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Nato head: Britain must show ‘credible path’ of annual defence budget increases

Britain needs to show “a credible path” of annual increases in its defence budgets to meet a Nato target of spending nearly £30bn more on the military by the middle of the next decade, the head of the alliance said on Thursday. Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary general, said that Britain could not wait until just before 2035 to lift defence spending to 3.5% of GDP, in an unusually pointed intervention a day after he met prime minister Andy Burnham. In an interview with the Press Association, he said: “And that is why you need a credible path towards that 3.5%, and yearly increments.” The alliance’s secretary general, a former Dutch prime minister, made similar remarks to the BBC, where he said that the UK understood that the target could not be met “in one go in 2034” and that it would have to be achieved gradually. Earlier on Thursday, Rutte met with Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, and Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary. He saw Burnham on Wednesday, at a business park in Didcot, and also met representatives from the defence industry. Keir Starmer signed the UK up to a Nato-wide target of increasing defence spending to 3.5% of GDP in the summer of 2025, under pressure from the US president, Donald Trump. The figure has since been endorsed by Burnham and his chancellor, former defence secretary John Healey. Current spending plans, covering until 2028/9, show defence spending levelling off at 2.7%, nearly £30bn below the ultimate target, raising the question of how it would be achieved after the next general election. It is unclear if taxes or borrowing would have to rise, or other government spending cuts. Healey resigned as defence minister in June because Starmer would not commit to lifting defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030. At the time Healey said Labour needed to set “a clear path” to meet the Nato commitment, similar language to that used by Rutte in his interviews. But since then Healey and Burnham have avoided committing to the 3% by the end of the decade. Decisions on future spending are likely to be left to the next government spending review due next year, prompting the Nato leader to engage in public lobbying on his trip to Britain. Rutte said he was certain the Burnham government remained behind the ultimate goal and the need to increase defence spending gradually. “I am absolutely confident that when it comes to the yearly increments, they totally take it and accept it, that they have to be there,” he told the BBC. “There has to be a credible path. What that credible path exactly will be, we will see with the spending review next year,” Rutte added. A day earlier, Rutte gave a speech to at Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire, in which he warned that the 32 country military alliance faced “the most dangerous and complex security environment in a generation” with wars in Ukraine, the Middle East coming at time of rising state competition. Nato needed “more UK and more Europe”, he added, to take up the slack as the US reduces its military commitment to the alliance. Trump has long argued that the UK and Europe should match US levels of defence spending and take the lead in defending the continent from Russia aggression.

Poland warns Russia planning ‘hybrid strikes’ against countries supporting Ukraine – as it happened

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has said that intelligence assessments show Russian “plans for hybrid strikes using drones and missiles against countries supporting Ukraine, including Poland” over the winter (17:23), with “provocations ... far more dangerous that those we have faced so far” (17:33). Tusk said the coming autumn and winter is likely to be “the most critical moment” in Russia’s full-scale aggression on Ukraine (17:20) as he warned Russia will also try to test Nato’s resolve in defending its eastern flank (17:28). Polish PM earlier warned that “if anyone dares to attack us, they will face a resolute response from us and our allies,” as he responded to growing aggression from Russia (17:15). Earlier today, Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson has resigned from his post, as final results of the Swedish parliamentary election confirmed his four-party coalition will not have a majority in the new parliament (13:57). The former prime minister and left-leaning bloc leader, Magdalena Andersson, welcomed the result, vowing to lead the country “in a new direction” (15:33). However, Kristersson and his allies cast doubt on whether the left-leaning bloc of four parties will be able to build a stable coalition to form the next government (14:10, 14:24, 16:00). Elsewhere, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has called for closer ties between Canada and the EU on trade, energy, “pooled” sovereignty, mobility in a warmly received speech at the European parliament in Strasbourg (12:22). He welcomed the EU’s suggestion of an “associate membership” for Canada, but said “what matters is the substance” as he set out a number of key areas of focus for further talks with the EU Carney also rejected Trump’s criticism of the plans, saying “no one is going to dictate our culture or with thom we can strike agreements internationally”. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

