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Fiji declares national HIV emergency as Pacific nation grapples with surge in cases

Fiji has declared a national HIV emergency amid a spike in infections as the Pacific nation grapples with a correlating rise in methamphetamine use. The country’s health and medical services minister, Dr Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu, said in a statement on social media that an outbreak-level response was no longer sufficient to address what he described an “epidemic”. “Today I am formally declaring a national health emergency in Fiji,” he said. “This decision recognises the seriousness of the epidemic and the urgent coordinated response our country now needs.” The health minister said the government estimates that one in every 60 adults in Fiji is now living with HIV. “Five years ago, the estimate was one in 167. In 2025, we recorded 2,060 new HIV diagnoses,” he said, adding that one in 50 pregnant women has HIV. The emergency declaration followed on from a cabinet decision on 9 September and would require a coordinated response, he added. Home to less than one million people, the Pacific nation is facing one of the sharpest increases in new HIV infections globally, according to UNAIDS, which said that new infections spiked 12-fold between 2010 and 2025. Fiji’s location as a drug-running hub coupled with the escalating use of methamphetamine locally has fuelled the rapid spread of HIV, a situation worsened by unsafe injecting and a lack of access to clean needles. Low health awareness, cultural stigma and inadequate testing and treatment have exacerbated the crisis. Among HIV cases in Fiji with a known mode of transmission, over half were linked to sexual transmission and more than 42% to injecting drug use, according to UNAIDS. Of an estimated 9,100 people living with HIV in Fiji in 2025, only 39% were aware of their HIV status and only 22% were accessing antiretroviral treatment, the UN said. Responding to the emergency declaration, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima said in a statement on Wednesday that the situation was a “a stark reminder to the world that AIDS is not over”. “HIV epidemics can change quickly, and countries need health and community systems that are ready to respond urgently,” said Byanyima. “Fiji has recognised the urgency of the moment and is stepping up its response.” The UN agency said it welcomed plans to introduce a needle and syringe programme, with legislative amendments expected to go before parliament, as well as efforts to expand prevention, testing and access to treatment.

Ukraine war briefing: Drone kills Russian commander just decorated after fake victory claim

