Democrats say they were shut out of fraud event after Vance says crackdown ‘should not be a partisan’

• A Horn Institute publication says the U.S.-Israel war on Iran has widened into a broader conflict with effects that are now reaching Africa. • The analysis describes mounting diplomatic and security dilemmas for African states as regional shockwaves spread beyond the Middle East.

• The United States has paused its participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defense, the long-running U.S.-Canada military consultation forum, according to a CSIS analysis published this week. • CSIS says the pause comes about six weeks before the mandatory USMCA joint review, which makes the timing politically sensitive for both countries.

Unless the mainstream gets its act together, next year’s election looks likely to hand the keys of the Élysée to the far right• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up here“The real risk,” France’s prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, reportedly said last month, “is that this tangle of ambitions reflects such a lack of engagement with reality on the part of all these candidates that voters find the whole thing grotesque.”He has a point. By this time next year, France will have a new president and Emmanuel Macron, who is constitutionally barred from serving more than two consecutive terms, will have left after a decade in the Élysée Palace. Continue reading...

At least seven people have died in recent days as people have tried to cool off in Britain’s waterwaysWater safety experts have warned about the dangers of outdoor swimming after a spike in drownings as people try to escape soaring temperatures by cooling off in rivers, lakes, reservoirs and other bodies of water.In recent days, emergency services have reported at least seven deaths because of water-related incidents, with six involving young people, as Britain’s heatwave sends crowds of people to the seaside and other swimming spots. Continue reading...

BMA blames new health secretary for decision to stage 16th strike in long-running jobs and pay disputeUK politics live – latest updatesResident doctors in England will next month stage the 16th strike in their long-running jobs and pay dispute and blamed the new health secretary for their decision.They will strike for four days from 7am on Monday 15 June until 6.59am on Friday 19 June. Continue reading...

Of 11 seasonal items in Guardian price comparison, six hit highest price in last three months, with some nearly doubling in price in last weekThe heatwave has triggered a surge in prices for seasonal items, with the cost of one inflatable hot tub nearly doubling in a week, while an industry expert said air conditioning units have risen by about 17% since April.The Guardian looked at the cost of popular items across a range of websites and examined their price on PriceRunner, an independent price comparison service. One of the biggest price increases was for the Bestway inflatable hot tub Lay-Z-Spa Cancún AirJet, which was available for £160 on 21 May but now retails for a minimum of £299. Continue reading...

Randy Hubbs died and Nicole Klein was injured after the two collided during a group jump at West Plains SkydivingA skydiver was killed and another injured after the two collided midair during a group jump in Washington state, authorities said this week.The Adams county sheriff’s office said in a statement on Monday that authorities were called Sunday evening regarding reports that “two skydivers were needing medical attention”. Continue reading...

Kenneth Iwamasa pleaded guilty over role in Friends actor’s death from drug overdose in 2023Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailThe personal assistant who injected Matthew Perry with ketamine several times with no medical training, including on the day the Friends actor was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles residence, will be sentenced on Wednesday.Kenneth Iwamasa, 61, pleaded guilty to distributing ketamine that resulted in death or serious bodily injury. Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of three years and five months. Continue reading...

Vetting officials also flagged £1m loan when recommending he should be denied security clearanceKey questions: did ‘mitigations’ cover links to China and Russia?Peter Mandelson’s associations with senior figures in China, Russia and Israel were among the concerns raised by the UK’s vetting agency when it concluded he should be denied clearance, multiple sources have told the Guardian.Mandelson’s links to China’s minister of finance, Lan Fo’an, the sanctions-hit Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and a former Israeli military intelligence general, Tamir Hayman, were all flagged by the agency as areas of concern shortly before he took up his post as the UK’s ambassador to the US, the sources said. Continue reading...

Local authorities deem UK arrivals to be children more than twice as often as border forces, Home Office data showsYoung asylum seekers in the UK are more than twice as likely to be assessed as adults by immigration officers than by social workers, according to home office data.Between July 2025 and March 2026, 4,320 initial age decisions made by immigration officials found just 1,363 new arrivals (32%) to be children. Continue reading...

Former president says disclosure of recordings tied to classified files inquiry would violate his privacyJoe Biden, the former president, has filed a lawsuit to try to prevent the justice department (DoJ) from releasing transcripts and audio of interviews that exposed his frequent memory lapses and helped derail his 2024 re-election campaign.The decade-old conversations with the author of his biography ended up in the hands of Robert Hur, the special counsel who was appointed to look into allegations Biden improperly handled classified documents. Continue reading...