All smiles in Strasbourg but uncertainty clouds Canada’s EU membership plan

Mark Carney received a rapturous reception in the European parliament when he gave his speech on Thursday welcoming a proposal for Canada to become the EU’s first-ever associate member. Politicians queued to shake his hand and take selfies. One described the speech as a historic moment. “Europe has extended a hand, and Canada has taken it,” said the German Green MEP Terry Reintke, who borrowed a Canadian ice hockey shirt for the occasion. One day earlier, in the same debating chamber, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, issued the unprecedented invitation to Canada – an idea quickly derided by Donald Trump, who threatened Europe with “heavy tariffs” if it became a reality. But the prospect of Canada’s associate membership is uncertain, not least because no one is sure what it means. “I’m not quite sure why she [von der Leyen] used that term because there’s simply no legal definition,” said one senior politician. “This has just raised lots of questions. So people are talking more about what an associate membership means instead of … this unique partnership and alliance for the future that EU-Canada relations should be about.” The German chancellor Friedrich Merz’s spokesperson welcomed the initiative for a close partnership with Canada and said Germany was “open to discussing new models that reflect the special significance of the relationship”, but called for the associate membership label to be “reconsidered”. Merz himself has floated “associate membership” for Ukraine, as a stepping stone to joining the bloc, but this was quickly dismissed by other member states. One EU diplomat said von der Leyen “seemed a bit far out in floating this” and that even before Wednesday’s speech member states had worried that she was overpromising on Canada. A second diplomat said it was “an empty phrase” and it would be up to member states to define the substance. Any new trading and cooperation relationship with a foreign country would need to be approved by the EU’s 27 member states. There is a lot of common ground: both sides want to deepen cooperation on AI, energy security, critical raw materials, quantum computing and work together in the Arctic – Carney noted that Canada shared an Arctic border with Denmark, referring to the maritime border with Greenland. But difficulties went unspoken. Carney described the 2016 EU-Canada comprehensive economic and trade agreement as “one of the world’s most successful trade agreements”, but 10 EU member states have yet to ratify it, including France, Italy and Poland. With all three countries heading into an election year, that looks unlikely to change. While both sides extol the virtues of deeper trade between allies, they are also pursuing policies that appear to contradict that goal. Last year Canada introduced a buy Canadian policy, to ensure Canadian suppliers get priority in public contracts. The EU is debating its own buy European law, known formally as the Industrial Accelerator Act. The IAA, now being debated in the EU, would oblige member states to meet “made in Europe” content requirements when spending public money on green technologies and electric cars. Associate membership also raises questions about integration into the EU’s tightly guarded single market. Carney proposed “seamless digital trade in non-agricultural goods and a wide range of services”. But the EU has long insisted that the four freedoms of its internal market – free movement of goods, services, labour and capital – are one package that cannot be split and require alignment with EU rules. Now the applause has died down, there are plenty of tricky issues to work out, even for the closest of allies.