Ukrainian drone forces have killed a Russian general who had just been made a Hero of Russia after false claims that Moscow’s forces had captured the Donetsk city of Kostiantynivka. Maj Gen Anton Grunis died in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. “General Grunis was eliminated on September 12,” said Ukrainian drone commander Robert Brovdi, adding that the general was the seventh Russian military commander killed by his drone forces. Another Russian commander, Apti Alaudinov, posted confirmation that Grunis had died. The battle for Kostiantynivka is gruelling for Ukraine but war analysts say it remains contested. Grunis reported personally to Vladimir Putin earlier this year that his troops helped capture Kostiantynivka and was praised by the Russian president for “doing the work”. The territorial claim ⁠remains heavily disputed – the US-based Institute for the Study of War said Russian forces had infiltrated but not fully seized the city, and Russia’s claim was part of a wider information campaign to “portray the Ukrainian frontlines as collapsing”. Grunis received the Gold Star Hero of Russia award at a ceremony in late August. Russian ⁠airstrikes damaged buildings in Kyiv and injured three in the Black ⁠Sea port city of Odesa in the ⁠early hours of Thursday, officials said. In Kyiv, debris fell ‌on ‌warehouses and near ‌a petrol station, among other locations, said the mayor, Vitali ‌Klitschko. Three people, including a ⁠child, were injured as Russia hit a 19-storey apartment building in Odesa, authorities said. Russian drones struck a passenger bus, killing five people, as well as attacking a train in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said. “There is no military logic to this, ⁠just another act of brutality,” said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The bus was hit near the frontline city of Nikopol. Seven more people were wounded, said the Dnipropetrovsk region’s governor. Russian drones attacked a passenger train three times in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region, the acting regional governor said. Passengers and crew were evacuated and no one was hurt. Zelenskyy said that ‌in addition, a locomotive was struck in Kovel near the border with Poland. Russian shelling on Wednesday killed one person in the southern Kherson region, and in the port of Odesa one death was reported. Russian attacks injured more than a dozen people in Sumy in the north and Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine. The Russia-installed head of areas of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region held by Moscow ⁠said a Ukrainian drone strike killed one person. Officials in Russia’s border Belgorod region said six people were injured in Ukrainian attacks. The Russian Gerbera-2 drone found in the Baltic Sea off Poland was armed with explosives, officials said on Wednesday. Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Monday that the military had located the drone near the village of Rusinowo in north-western Poland and recovered it from the sea. The drone was thought to have been lost by Russia during test manoeuvres over the Baltic. Polish military prosecutors are investigating whether legal proceedings can be launched, presumably against Russia, for “causing an incident that endangers the life or health of many people and property of great value”. The Russian government has extended a ban on diesel ⁠exports until the end of October. The ban had been due to end this month. Russia introduced restrictions on exports of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel because of domestic ⁠fuel shortages driven by Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries. Reuters reported that fuel market data indicates three of Russia’s six largest diesel-producing refineries were forced to significantly cut output or halt production altogether in September because of damage caused by drone attacks. Russia’s Rosneft-owned oil refineries in the Volga river cities of ⁠Syzran and Saratov have stopped ⁠processing after Ukrainian drone attacks this month, Reuters reported on Wednesday citing three industry sources. Britain’s defence ministry has named a 40-year-old intelligence officer who died in a road crash away from the frontlines in Ukraine on Saturday. Maj Paul Wilks was commissioned from Sandhurst in 2012 and joined the Intelligence Corps, where he remained throughout his career. His commanding officer described Wilks as a “man of great intellect”, who often spoke of his love for his wife and two sons. The chief of defence intelligence described Wilks as “one of the most talented intelligence officers of his generation”. The defence secretary, Wes Streeting, said Wilks “served this country with pride and dedication”. A small number of British personnel serve in Ukraine providing security to diplomats and support the country’s armed forces. Britain’s MoD previously announced paratrooper George Hooley, 28, was killed in Ukraine in December as he watched Ukrainian forces testing a new defensive capability. A Russian strike destroyed a warehouse in Kyiv that stored props for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former TV studio, the company said on Wednesday, adding that its staff were unharmed. Zelenskyy co-founded the Kvartal 95 production company in 2003 while working as a comedian. “We lost a large number of sets, costumes, and items that for 20 years had been part of our concerts, TV shows, movies, and series,” Kvartal 95 said. Zelenskyy spent much of his early career working in television, including in Russia. In 2013, he co-presented Russian state TV’s New Year’s Eve show. Kvartal 95 ceased work in Russia following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Trump calls EU offer to Canada of associate membership ‘laughable’, while threatening tariffs

Donald Trump has threatened the European Union with “serious tariffs” and a cut to trade after the bloc proposed to make Canada its first ever associate member, calling the idea “laughable”. Suggesting the move was a “hostile act”, the US president told reporters he could put “very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe”. He added: “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe.” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen invited Canada to become the EU’s first “associate member” on Wednesday, a day before Canadian prime minister Mark Carney was due to address the European parliament. Von der Leyen pitched closer cooperation on tech, defence and energy to Carney, telling the European parliament that, as democracies face a “fracture in the international rules-based system”, Brussels and Ottawa needed to pull closer together. Canada and the EU already have a trade deal and numerous bilateral agreements, but have been moving closer since Donald Trump returned to the White House and raised tariffs on both old allies, while repeatedly talking about Canada becoming the 51st US state and lambasting the EU. In a sign that Canada was seeking to further diversify its defence ties ⁠away from ⁠the United States, Carney’s office announced on Wednesday that the country had formally applied to join the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force military ⁠coalition. The force is a rapid response ‌military partnership comprised of 10 North Atlantic Nato member states, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. On Wednesday, Carney and British prime minister Andy Burnham held a bilateral meeting at the grounds of Everton football club. The leaders, who are both fans of the premiership club, then attended the team’s game against Wolves. The two discussed deepening defence cooperation and the opportunities and ⁠challenges presented by ⁠artificial intelligence. Downing Street said both prime ministers emphasised the importance of building close ties with European partners, particularly on trade and defence. The 27-member EU has never had an associate membership category, although it has close ties with Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, allowing deep economic integration with these countries, who follow many EU rules. However it remains to be seen what associate membership means, including for Canada’s relationship with the EU single market. Von der Leyen said on Wednesday it was time to move from cooperation based on trade to a broader “alliance for the future” and “bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible. “We will work on intelligent manufacturing. We will create a tech alliance. We will integrate defence industrial bases. We will make the Arctic a flagship joint project,” she said. She listed energy, critical minerals, batteries, AI, cyber and economic security as other fields of cooperation. “This is a partnership not against anyone else, but for our common strength,” she said. With Agence France-Presse and Reuters

