, and it was reviewing reports of casualties. The GHF said in an email that there had been “nothing” near their aid site south of the Netzarim corridor, nor any reports of casualties near its Rafah hubs. Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since a tight blockade on all supplies was imposed by Israel throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with a “critical risk of famine”. Since the blockade was partly lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy. There have been multiple incidents in recent weeks in which crowds have been fired on after gathering in the hope of getting aid from one of the dozens of trucks being brought into Gaza by UN agencies each day. On Monday, 79 trucks from aid organisations and the international community containing food, medical supplies and medications were transferred into Gaza after undergoing thorough security inspections, Israeli authorities said. The IDF had no immediate comment on the reported shootings in Rafah. Separately, 10 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, while 11 were killed by Israeli gunfire in the southern city of Khan Younis, medics said. Israel says militants use built-up residential areas for operating cover. Hamas denies this. Israel hopes the GHF will replace the previous comprehensive aid distribution system run by the UN, which Israeli officials claim allowed Hamas to steal and sell aid. UN agencies and major aid groups, which have delivered humanitarian aid across Gaza since the start of the 20-month-long war, have rejected the new system, saying it is impractical, inadequate and unethical. They deny there is widespread theft of aid by Hamas. Israel launched its campaign to destroy Hamas after the group’s 7 October 2023 attack, during which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostage. The militants still hold 53 hostages, fewer than half of them alive, after most were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. The death toll in Gaza since the war broke out has reached 56,000, according to the health ministry. In a statement on Tuesday, the GHF said it had distributed 42m meals in Gaza and that aid distribution at all sites “proceeded without incident”. The group has however formally complained to the IDF “regarding instances of possible harassment by Israeli soldiers directed at its convoys”. The IDF said its “operational conduct … is accompanied by systematic learning processes” and that it was looking into safety measures such as fences and road signs to guide those seeking to get aid but say troops have only fired at “suspects” who are believed to pose a threat to them.
… and on that note, shortly before the leaders will start arriving for their opening dinner in The Hague, it’s a wrap for today! Nato secretary general Mark Rutte has urged Europe to “make your defences so strong that no one dares to attack you,” as he rallied around the new proposed 5% GDP spending target. “It is simply unthinkable that Russia, with an economy 25 times smaller than Nato’s, should be able to outproduce and outgun us,” he said (13:54, 16:34). Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump revealed a congratulatory text message he received from Rutte, praising him for “something no one else dared to do” on Iran and promising him he was “flying into another big success in The Hague” (15:44) He is set to arrive this evening after injecting some uncertainty over whether the US would abide by the mutual defense guarantees outlined in the Nato treaty by saying the US commitment to Nato’s Article 5 “depends on your definition” of the mechanism (16:29). But his most senior diplomat at Nato, Matthew Whittaker, insisted “The United States isn’t going anywhere” (11:54), after Nato’s Rutte also said that allies should “stop worrying so much” about the US and focus on investing more money. Meanwhile, Meanwhile, European leaders largely backed the new 5% GDP target, with some – including Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy (9:26) and Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen (16:50) – even saying the proposed timeline risked being too slow, and Czech Republic’s Petr Pavel saying the ramp up reflects the needs “we were neglecting for decades” (16:48). German chancellor Friedrich Merz said “it is no exaggeration to call this summit historic” given its importance to increasing defence spending among the members of the alliance (12:33). Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni told the Italian parliament that if the country spends more on defence to meet its international commitments, the extra outlays should benefit Italian companies rather than foreign ones (12:06). The Nato summit was hit by major train disruption in the Netherlands, with the government (9:56) and the police saying it could have been a deliberate act of sabotage (16:26). Elsewhere, President Donald Trump’s nominee to become the top US general in Europe has just said he believed Ukraine could prevail against Russia’s more than three-year-old invasion (17:12). Ukraine’s Zelenskyy is expected to meet with Trump on the sidelines of the summit, just hours after the latest Russian strike killed at least 17 and wounded more than 200 (18:26). The summit proper gets under way tomorrow, and we will obviously bring you all the key updates on Europe Live. If you want to follow live updates from Trump’s arrival at Nato, you can tune into our US politics live blog here: If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.