Sweden’s PM resigns after centre-left bloc wins slim majority in election

Sweden’s centre-right prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has stood down, clearing the way for Magdalena Andersson, the Social Democrats leader, to attempt to form a government. In a victory speech on Thursday, Andersson said the Swedish people had “voted for a new direction for our country, voted for unity and against division”. She added: “The Swedish people have voted to take Sweden forward and I will realise the new direction that you have voted for.” Among the priorities she named were the climate crisis, schools, healthcare, elderly care and immigration policy. Andersson spoke as the preliminary count for Sunday’s election was finally completed, with 176 seats for the left-leaning opposition parties – a narrow three-seat majority over the right-leaning ruling Tidö coalition supported by the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD). There were 50,359 votes between the two blocs. Earlier on Thursday, Andersson, who was Kristersson’s predecessor as prime minister, sent an invitation to the other left-leaning parties – Left, Centre and Green – for initial coalition talks. Soon after, Kristersson, the Moderates leader, announced his resignation after four years as prime minister. Before the election, some had feared that the vote would mark a turning point for the far right after Kristersson promised key ministerial posts for the SD if his coalition took power. Instead, the SD lost support for the first time in a general election since its foundation, falling from Sweden’s second biggest party to third. In his resignation letter, Kristersson wrote: “Now it is the speaker who will lead the next steps towards forming a new government. In order for that work to begin immediately, I hereby request to be relieved of my duties as prime minister.” The speaker, Andreas Norlén, will now start working on proposals for a new prime minister after talks with representatives of each of the parties. Four celebration cakes decorated with red roses were brought into the Social Democrats’ headquarters amid cheers from inside. The result will be a considerable relief among Social Democrats, who remain Sweden’s biggest party but received record low support. However, the result marks only the beginning for Andersson of what is expected to be weeks of complicated coalition talks. One of the trickiest negotiations is expected to be between the Centre and Left parties. The Centre party has ruled out being in government with the Left, while the Left has demanded a place in government in return for its cooperation. Other difficult areas are expected to be the Left’s support for a billionaire tax, the Green party’s opposition to nuclear energy and differences of opinion on taxation. The Greens, Social Democrats and the Left are all in favour of tax increases, but the Centre party wants to cut taxes. Nooshi Dadgostar, the leader of the Left party, said: “The Swedish people have voted away Tidö and given us a clear mandate for change.” She added: “This is one of the proudest days of my life.” Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist, the Centre party leader, thanked Kristersson for his work as prime minister but said Sweden was now “entering a new political phase”. She added: “The Centre party will be a constructive force for Sweden to have a functioning government, with policies anchored in the middle.” Andersson, who was prime minister between November 2021 and October 2022, is understood to be reaching out to all the opposition parties, with the exception of the SD. The Liberals and the Christian Democrats have ruled out working with the left, but in his resignation letter Kristersson appeared to leave the door open. However, given Swedish tradition, it is extremely unlikely the Moderates and the Social Democrats would form a coalition. Kristersson wrote that the election had left a “complicated situation” for building a government and called for “constructive openness” from all parties to find a way to form a stable government. In the nervous days since the election, the Social Democrats are understood to have been using the time to prepare for coalition negotiations, where they are understood to be seeking broad cooperation with one or multiple parties. Minority-run governments are common within Swedish politics and it is commonplace for governments to form agreements outside of coalitions. In the last government, the SD were not officially in government, but they held considerable sway over the budget and policies. The Social Democrats are understood to be planning to prioritise making changes to the immigration, integration and climate policies of the last government. But with their policies having moved to the right in recent years, particularly on immigration and crime, much of the legacy of the previous government is likely to remain.

Trump administration denies entry visas to Palestinian officials ahead of UN general assembly

The US state department said on Wednesday that it had again denied entry visas to Palestinian officials ahead next week’s United Nations general assembly gathering in New York. The state department said in a statement that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had “failed to live up to their commitments”, accusing the groups of “taking actions to internationalize the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict including through the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ)” and of “glorifying terrorism” among other allegations. “As a consequence of their failure to reform, contrary to their commitments to the United States, and their ongoing activities that undermine the prospects for peace, the United States will extend sanctions that deny visas to PLO members and PA officials,” the department said. The move marks the second year in a row that the Trump administration has barred the Palestinian delegation from traveling to New York to attend the UN general assembly in person. The foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority denied the allegations made against it by the state department in a statement on Thursday, describing the visa sanctions as an “unjustified measure” that “contradicts the efforts being made to restore trust, develop Palestinian-US relations, and prepare the necessary political climate for implementing the two-state solution and achieving peace and stability in the region”. Among the Palestinian officials barred from entering the US is Mahmoud Abbas, the longtime president of the Palestinian Authority, according to reports. The UN general assembly voted on Thursday to allow Abbas to address the gathering via ⁠video, for the second year in a row. This year’s UN general assembly general debate begins on 22 September.