‘Harrowing reading’: what the inquiry into NZ fugitive father Tom Phillips revealed

A major public inquiry into the disappearance of fugitive father Tom Phillips, who hid in New Zealand’s wilderness for nearly four years with his three children, has found authorities played down the harms he inflicted on his children, and did not do enough to protect them. Taking his children, of whom he did not have legal custody, Phillips disappeared into the rugged North Island wilderness in 2021. That disappearance was preempted by an earlier, shorter stint where Phillips went bush with his son and two daughters, aged five, seven and eight at the time. In August 2025, Phillips was shot dead by police in a shootout. Here are some key findings of the inquiry, which investigated agencies’ engagement with Phillips before and after he disappeared. Agencies overlooked harm Phillips was causing Over “significant periods”, police and Oranga Tamariki (OT), the ministry for children, “underplayed or overlooked” the harm Phillips was causing before and after he vanished, the inquiry found. They were too slow to identify important information, and the search was launched too late. Police intentionally adopted “a low-key approach”, the inquiry said. “This strategy appears to have been predicated on the misconceived view that there were no concerns for the children’s welfare.” The inquiry found OT was dismissive of multiple concerns raised by the maternal family after Phillips’ first disappearance, telling the family court the children were “completely fine” and further OT involvement was perhaps not needed. Significant family concerns minimised Had OT taken into consideration the significant concerns of the children’s mother and two other sisters, they “may have prevented or made more difficult” his second disappearance, the inquiry found. The sisters, who had lived with their stepfather Phillips for some years, repeatedly raised concerns over his pattern of isolation and harm he caused. The sisters were “uniquely placed” to comment on family dynamics and it was “regrettable the agency did not meet with them.” The children’s mother, named as Ms Smith, had told OT of Phillips’ controlling behaviour towards her. The inquiry found OT failed to hear her concerns before Phillips disappeared the second time. She also notified police that Phillips stashed multiple firearms “all over the place” six months before he disappeared. Police questioned her credibility because of a “custody dispute in the background” and did not respond to her allegations. Phillips’ state of mind and beliefs not treated seriously enough Police built a comprehensive profile of Phillips while investigating his first disappearance. His alcohol consumption concerned them, and his home was “very dirty”. They formed the view he was controlling and difficult to live with. A person close to Phillips was concerned that, if cornered, he would turn “violent”. Another told police he had a dislike of government agencies, “meaning anyone that might try to remove his children from him”. Phillips held anti-vaccination views and had told family he and the children would “just disappear” if there was another Covid lockdown. A 2021 police report, before his second disappearance, said Phillips was “prepared to put the children’s wellbeing at risk by hiding them” to deny Ms Smith access. His firearms licence was suspended and police wanted him to access mental health support. But the inquiry saw no evidence that support was explored or provided by police. The inquiry found police did not adequately share information with OT, and OT should have more carefully considered mental health concerns. Better communication between the two “may have prevented, and would likely have made more difficult” Phillips’ second disappearance. Public sighting a missed opportunity In May 2023, a woman living near Marokopa, close to the Phillips’ family farm told police a man had approached her house asking to jump start his car. She described a man fitting Phillips’ profile and said “he smelled … like someone who had not had a shower in a very long time”. She saw children in his car and late called police. A police unit was dispatched but, before it arrived, it was diverted to another incident. The inquiry found no evidence the police attempted to visit the location of the sighting, or the woman’s home. Police followed up the tip 10 days later. Authorities accept all recommendations The inquiry made nine recommendations, including urging agencies to better communicate, particularly in cases related to a child’s safety and ensuring gun safety concerns raised by former spouses are “actioned promptly”. The minister for social development, Louise Upston, apologised to Phillips’ children saying “our agencies did not take all practical steps to protect you”. The government accepted the 41 findings and nine recommendations. The police commissioner, Richard Chambers, said it was “clear there were gaps” in communication and police should have put more resources into their investigation earlier. Oranga Tamariki chief executive, Amanda Malu, said the report made for “harrowing reading”. She said the agency was immediately strengthening its checks and procedures.

