Pete

• House Democrats skeptically questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for the first time since the Iran war began, pressing on strategy and costs during an April 29 hearing. • One Democrat accused Hegseth of partisanship, quoting his prior statements back at him in a heated exchange. • The confrontation highlights partisan divides over the war's economic toll and Trump's foreign policy amid plunging approval ratings.

As his defense secretary testified before House committee, Trump posted AI-generated image of himself with a weapon and a caption saying ‘NO MORE MR. NICE GUY’Pete Hegseth has denied that the US-Israel war on Iran is “a quagmire” and claimed critics of the operation posed a greater threat to the US than Iran itself, as he came under pressure to set out Washington’s strategy for the conflict.Appearing before the House armed services committee alongside Gen Dan Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, the US defense secretary asked lawmakers to approve a $1.5tn budget in military spending – and then described some of them as “the biggest challenge” to the war effort. Continue reading...

Where Olly Robbins relied on recollections, Cabinet Office’s top civil servant was at pains to link her account to paper trail Seen through the Westminster bubble, the Peter Mandelson vetting affair looks like an age-old conflict pitting ministers against mandarins. Yet the latest top civil servant to testify to parliament over what some are now calling “Mandygate” gave an intriguing account that suggested it has never been as simple as that.Cat Little, the top civil servant at the Cabinet Office, did not put it in these terms, but what she revealed was an extraordinary dispute between the country’s most senior civil servants. Continue reading...

Permanent secretary, Cat Little, to give evidence to foreign affairs committee as pressure increases on Keir Starmer The UK government budget came in below its annual borrowing target by £700m, official figures show – but the Iran war is likely to blow a hole in Rachel Reeves’s carefully calculated fiscal “headroom” over the coming months. Tom Knowles has the story.Good morning. As Kiran Stacey, Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot report in the Guardian’s splash, “Keir Starmer is looking increasingly isolated over his handling of the Peter Mandelson scandal with divisions emerging in cabinet over his decision to sack the Foreign Office civil servant Olly Robbins.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: Adrian Fulford will also examine wider national security vetting system after Foreign Office controversyUK politics live – latest updatesA retired high court judge is expected to review Peter Mandelson’s vetting process and the wider national security vetting system.The review, commissioned by Downing Street, comes after a Guardian investigation revealing that security officials decided Mandelson should not receive developed vetting clearance, but were overruled by the Foreign Office to allow him to become US ambassador. Continue reading...

• The Kansas City Chiefs secured All-Pro cornerback Marcus Peters with a three-year contract extension worth $45 million, keeping their secondary anchor through 2029. • Peters recorded 8 interceptions and 22 passes defensed last season, maintaining his elite performance level at age 31. • The move solidifies Kansas City's defense ahead of the 2026 NFL season after their Super Bowl LXII victory last February.

Former UK ambassador to US was photographed in November outside George Osborne’s London homeThe former senior Labour figure Peter Mandelson faces a fixed-penalty notice after being caught urinating in public, it has emerged.Mandelson was photographed in the act while standing outside the home of the former chancellor George Osborne last November, shortly after he had been sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US over his relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Continue reading...