Canada’s Carney embraces EU associate membership proposal

Mark Carney has welcomed the goal of Canada becoming the EU’s first associate member, calling for “deep cooperation” between Europe and his country to secure their sovereignty, after Donald Trump derided the idea as “laughable”. In an address to the European parliament in Strasbourg, the Canadian prime minister said polling showed that an overwhelming majority of Canadians supported much closer ties with Europe. “Canada welcomes this idea,” he said, referring to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s pitch that Canada should become the EU’s first associate member. “Canada and Europe should secure our strategic autonomy through deep cooperation in the full range of strategic capabilities,” Carney said on Thursday, listing sectors including critical minerals, energy security and AI. Von der Leyen had on Wednesday invited Canada to become the EU’s first associate member in a speech in which she declared she wanted to bring the bilateral relationship “to the highest level possible”. A few hours later, Trump threatened “very serious tariffs” on Europe if the plan went ahead. Asked about Trump’s threats, Carney told reporters: “Canadians are united that nobody is going to tell us what language we speak. No one is going to dictate our culture or with whom we can strike agreements internationally.” The EU and Canada, which already have a web of bilateral trade and sectoral agreements, have sought to move closer in recent months in the face of Trump’s trade tariffs and relentless belligerent rhetoric. Carney received a standing ovation from MEPs in Strasbourg, who waited to shake his hand and get a selfie with him. European lawmakers from pro-EU mainstream parties have already praised Carney’s January speech in Davos, in which he called for middle powers to work together to preserve their sovereignty in a world of great power rivalry where the strong accept no constraints. Carney reprised the theme in Strasbourg, saying: “Canada and Europe are each strong. Europe and Canada are stronger together … The objective is not self-sufficiency, it’s collective resilience.” He went on to say: “I am not proposing a third bloc in order to become a great-power rival, only with better manners,” saying an EU-Canada alliance would be a “beacon for other democracies”. In a speech frequently interrupted by rounds of applause, Carney detailed his plans for the future relationship, saying the two sides could cooperate on critical minerals, defence industrial capacity, AI and computing, energy security, space and payments. He also called for “seamless digital trade in non-agricultural goods and a wide range of services”. He proposed a youth exchange programme that would enable young people to work, study and live in both jurisdictions, as well as Canadian membership of the Erasmus+ scheme, the EU’s education, training and sport programme. No country has ever been offered associate membership before, a category that does not exist in the EU’s treaties. The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, floated the idea of associate membership for Ukraine as an interim step to joining the bloc earlier this year, but the idea was rejected by other member states. EU member states support the idea of closer ties with Canada, but some have reacted coolly to the name “associate membership”. Asked by a Bloomberg reporter about the concept he preferred, Carney said: “The precise nomenclature for Europe is a question for Europe,” adding that leaders and lawmakers involved “take the view [that] what matters is the substance”. He also said Canada was “not in a position, nor seeking to become, a full member of the European Union” and that the Canadian parliament would debate and vote on the future relationship. Speaking before Carney’s address, Trump warned that if the EU moved forward with the plan, Washington could impose “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.” Responding to Trump’s overnight comments, Carney said the deepening of the EU-Canada relationship was “a positive initiative” and “not a reaction to something else”.

‘We live with a big burden’: survivor of abusive Spotlight priest hopes clergyman’s death brings closure