Netanyahu seeks to strip citizenship from Israelis as threats to NAZA film directors intensify

Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he would seek new laws allowing Israel to strip citizenship from people who “smear” Israeli soldiers, escalating the campaign against the Oscar-winning film-makers behind the Gaza documentary NAZA, who have faced threats from senior government and military officials and groups of far-right Israelis gathering outside their families’ homes. NAZA, which was produced by the Guardian, concerns the country’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza and is named for an acronym used euphemistically by Israel’s intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike. The film builds on revelations first published by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call and the Guardian from 2023 to 2025. The 80-minute documentary won the special jury prize at this year’s Venice film festival on Saturday, after receiving a 25-minute standing ovation – a festival record. Soon afterwards, however, the film’s directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, came under attack from members of Israel’s government, with the culture minister, Miki Zohar, calling for their citizenship to be revoked, and accusing them of “treason against the state”. Zohar on Wednesday thanked the Israeli prime minister for his announcement to change the law in order to revoke their citizenship, saying it was “time to put an end to this disgrace”. “We will revoke citizenship for anyone who defames IDF soldiers around the world – he will be deeply hurt in his pocket,’’ said Netanyahu, who intends to promote two government bills concerning defamation of IDF soldiers and the state of Israel. According to media reports, the first bill, which will be submitted through the justice ministry, will double the amount of a defamation claim to 1 million shekels without proof of damage. The second bill, which will be submitted through the interior ministry, will stipulate the revocation of citizenship for anyone who defames IDF soldiers and the state of Israel around the world. On Wednesday evening, dozens of rightwing activists gathered outside the home of the parents of Rachel Szor, one of the directors of NAZA. Among the organisers were activists and campaign staff linked to the far-right Otzma Yehudit party of Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister. Messages circulated in activist groups earlier on Wednesday urged supporters to gather outside her house. Some of the messages included explicit calls for violence. Police and border police officers were deployed at the scene. One protester called for the “death penalty for traitors” and demanded that the homes of the film-makers’ families be demolished. The latest attacks followed a series of threats and incidents targeting the directors. Ben-Gvir had called the directors “a disgrace” while Netanyahu condemned the film as “intolerable”, saying it portrayed the Israel Defense Forces as war criminals. On Tuesday, the IDF’s chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, said the military would “not allow IDF soldiers to be made targets through lies and blood libels” and would use “every tool at our disposal” against the film. The Israeli television channel i24 later reported that the military had opened a leak investigation and was seeking assistance from Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security and counterintelligence agency. The agency would respond only after receiving a formal request from the military prosecutor, who would probably first consult the attorney general, the channel reported. Netanyahu posted a video which included an old clip of Abraham confronting a soldier in the occupied West Bank’s South Hebron Hills, an area where Israeli forces have repeatedly been accused of supporting settlers during attacks on Palestinians. In the video, the Israeli PM says: “The same director who produced that terrible film that slanders IDF soldiers.” On Wednesday, far-right Israeli journalists, influencers and activists escalated their threats against the two film-makers. Rightwing activists were organising protests outside addresses linked to the directors and their colleagues. This comes after the Channel 14 journalist Yehuda Schlesinger said the directors should be “pursued” or “hunted” wherever they went, and prevented from returning to Israel. He urged Jews in Israel and abroad to make clear that what he described as “25 minutes of antisemitic applause” in Venice would come at a “heavy price”. A rightwing activist with tens of thousands of followers separately called for protesters to target Abraham’s family and associates, saying: “We’ll show him ‘collateral damage’.” He shared a photograph of Abraham’s mother and sought information about the director’s return flight so supporters could “welcome” him at the airport. A mural appeared in Ashdod depicting Abraham and Szor with crosshairs, horns, swastikas and the word “traitors” emblazoned over the top. A video showing its creation was shared by the far-right rapper Yoav Eliasi, who has more than 750,000 followers on Facebook. In an interview with Israel’s Channel 13, Abraham commented on the campaign of vilification, saying: “Of course it’s hard … [Israel] is my home, it’s the only place I want to live, a place that is important to me. So of course I’m afraid I won’t be able to return.” As the threats against the directors intensified, film-makers and human rights groups voiced support for the pair. In a joint statement, 43 local human rights organisations urged Israeli authorities to stop what they described as incitement and threats against the film-makers, and not to prosecute either them or their sources. “The institutional response to the film and the threats against its creators are characteristic of dictatorial regimes,” said the statement, signed by groups including Peace Now, Adalah, B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Breaking the Silence. More than 1,500 Israeli film-makers have also signed a petition defending “freedom of expression and creation” and expressing solidarity with Szor and Abraham. “In recent days, we have witnessed an unprecedented smear and incitement campaign against the film-makers, with the line between this rhetoric and physical violence or threats to their lives narrowing rapidly,” the petition said. The signatories said the role of art and journalism was to reflect society and encourage debate, “even when facing a harsh reality”, and called for the film to be released in Israel so audiences could judge it for themselves. Szor and Abraham won an Oscar for their previous documentary, 2024’s No Other Land (co-directed with Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal), which spotlighted Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank. The NGOs called for a “thorough” investigation into the high number of casualties in Gaza, particularly among civilians, and for journalists to be granted unimpeded access to the territory, from which Israel has largely barred foreign reporters since October 2023. Prominent figures in international cinema have also expressed solidarity with Abraham and Szor. Laura Poitras, who directed the 2015 Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour, about the whistleblower Edward Snowden, called the threats by Israeli government officials “a threat to journalists worldwide”. Diplomatic and foreign ministry sources told Haaretz that threats to punish the directors may have actually have boosted international media attention on the documentary. “It would have made headlines anyway, but they really helped amplify it,” a source at the Israeli foreign ministry told the newspaper. “The very fact that the government responded drew attention and headlines.” Late on Wednesday, +972 Magazine posted a video showing a man painting over the mural of the NAZA directors, replacing the word “traitors” with “heroes”. In a statement, the Guardian said said was “disturbed to see the authoritarian response to NAZA in Israel. “Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor are brave journalists and filmmakers. The attacks against them come from people who have not yet seen the film. “NAZA is based on more than three years of investigative journalism. The testimonies it contains are true and we believe they deserve to be heard. The interviews were given by confidential journalistic sources. “We will robustly defend NAZA – and the team behind it – from any attacks or attempts at censorship.”

