NATO extends military aid package to Ukraine as Russia escalates artillery attacks in Donbas

• A Washington Post report reveals that the CIA questioned the validity of Israeli intelligence regarding a threat to Donald Trump prior to a plane switch in Turkey. • While the report indicates the threat was actually real, CIA officials reportedly deemed the intelligence "not compelling enough" to warrant a different response.

• Myanmar is challenging the traditional diplomatic model where governments must make political concessions and end human rights abuses to end international isolation. • Historically, Western diplomacy utilized conditionality, applying economic restrictions and diplomatic pressure to force rehabilitation and political reform.

In France, 80 departments have been placed on an orange heat warningWell, that was quick.Straight off the back of the solar eclipse last night, we’re heading into a solar inferno as extreme heat returns today, with temperatures above 40C in parts of Spain and up to 38C in London and Paris. Continue reading...

Mina Smallman, whose daughters were killed in north London park in 2020, says force ‘decides who matters’The Metropolitan police does not take all cases of violence against women seriously and “decides who matters”, the mother of two murdered women has said.Mina Smallman, whose daughters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were killed in a north London park in 2020, also said Britain’s biggest police force is incapable of change. Two police officers were jailed in 2021 after taking photographs of the dead bodies of her daughters and sharing the images in WhatsApp groups, referring to them as “dead birds”. Continue reading...

Angus Taylor cautions NSW senator for diverging from policy in National Press Club speech as Nationals warn against changes to working holiday visasFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAndrew Bragg has agreed that lower-income Australians should accept poorly built housing in a bid to boost the number of dwellings built nationally, amid growing internal fallout continues over his proposal to cap net migration to modern historic lows.The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, and several of Bragg’s colleagues publicly cautioned the NSW Liberal moderate for going off script in his speech on Wednesday as the Nationals warned against any changes to working holiday visas. Continue reading...

The three teenagers are students at Scots College, one of Sydney’s oldest all-boys’ private schoolsFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThree students from a Sydney boys’ private school have been charged with sexual assault offences in relation to the alleged assault of a teenage girl.Police launched an investigation after reports that a 14-year-old girl had last month been assaulted in an alleyway in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Continue reading...

Health secretary praises more collegiate style under Andy Burnham and says previous No 10 sidelined her from key policy launchYvette Cooper admits Labour has “not done government very well” in the last couple of years, and accused Keir Starmer’s No 10 of sidelining her during the launch of a key immigration policy when she was home secretary.Speaking on the Political Currency podcast with the former Conservative chancellor George Osborne, Cooper highlighted some of the difficulties ministers faced with Starmer’s leadership, which she summarised as “bring me solutions, not problems”. Continue reading...

GDP expanded by 0.4% in three months to June, down from 0.6% in the first quarter, says ONSEconomic growth slowed in the second quarter of the year, as the disruption unleashed by the Iran war began to take its toll, official figures show.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said GDP expanded by 0.4% in the three months to June, down from 0.6% in the first quarter, in line with City economists’ expectations. Continue reading...

Longest ballot in UK voting history features likes of Count Binface and Howling Laud Hope alongside Reform leader Polls have opened in Clacton, with thousands of residents in the Essex seat to vote in a ballot featuring Nigel Farage and a range of novelty and fringe candidates led by Count Binface.The Reform UK leader resigned as the MP for Clacton at the start of July and forced a byelection in an attempt to address complaints over a deepening scandal about gifts he received. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: With more sites closed and more lives upended, a look at the rhetoric and reality of where asylum seekers should be housedGood morning. This week, immigration minister Anna Turley announced, with minor fanfare, the government will stop using a further 13 hotels to house asylum seekers across the country.It brings the total shut this year to 44, in pursuit of Labour’s manifesto pledge, now reiterated by Andy Burnham, to cease hotel use completely by the end of this parliament. Doing so would remove what have become highly visible symbols of an increasingly toxic debate about migration. Less than 160 to go, according to the Home Office.Solar eclipse | Wednesday’s eclipse began in Russia’s remote Arctic north, going on to trace an arc over much of western Europe. From the UK to northern Italy, tens of millions of people turned to the sky as the light of the setting sun was almost completely blocked out.UK news | Nurses are collapsing during shifts amid “inhumane and impossible” conditions caused by extreme heat, their union has warned, as Andy Burnham promised to grapple with “the bigger questions” of climate adaptation.US politics | Karoline Leavitt will step down as White House press secretary at the end of August, Donald Trump announced.Science | Astronomers claim to have discovered a new kind of cosmic object, a black hole “star”, which is the size of the entire solar system and glows with a brilliant red light.Middle East | Israeli militants have besieged two Palestinian families in their homes since the weekend, aiming to take over their properties in the West Bank village of Qusra through a campaign of terror. Continue reading...

Judge rejects intimidation claim as high profile trial continues with complainant J’s ex-girlfriend cross-examined by shock jock’s defence teamThe prosecutor in the Alan Jones trial has accused the defence team in court of “intimidating” an alleged victim’s former girlfriend after she asserted she wasn’t financially motivated to provide evidence supporting her ex’s allegations.On Thursday, complainant J’s ex-girlfriend was cross-examined by Jones’s defence team, during which she maintained she had a conversation with J more than 20 years ago in which he alleged Jones touched him. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Ministers explore diverting male prisoners serving short terms or on remand away from tougher jailsMinisters are examining a possible upgrade of security at men’s category C and women’s prisons to deal with an overcrowding crisis across the England and Wales estate, the Guardian understands.Officials have explored diverting prisoners on remand or serving short sentences away from category B “reception” prisons such as HMPs Liverpool, Manchester and Pentonville in north London. Continue reading...