A survivor of childhood sexual abuse by a defrocked Boston Catholic priest who was portrayed admitting to molesting minors in the Oscar-winning Hollywood film Spotlight says he hopes the clergyman’s recent death in prison helps victims of his crimes and their families “keep pressing forward every single day”. “We live with a big burden in our hearts and on our backs,” Keith Townsend said on Wednesday while reflecting on the criminal charges which he successfully pursued against Ronald Paquin, who was imprisoned in 2019 and died in custody at age 83 on 11 September. “And my hope is that people can find closure and move on.” Those remarks by Townsend, 52, during a telephone interview were a notable reaction to the death of one of the key figures in the clergy sexual abuse and cover-up scandal with the Catholic archdiocese of Boston that – among other consequences – prompted the resignation of the institution’s archbishop, Bernard Law, at the end of 2002, as well as policy reforms across the US church. That same year, Paquin had pleaded guilty to sexually abusing an altar server from 1989 to 1992 while working at St John the Baptist church in the Boston suburb of Haverhill, Massachusetts. He was stripped of his clerical status and imprisoned in Massachusetts for that abuse, which was first publicly exposed in a Pulitzer-winning series of investigative articles by the Boston Globe newspaper’s Spotlight team. Paquin was freed in 2015. And learning of that release motivated Townsend – once a St John altar server, too – to come forward and report being abused himself by Paquin while on camping trips to Kennebunkport, Maine, between 1985 and 1989. As Townsend put it, he was between the ages of eight and 13 when Paquin molested him. Townsend recalled Paquin plying him with drugs and alcohol during the abuse, eventually leading him to battles with substance abuse addiction and incarceration. A Maine grand jury indicted Paquin in 2017 on new charges of gross sexual misconduct in connection with Townsend and another individual. Paquin faced a jury trial in November 2018 which culminated in a guilty verdict against him with regards to Townsend, though he was acquitted of having abused the other individual. Maine judge Wayne Douglas sentenced Paquin in May 2019 to 16 more years in prison. Paquin was in the Mountain View correctional facility in Charleston, Maine, when he died, the state’s department of correction said in a news release. Speaking five days later, Townsend said he first got word of Paquin’s death from his wife, who saw it circulating on the news and social media. He said he understood the many reactions which he subsequently heard or read that took delight in news of Paquin’s death. But Townsend, now a New Hampshire resident, also said he used the occasion to think about the work he did on himself which culminated in his “shaking off” the drug and alcohol addiction which had a grip on him in the wake of Paquin’s abuse. He said he contemplated the family he had built after overcoming “one of the biggest obstacles that could be thrown” at a person. “I get those who think the attitude should be, ‘Fuck him. Fuck what he did to me,’” Townsend said. “But look where I am today.” Townsend said he sought Paquin’s re-imprisonment with the aim of “protecting children … not [from] a man [but] a monster”. “Massachusetts just kind of let him go,” Townsend said. “So I had to dig deep … [because] I didn’t want anybody else to possibly have to go through [his] abuse. Maine thankfully had the balls to take this case, aggressively prosecute it and get a good outcome.” Townsend said he had not yet been able to see Spotlight, which dramatizes the Globe’s uncovering of the clergy sexual abuse scandal that roiled the city’s archdiocese. And therefore Townsend had not viewed the famous scene in the film in which Rachel McAdams, playing reporter Sacha Pfeiffer, confronts an actor portraying Paquin on his home’s front doorstep about allegations of molesting boys at St John the Baptist. “Sure, I fooled around – but I never felt gratified myself,” the actor playing Paquin, Richard O’Rourke, says in response as the journalist scribbles notes in a paper pad while wearing an astonished facial expression. “Right, um, but you admit to molesting boys at St John the Baptist?” McAdams’ Pfeiffer then asks O’Rourke’s Paquin. The latter’s reply: “Yes, yes. But, as I said, I never got any pleasure from it.” Another person closely familiar with Spotlight offered an opinion of that scene’s legacy on Wednesday. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian – who is portrayed in the 2015 movie by Stanley Tucci and has represented numerous victims of sexual abuse by Paquin and other clerics – said that part of Spotlight provided a powerful cue to survivors of clergy molesters that they were not alone. “It gave a sense of, ‘A-ha, I’m not the only one,’” in one of Hollywood’s most critically acclaimed films, Garabedian said. ‘“It wasn’t my fault, and I shouldn’t feel guilty.’” Townsend said ultimately he is grateful for anything that raised awareness about Paquin’s atrocities before his push to bring him to justice. “When I lay my head down tonight, I know it saved lives” getting Paquin imprisoned for his remaining years, Townsend added. “And that’s what matters to me.”