‘Made in Europe’ law threatens UK plans for reset with EU

The UK government’s EU reset summit will be delayed again unless the bloc agrees to discuss legislation that could lock British business out of parts of EU industry, government sources have said. The “Made in Europe” legislation – formally known as the Industrial Accelerator Act – is designed to curb China’s increasing presence in European industry, but was not on the reset plan agreed by the former prime minister Keir Starmer and the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, in London in May 2025. A follow-up summit was due to be held in July this year, but was cancelled after Starmer’s resignation. The government is now looking to change the roadmap, with one source saying that “Made in Europe should be on the agenda”. It is understood that Hamish Falconer, the new cabinet minister with responsibility for the reset, told the EU’s trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, this was the UK’s new priority when the pair met last week. The trade minister, Anas Sarwar, told a gathering of UK business leaders on Tuesday they needed to let their EU partners know the risks posed by Made in Europe, which will prioritise EU suppliers in key industries including car manufacturing and defence. Ministers have privately expressed fears that the reset has lost significant momentum since Andy Burnham became prime minister, with his focus on the domestic agenda. Agreements have yet to be reached on several key issues, including what tuition fees will be paid by EU students coming to the UK on a mooted “youth experience” programme. UK sources say that while a food and drink deal and a youth mobility scheme are still on the agenda, the government will not agree to a new summit date until the bigger issues of the Industrial Accelerator Act are included in discussions. There was talk in London and Brussels that a meeting could be convened on 6 November, but it is understood this could now be pushed backuntil the end of November or beyond. One government source said: “We are willing to negotiate on the things that matter to them, but they have to be able to negotiate the thing that matters to us. Made in Europe should be on the table, definitely.” The UK fears the Made in Europe laws could jeopardise billions of pounds worth of trade if British goods are not categorised as European, locking it out of key contracts on the continent. France, which conceived the Made in Europe laws, is pushing to have the legislation passed by the end of the year, deepening fears that British manufacturing could be left behind. It is thought that France is sympathetic to the UK’s position, but believes increasing competition from China makes it more important to get the legislation on the books now, and make allowances for third countries later, a process that could take years. One EU diplomat said that there was substantial backing among key member states for the UK to be included in Made in Europe, though not all agreed. “The problem is the benefits are seen as asymmetrical,” the diplomat said. “The UK gets more out of it than the EU.” It is understood the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Italy are all in favour of the UK’s inclusion, but France remains unconvinced. The government’s newly assertive approach could give the UK some leverage in negotiations over concessions on youth mobility, something that is a political priority for many EU capitals. Another UK source said a deal on Made in Europe would be “a good faith demonstration that we can find answers and almost everything else”. A government spokesperson said: “The UK is a close and trusted European partner, committed to our shared security and economic cooperation. “We will continue to engage with the EU on Made in Europe and work together, as like-minded partners, to boost growth and open up trade.” The UK’s desire for a deal on manufacturing rules comes at time when the EU is under pressure from industry across the bloc to loosen China’s growing presence in supply chains. Last week, manufacturing bosses warned of a potential loss of 300,000 jobs this year unless incentives were put in place to make European products more attractive than cheaper parts from China. The EU’s deficit with China is now running at €1bn a day, with fears that European companies are being cannibalised from within. In her state of the union address to the European parliament on Wednesday, von der Leyen said the EU needed to grow non-Chinese supplies of rare earths and critical minerals vital to manufacturing. Her surprise offer of an associate membership deal with Canada demonstrated how far Brussels can go to court third-country partners. Speaking in the presence of the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, the EU chief said: “We want to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible. We must urgently reimagine our partnerships.” The EU and Canada are to hold a summit in late October to develop their future relationship. The 27-member EU has never had an associate membership category, though it has close ties with Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, enabling deep economic integration with these countries, which follow many EU rules including free movement – a red line for the UK. Carney, who is to address the European parliament on Thursday, has called for a “unique alliance” with the EU, as his country seeks to reduce its heavy dependence on US trade. Burnham met Carney at a football match in Liverpool on Wednesday night, where the two Everton fans watched their team in the EFL Cup. Burnham is also due to meet the US president, Donald Trump, for the first time at the UN general assembly in New York next week. The potential new alliance between the EU and Canada will worry UK ministers that the bloc’s priorities are shifting. Should Burnham fail to complete a food and drink deal that was already on Starmer’s reset agenda, it could have implications for October’s budget, as the economic effects of easing trade with the EU is priced in as part of growth calculations. The Conservatives criticised the UK-EU reset on Wednesday, saying a future Tory government would build a wholly independent regulatory system. Alex Burghart, the party’s deputy leader, and Victoria Atkins, the shadow environment secretary, warned the plans would make Britain less competitive. Speaking at the Policy Exchange thinktank, Burghart said: “Labour’s EU reset is the worst of both worlds and will leave Britain unable to take advantage of our country’s future growth potential. “The next Conservative government would not be bound by this arrangement and will begin work now on a genuinely independent regulatory system.”

