Amber heat warnings issued for parts of southern England

• EU Council President António Costa’s office has initiated contact with a senior official close to Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss potential peace talks regarding Ukraine. • These diplomatic outreach efforts mark a strategic move by Brussels to explore avenues for negotiation as the conflict continues to destabilize the region.

• Mastercard's Cyber Pulse Report 2026 reveals a 13% overall increase in cyberattacks across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EEMEA) over the past year. • The report highlights a dramatic 198% spike in cyber threats specifically triggered by ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

• France is hosting the G7 Summit starting Monday, June 17, 2026, with a primary focus on reducing global imbalances. • The meeting occurs during a period of significant strain on global governance, specifically regarding transatlantic relations and international trade.

• Alessandro Politi, Director of the NATO Defense College Foundation, analyzes the G7's struggle to maintain consensus amidst growing global fragmentation. • The discussion highlights critical challenges including Gulf security, Middle East diplomacy, supply-chain resilience, and the procurement of critical minerals.

• G7 leaders are meeting in Evian this Wednesday to discuss strategies for supporting sustainable global economic growth. • The summit focuses on mitigating the economic strain caused by the ongoing war in Iran, which continues to disrupt global markets.

Do the concessions undermine the original objective of helping young Australians buy their own home? NoGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe noise, negative headlines and internet memes that have surrounded Labor’s capital gains tax changes since their budget night unveiling made a backdown feel like an inevitability.It wasn’t a question of if concessions would be offered but rather when and, most importantly, how much they might undermine the original purpose. Continue reading...

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show migration growth is above pre-pandemic levels but tracking steadily downGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastNet overseas migration added 301,000 people to Australia’s population last year, the lowest increase since mid-2022 but still above the pre-pandemic pace.The new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics come amid an increasingly fraught political debate around immigration, following Pauline Hanson’s declaration that our society should be “monocultural”. Continue reading...

Pictures from photographer’s return to Lacock after 40 years were taken months before his death last DecemberThe images are colourful, characterful and thought-provoking. They capture a flower show, a Women’s Institute meeting, a scarecrow festival. A local vicar features, resplendent in a union jack bowler hat, as does a band of bellringers and a bulldog called Billy.Four decades after chronicling life in the picture-postcard English village of Lacock in Wiltshire, the photographer Martin Parr returned to document what had changed – and what had not. Continue reading...

A decade in the making, the museum will reopen in November in two restored market halls that will house 7m objects and host late-night DJ setsThe new London Museum will be “a social space for the city”, its director has said, hosting afternoon tea events, monthly dinner clubs and late-night DJ sets where visitors can mingle among the artefacts while dancing.Sharon Ament said that when it reopens later this year the museum will be a “democratic” space that engages with all Londoners rather than merely a repository for its collections, which stretch from the city’s neolithic prehistory to modern acquisitions. Continue reading...

Other lawmakers respond with ‘shame on you’ in heated confrontation over passing of plan to increase deportationsRightwing MEPs have come under fire after they celebrated a vote aimed at increasing deportations across the EU with chants of “send them back”, leading other lawmakers to respond with cries of “shame on you”.The heated confrontation in the European parliament came on Wednesday after lawmakers voted 418 to 218 to approve controversial measures aimed at increasing deportations of undocumented people. Continue reading...

Peter Wai and Bill Yuen sentenced to 10 and eight years at Old Bailey in first convictions under National Security ActA UK Border Force officer and a Hong Kong trade official based in London have been jailed for spying for China in what is the first such conviction in British criminal history.Peter Wai, who conducted “shadow policing” operations on Chinese dissidents in the UK, was sentenced to 10 years while his handler, Bill Yuen, received an eight-year term. Continue reading...

Miguel Díaz-Canel cites China and Vietnam as possible models for opening up the country’s economyCuba’s economy needs “urgent changes” to overcome a major crisis intensified by a US oil blockade, president Miguel Díaz-Canel said in a speech to Communist party leaders. “The situation calls for urgent and necessary changes,” Díaz-Canel told the party’s politburo in his frankest admission yet of the need to overhaul the country’s communist model.In the remarks, broadcast on Thursday, he cited China and Vietnam as possible models for opening Cuba’s economy to the world in order to “create economic wealth and distribute it equally.” Continue reading...