Is EU’s offer to Canada a blueprint for Britain – or a reminder it is out in the cold?

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has been advocating closer alignment with “middle powers” since January in the face of recklessness in Washington. But what should worry another middle power, the UK, is that it was Brussels that came up with Wednesday’s big reveal in Strasbourg. To a standing ovation at her State of the Union address, Ursula von der Leyen said she wanted to open the door to Canada becoming the EU’s first “associate member” in a push to forge new ⁠links among allies in “an openly hostile world”. The European Commission president’s deal could be seen as an “earthquake” offer said Joël Reland, of UK in a Changing Europe, though it remains “deliciously vague”. But it also sets Canada apart from the UK, which could, once upon a time, have had some sort of associate membership with the EU were it not for the drive for a clean-break Brexit. The last time associate membership of the EU was mooted was in relation to Ukraine as an off-the-books novel way of bringing Kyiv closer to the bloc without become a fully fledged member state. New partnerships, von der Leyen said, were needed “in the cold fragility of today’s world” and in the face of an increasingly assertive China. Just moments earlier she spoke about the need for the EU to diversify urgently its supply of critical raw materials (CRM) and rare earths currently dominated by China, allowing it to follow Japan and stockpile said minerals needed for everything from the car to the defence industries. It is not a new subject – after all the EU has been grappling with China’s export surplus since 2023 and it introduced the Critical Raw Materials Act as far back as 2024. The prospect of an enhanced relationship with Ottawa is one that Keir Starmer might have dreamed of. Canada has something the EU desperately needs – rich supplies of CRM and rare earths – and the EU has something Canada urgently wants: new markets for products it can no longer sell into the EU in the face of a trade war with Donald Trump. Speaking before von der Leyen’s speech, Tobias Cremer, a German social democrat MEP, said a new deeper relationship between the EU and Canada could be a blueprint for other countries, including the UK. Bernd Lange, the influential chair of the European parliament’s international trade committee, said associate membership could “become a model for close transcontinental partnerships with democratic countries against the new model of the law of the strongest”. After Iceland’s rejection of membership of the EU, Fabian Zuleeg, the chief executive and chief economist of the European Policy Centre, suggested it was time that the EU developed new models, beyond the European Economic Area, that might offer “partial, gradual or associated membership options”. Reland said the vagueness of the offer extended to Canada could be promising for the UK’s hopes for a similar offer. “Any deep Canadian integration into the EU market would take some very heavy work to negotiate a defined set of treaty-bound rights and obligations, and so it seems more likely that – at least in the short term – cooperation will focus on more vaguely constructed alliances for ‘prosperity’ and ‘security’,” which aligns with the UK government’s desires, Reland wrote on Wednesday. In the current political climate in the UK, it is difficult to envisage a world in which Andy Burnham would encourage any associate membership of the EU. He has a steely focus on domestic issues and is keen to avoid going down any Brexit wormholes. The UK is seeking a reset with the EU, but the goals in the first year were modest and have yet to be achieved. The offer to Canada suggests the bigger ambitions for relations with the EU the better. Additional reporting: Jennifer Rankin

Nato leader warns of ‘most dangerous and complex security environment in a generation’

Nato needs “more UK and more Europe” to deal with the most dangerous security environment faced by the west in a generation, the secretary general of the 32-country military alliance said this afternoon on a visit to the UK. Mark Rutte praised Britain for promising to increase defence spending in line with US demands after a meeting prime minister Andy Burnham – but argued that the military and financial effort must continue into the future. “It is essential that your armed forces continue to provide the hard power Nato needs,” Rutte said in a speech to a specialist audience at Ditchley Park, a wartime retreat used by Winston Churchill in Oxfordshire. It was a plea for the UK to make progress towards an alliance-wide target demanded by Donald Trump of spending 3.5% of GDP by 2035, about £30bn in real terms, money that has to be found from extra taxation, borrowing or reducing other spending. Britain has so far only budgeted to increase defence spending to 2.7% of GDP by the end of the next decade. Short-term financial pressures have meant that the army has been told to stop non-essential training by the end of the year. Chancellor John Healey resigned as defence secretary from Keir Starmer’s government in June because the former prime minister would not commit to 3% by 2030, arguing that it would require too great a step up in the next decade. But Healey refused to recommit to the interim target when he was appointed to the Treasury by Burnham a month later, raising questions that the new government was backloading spending increases until after the next election. Rutte said that he had discussed Britain’s “Nato commitments” when he had met Burnham at a science business park in Oxford earlier on Wednesday, without offering any details, in the first one-on-one meeting between the two. Prior to that meeting, Burnham acknowledged that he had replaced Starmer, but insisted that there was “never any change in the UK’s unwavering commitment to Nato and our Nato obligations”. The Nato chief, a former Dutch prime minister, said many in Europe had made the “casual assumption” that the US would “always provide most of the muscle and pick up the bill, no matter what” until Trump returned to the White House. Instead, he noted that during a summit in The Hague in 2025, the UK and other alliance members had agreed to increase their own defence spending to match US levels, in response to Trump’s demand that Europe take the lead in defending the continent. “We need more UK and more Europe in the alliance,” Rutte said, because Nato “faces the most dangerous and complex security environment in a generation” with a return to wars in Europe and the Middle East, and wider geopolitical uncertainty. Citing “Russia and its war against Ukraine, terrorism, Iran and the tectonic shifts of global geopolitical competition”, Rutte argued that the UK and Europe needed to invest more, because otherwise “our collective defence will not be credible”. Britain, he said, had “a central role in building this stronger Europe in a stronger Nato” and noted that the UK was spending billions to upgrade the Trident nuclear deterrent, which is pledged to the defence of Nato members. The UK is also gradually upgrading its conventional forces, though the UK’s overall defence spending, long the second largest in the alliance, is now behind Germany. By 2029, Berlin’s military budgets are on track to be twice that of the UK. The UK was “leading the pushback” against a Russian campaign of provocation and sabotage across Europe, Rutte said, and that the UK had been “a good friend to Ukraine”. Britain spends £3bn a year supporting Ukraine with weapons. Meanwhile, Canada, seeking to diversify its defence ties ⁠away from ⁠the US, has formally applied to join the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force military ⁠coalition, prime minister Mark Carney’s office said on Wednesday. The a grouping ⁠of 10 North Atlantic Nato member states is a rapid response ‌military partnership. Canada, already a Nato member, ‌is seeking closer military cooperation with Europe. The JEF comprises Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK.