defence

Report comes a day before US President Donald Trump’s summit with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae-myung, in Washington, DC.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen the firing of two new air defence missiles, state media reported, announcing that the tests showed the weapons had “superior combat capability”.

The report on Sunday comes a day before United States President Donald Trump meets his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae-myung, in Washington, DC.

North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the tests, which took place on Saturday, showed that the missiles demonstrated a “fast response” to aerial targets such as attack drones and cruise missiles.

The report did not explain the new missiles in any detail, only that their “operation and reaction mode is based on unique and special technology”.

It also did not say where the test had been carried out.

The launches also come as South Korea and the US continue their annual joint military drills and as the South Korean military announced that it had fired warning shots at several North Korean soldiers who had briefly crossed their heavily militarised border on Tuesday.

The United Nations Command in South Korea put the number of North Korean troops that crossed the border at 30, the Yonhap news agency reported.

North Korean state media, meanwhile, quoted Army Lieutenant General Ko Jong Chol as saying the incident was a “premeditated and deliberate provocation”.

“This is a very serious prelude that would inevitably drive the situation in the southern border area, where a huge number of forces are stationing in confrontation with each other, to the uncontrollable phase,” Ko said.

Earlier this month, Kim condemned the US-South Korea joint military drills as their intent to remain “most hostile and confrontational” to his country, pledging to speed up nuclear build-up.

South Korea’s new leader, Lee, has sought warmer ties with the nuclear-armed neighbour, and has promised to build “military trust”, but Pyongyang has said it has no interest in improving relations with Seoul.

THE Defence Secretary has caused a row at the top of the Armed Forces by dishing out a senior command job in secret.

John Healey was forced to U-turn after Strategic Commander General Sir Jim Hockenhull found out Royal Marine General Rob Magowan was to get his job when he leaves the post next April.

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The news came in an email blunder sent by Mr Healey’s private office.

Healey had promised the post of Strategic Commander, which oversees cyber and special forces, to Royal Marine General Rob Magowan.

It is one of the most powerful posts in the military, on par with commands of the Army, Navy and RAF.

Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin forced Mr Healey to back down, defence sources told The Sun.

Our source said: “This was a spectacular own goal.

“Hockenhull was furious. He stormed out.

“Then Magowan was told the deal was off — he was livid as well.”

Hockenhull regularly briefed Sir Kier Starmer on Ukraine and was well liked in Downing Street

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Plans shared with defence contractors also show a new missile field in the American Midwest, according to report.

The administration of United States President Donald Trump has circulated plans for its $175bn “Golden Dome” missile defence system, revealing a possible new missile field in the Midwest and details of the project’s plans to shoot down missiles in space, the Reuters news agency reports.

According to a series of slides, titled “Go Fast, Think Big!”, presented to some 3,000 defence contractors in Huntsville, Alabama, last week, Reuters says that plans for the Golden Dome include three layers of missile interceptors, radar arrays and lasers, in addition to its space-based defences.

While the presentation highlighted that the US “has built both interceptors and re-entry vehicles” for space-based missile interception before, the plans also acknowledged that the US has never built a vehicle that can handle the heat of reentry while targeting an enemy missile, according to Reuters.

Trump has estimated his Golden Dome could cost $175bn.

So far, Congress has appropriated $25bn for the system in the president’s tax and spending bill passed in July. Another $45.3bn is earmarked for the Golden Dome in Trump’s 2026 presidential budget request.

“They have a lot of money, but they don’t have a target of what it costs yet,” a US official cited by Reuters said.

Plans for the dome included a map showing that a new large-scale missile field, with systems built by Lockheed Martin, could be located in the US Midwest, Reuters reported.

The site would be in addition to two similar missile fields that already exist in southern California and Alaska.

Lockheed Martin has described the Gold Dome as “a defence system that shields America from aerial threats, hypersonic missiles and drone swarms with unmatched speed and accuracy”.

“Thanks to President Trump’s vision, Golden Dome will make this a reality, securing our future,” Lockheed Martin wrote in a post on social media in March.

Reuters said the slides did not include any references to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which was part of a bid for Golden Dome contracts, alongside the software maker Palantir and defence systems manufacturer Anduril.

Trump campaigned on building “a missile defence shield around our country,” in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. At an earlier campaign event in July 2024, Trump compared his plans with Israel’s Iron Dome.

The Iron Dome is Israel’s missile defence system, which detects an incoming rocket, determines its path and intercepts it. The system was developed with more than $1bn in funding from the US.

Days after taking office on January 27, Trump signed an executive order to “immediately begin the construction of a state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defence shield, which will be able to protect Americans”.

Although Trump secured $25bn for the system in his tax and spending bill, which also included significant cuts to federal funding for other programmes, including Medicaid, the project still faces a significant funding shortfall.

Trump suggested in May that the shortfall could be partly made up by Canada paying $61bn towards the project.

Footage from a forest in Ghana’s Ashanti region showed smouldering wreckage from a helicopter crash that killed the country’s defence and environment ministers. Three other officials and three air force crew members were also killed.

A helicopter crash has killed 8 people including the nation’s defence and environment ministers, according to Ghana’s government.

Defence Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were among the victims of the crash in the southern Ashanti region of the country, said Julius Debrah, Chief of Staff to President John Mahama, on Wednesday.

“The president and the government extend their condolences and solidarity to the families of our comrades and soldiers who fell in their service to the nation,” said Debrah.

Also among the victims were Alhaji Muniru Muhammad, Deputy National Security Coordinator and former Minister of Agriculture, and Samuel Sarpong, Vice Chairman of President Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) party.

The Ghanaian Air Force had reported earlier Wednesday that a military helicopter had disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from Accra at around 09:00 (local time and GMT), bound for Obuasi, north-west of the capital.

Debrah announced that flags would be flown at half-mast.

The Presidency said that Mahama had suspended all his official activities for the day.

More to come…

Australian minister lauds deal for next-generation, Mogami-class frigates and their long-range missile capabilities.

Australia and Japan have reached the largest defence-industry agreement ever between both countries for the production of advanced warships for the Australian Navy, the country’s Minister for Defence Richard Marles said.

Australia will upgrade its naval force with 11 Mogami-class frigates, built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Marles said on Tuesday, with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC, reporting that the contract was worth $10 billion Australian dollars (some $6.5bn).

“This is clearly the biggest defence-industry agreement that has ever been struck between Japan and Australia,” Marles said.

Mogami-class warships are advanced stealth frigates capable of launching long-range missiles, and have an operational range of up to 10,000 nautical miles (18,520km), compared with Australia’s current Anzac-class frigates, which have a range of about 6,000 nautical miles (11,112km), Marles said.

The new ships, which will be in service by 2030, also operate with a smaller crew than the Anzac class.

“It is a next-generation vessel. It is stealthy,” Marles said.

“It’s going to be really important in terms of giving our navy the capability to project, and impactful projection is at the heart of the strategic challenge,” Marles said, adding that the deal was also “a very significant moment in the bilateral relationship between Australia and Japan”.

Australia’s Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said: “It will take our general purpose frigates from being able to fire 32 air defence missiles to 128 missiles, giving our sailors the cutting‑edge weapons and combat systems they need.”

While Canberra did not specify a price tag for the vessels, only that it was part of a broader 55 billion Australian dollars ($35.5bn) “investment over the decade for the Navy’s surface combatant fleet”, the Reuters news agency reported that the “three frigate contract” will see three ships built in Japan, and a remaining eight expected to be built by Australia.

The contract for the frigates is Japan’s biggest and most significant defence deal since it lifted a decades-long ban on military exports in 2014, and only the second after it agreed to supply air defence radars to the Philippines.

Japanese Minister of Defence Gen Nakatani said it was a “major step forward in Japan’s defence cooperation efforts”.

“The benefits include enhanced joint operations and interoperability with both Australia and the United States,” he told a briefing in Tokyo.

“This collaboration is of significant security importance to Japan,” Nakatani said.

Negotiations will begin this year on a contract for the deal, which is expected to be signed in 2026, Australian and Japanese officials said.

Australia is in the midst of a major military restructuring announced in 2023, with a focus on long-range strike capabilities to better respond to China’s naval might.

It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next 10 years.

Anticorruption agencies arrest four suspects after government forced to backtrack on push to strip them of autonomy.

Ukrainian authorities have detained several officials over a “large-scale corruption scheme” in the defence sector, just days after lawmakers restored the independence of the country’s two main investigative bodies.

The National Anti-Corruption Agency (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP) said in a joint statement on Saturday that they made four arrests in connection with the scheme, which involved the procurement of military drones and signal jamming systems.

“The essence of the scheme was to conclude state contracts with supplier companies at deliberately inflated prices,” they said, adding that the suspects had received kickbacks of up to 30 percent of the contract amounts.

NABU and SAPO said they had caught a sitting lawmaker, two local officials and an unspecified number of National Guard personnel taking bribes. The suspects were not identified in Saturday’s statement.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs also said it had suspended the suspected National Guard members.

The announcement comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came under criticism last month for trying to take away the anticorruption agencies’ independence and place them under the control of his prosecutor-general.

The agencies regained their autonomy after Zelenskyy’s move sparked the first antigovernment demonstrations in Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022.

Zelenskyy, who enjoys far-reaching wartime powers, initially said he needed to bring the agencies under his control because they were inefficient and under “Russian influence”.

But he then said he had heard people’s anger and submitted a bill restoring the agencies’ independence, which was passed by lawmakers on Thursday.

“It is important that anticorruption institutions operate independently, and the law passed on Thursday guarantees them all the tools necessary for a real fight against corruption,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine’s European allies praised the about-face, having voiced concerns about the original defanging of the agencies.

Top officials had told Zelenskyy that Ukraine was jeopardising its bid for European Union membership by curbing the powers of its antigraft authorities.

In a statement about Saturday’s arrests, Zelenskyy said he was “grateful to the anti-corruption agencies for their work”.

UK’s Starmer says plan in place in event of ceasefire in Ukraine once Russia’s Putin agrees to ‘unconditional’ truce.

The United Kingdom and Germany have signed their first bilateral treaty since World War II, pledging to deepen cooperation on defence at a time of growing threats to Europe.

The Kensington Treaty, signed by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday, includes clauses on “mutual assistance” in case of attack and on “joint export campaigns” to drum up external orders for military hardware such as fighter jets that the countries produce together.

Speaking after the signing ceremony at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, Merz was cited by the BBC as saying that defence is the thread running through the treaty, showing that Germany and the UK are “really on the way to a new chapter” following the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union in 2020.

“We see the scale of the challenges our continent faces today, and we intend to meet them head on,” Starmer said at the press conference.

It was unclear what practical impact the promise in the treaty to “assist one another, including by military means, in case of an armed attack on the other” would have, since both countries are NATO members and bound by the alliance’s mutual defence pact.

Merz’s visit to London followed a three-day state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, during which France and the UK pledged to coordinate their nuclear deterrents, signalling tighter cooperation between Europe’s top three powers as doubts persist over US support for the continent amid Russia’s ongoing offensive in Ukraine.

While Germany does not have nuclear weapons, the treaty says the countries will “maintain a close dialogue on defence issues of mutual interest … including on nuclear issues”.

Merz and Starmer also discussed ways of boosting European support for Ukraine, following United States President Donald Trump’s announcement of a plan to bolster Kyiv’s stockpile by selling US weapons to NATO allies who would, in turn, send arms to Kyiv.

Starmer said that a plan was in place in the event of a ceasefire in Ukraine, saying the first step was to get Russian President Vladimir Putin “to the table for an unconditional ceasefire”, according to the BBC.

The so-called “coalition of the willing“, a group of countries led by France and the UK and including Germany, has been discussing the potential deployment of peacekeeping forces to Ukraine to police any future peace agreement with Russia.

The return to power of Trump, who has long been sceptical of US intervention on behalf of historic allies, has made Western European powers more focused on how to defend their own continent, particularly in light of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and the belief that the US may no longer be the transatlantic partner it once was.

Beyond defence, the treaty also includes an agreement to jointly combat irregular migration, part of Starmer’s push to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving in the UK to try to counter the rise of the hard-right Reform UK party.

Starmer said the treaty showed the two countries “mean business” when it comes to disrupting the arrival of refugees and migrants, and thanked Merz for a new law giving security forces powers to investigate storage facilities used by smugglers to conceal small boats making the crossings over the English Channel.

During Macron’s visit last week, the UK and France agreed on a “one in, one out” pilot scheme that would see the UK deporting people arriving on small boats to France in exchange for asylum seekers with a strong case, who have family connections to the country.

Kyiv, Ukraine – Heavy thuds that resemble fast hip-hop beats fill the night air when MIM-104 Patriots, air defence systems made in the United States, get to work.

Each Patriot surface-to-air launcher can shoot up to 32 missiles within seconds – and hit Russian ballistic missiles closing in on their targets.

The missiles fly at supersonic speeds, and the collision triggers a bright, split-second blast followed by a thunderous shock-wave.

“That’s the kind of explosion that makes me feel safe,” Ihor Lysenko, a 17-year-old in the capital Kyiv told Al Jazeera. He believes that the “technology is pretty reliable”.

The Patriots were developed in the 1970s to down Soviet missiles. Kyiv first received them in April 2023 from Washington and several of its Western European allies.

Within weeks, they had intercepted Russia’s Kinzhal (Dagger) intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are launched from fighter jets at more than 12km (7.5 miles) above the ground.

The Kinzhals mostly fly in the Earth’s stratosphere to maintain their speed, which, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is 10 times faster than the speed of sound, which he said makes any Western air defence system “useless”.

But in the past two years, about 10 Patriot systems in Ukraine – the exact number is a state secret – stationed in Kyiv and the southern port of Odesa have downed dozens more Kinzhals – along with other cruise and ballistic missiles, including North Korean ones; fighter jets; helicopters; and attack drones.

The latter is similar to hammering a nail with an electronic microscope – a Patriot missile is priced at several million dollars while Russian drones cost 100 times less.

The Patriots are, however, not 100 percent efficient.

During a late April attack on Kyiv, a Russian missile razed a two-storey apartment building, killing 12 people and wounding 87, gouging out windows and damaging roofs in dozens of buildings nearby.

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump announced that he would supply Kyiv with more Patriots – by selling them to Washington’s NATO allies who would pass them on to Ukraine.

“We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need,” Trump told reporters. “Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice, and then he bombs everybody in the evening.”

On Monday, Trump specified the number of systems – 17 – during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

“It’s everything. It’s Patriots. It’s all of them. It’s a full complement with the batteries,” Trump said.

He referred to an unnamed Western nation that had the “17 Patriots ready to be shipped”.

Days earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Berlin was ready to acquire additional Patriot systems.

‘We need hundreds of interceptors’

The new Patriots that will be deployed to large Ukrainian cities will definitely lower the lethality of Russian air raids, but won’t cross any “red lines” for Putin, a Kyiv-based analyst said.

“Russia occasionally cried about red lines when it came to long-range weaponry for strikes on Russia,” Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta think tank, told Al Jazeera. “There are no red lines with Patriots.”

However, the new Patriots won’t solve Ukraine’s problems with Russian air raids.

“The problem is not just about the Patriots,” Fesenko said. “We don’t just need the Patriots to fight ballistic missiles. Now Russia’s main strike weapon is drones. They cause most of the damage.”

Most damage and deaths are caused by attack drones that fly in swarms of hundreds at heights of up to 5km (3 miles) and cannot be hit by Ukraine’s own air defence systems or mobile air defence teams armed with machineguns.

Ukraine needs up to 25 more Patriot systems to cover its key urban areas, according to Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the Ukrainian military’s General Staff.

While the details about the new Patriots’ arrival are unknown, some observers said the purpose of Trump’s pledge is clear.

“He does that to support his image that has been tarnished domestically and internationally,” Romanenko told Al Jazeera.

And what Ukraine needs the most is drone interceptors that can fly up to 500 kilometres per hour (310 miles per hour) as Moscow equips new generations of its unmanned vehicles with jet engines, he said.

“The quantity is what matters. If they launch more than 700 [drones per attack], if they are capable of upping it to 1,000, then we need hundreds of interceptors,” Romanenko said.

Moscow scrupulously analyses the routes of its drone swarms and frequently changes them to avoid interception, so Kyiv needs light planes with electronic jamming, helicopters and air defence systems that can down aerodynamic targets, he said.

On Saturday, the Ukrainian air force said the newly supplied, German-made Skynex air defence system shot down six Russian-made Geran drones.

The Skynex has a 35mm automatic cannon that fires up to 1,000 rounds per minute and uses programmable ammunition that detonates near its targets, releasing a cloud of projectiles.

However, there are only two Skynex systems in Ukraine, and there are no details about further supplies.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has been slow to develop drone interceptors so far, an expert said.

“Everything is on an amateur level,” Andrey Pronin, one of the pioneers of Ukrainian drone warfare who runs a school for drone pilots in Kyiv, told Al Jazeera.

He said he was part of a team that developed an interceptor drone capable of catching up to Russian loitering munitions.

But even though the interceptor was battle-tested, Ukraine’s Defence Ministry didn’t show any interest, he said.

“The ministry is such a hole. Things haven’t moved at all,” he said.

Azerbaijan’s Arguj Kalantarli notes ‘humanitarian catastrophe on unimaginable scale’ in Gaza, in member state Palestine.

The Secretary-General of the International Civil Defence Organization (ICDO) has been elected at a session held in Baku, according to the Azerbaijan Press Agency (APA)

The head of the international relations department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Colonel Arguj Kalantarli, was unanimously elected to the post.

Kalantarli delivered a speech, highlighting the “humanitarian catastrophe on an unimaginable scale” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, noting Palestine is a member state of the ICDO.

“Food, water, medicine, shelter, these are no longer just basic rights, ” he said. Palestinians’ “loved ones are slipping through our fingers”, he added.

Another short excerpt from my speech at the 3rd Extraordinary Session of the ICDO General Assembly in Baku, Azerbaijan (July 10, 2025), including remarks on the humanitarian crisis in Palestine and Gaza. pic.twitter.com/YWiZQ6V1hT

— Arguj Kalantarli (@ArgujKalantarli) July 11, 2025

The ICDO is an intergovernmental organisation which contributes to the development of systems by countries to help protect populations, property and the environment from natural or man-made disasters and conflicts.

Candidates from four member states of the organisation – Azerbaijan, Serbia, Burkina Faso, and Tunisia – were in the running for the position.

Two-time defending wheelchair doubles champions Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid got their campaign off to a winning start at Wimbledon.

The British pair beat Takuya Miki of Japan and American Casey Ratzlaff 6-3 6-2 to progress to the semi-finals.

Six of their 22 major triumphs have come at the All England Club, while Hewett has 10 Grand Slam singles titles and Reid has two.

Both continue their singles campaigns on Thursday, with defending champion Hewett taking on China’s Ji Zhenxu and Reid facing Argentine fourth seed Gustavo Fernandez.

Another all-British pair – Ben Bartram and Dahnon Ward – were also in last-eight action on Wednesday but they lost 7-5 6-4 to Ji and Israel’s Sergei Lysov.

In the women’s wheelchair doubles, Briton Lucy Shuker and her Dutch partner Diede de Groot advanced to the semi-finals with a 6-4 6-4 victory over all-Netherlands pair Lizzy de Greef and Aniek van Koot.

Another British-Dutch pairing, Cornelia Oosthuizen and Jinte Bos, could not join them in the last four as they were beaten 6-4 5-7 6-4 by Chile’s Macarena Cabrillana and Japan’s Saki Takamuro.

Greg Slade reached the semi-finals of the men’s quad wheelchair singles, defeating Chilean Francisco Cayulef 7-6 (7-2) 3-6 6-4, but 2019 finalist Andy Lapthorne was beaten 6-2 1-6 6-2 by Turkey’s Ahmet Kaplan.

Both Slade and Lapthorne are back in action on Thursday in the men’s quad wheelchair doubles.

Lapthorne is partnering Cayulef against top seeds Guy Sasson and Niels Vink of Israel and the Netherlands respectively, while Slade and South African Donald Ramphadi face Kaplan and Dutchman Sam Schroder.

Katz says Israel has ‘green light’ from US to attack Iran again if Tehran makes ‘progress’ with its nuclear programme.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said that his country wanted to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the recent 12-day war between the two sides that ended this week with a ceasefire.

Katz said on Thursday that Israel would not have needed permission from the United States to kill Khamenei, appearing to refute previous media reports that Washington vetoed the assassination.

“We wanted to eliminate Khamenei, but there was no operational opportunity,” said Katz in an interview with Israel’s Channel 13.

Katz claimed that Khamenei knew an attempt on his life was on the cards, and went “underground to very great depths”, breaking off contact with commanders who replaced Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leaders assassinated in the first wave of Israeli strikes.

Khamenei released video messages during the war, and there is no evidence to confirm that he was cut off from his generals.

Killing Khamenei would have been a major escalation in the conflict. Besides being the de facto head of state in Iran, the supreme leader is a top spiritual authority for millions of Shia Muslims across the world.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump had both suggested at various times that the war could spark regime change, the latter posting on social media last Sunday that the conflict could “MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN”.

Katz’s comments came amid conflicting reports on the extent of destruction wrought on Iran’s nuclear capability, primarily as a result of the US bombing of sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Khamenei said on Thursday that the US had “exaggerated” the impact of strikes.

The Israeli defence minister said that his country has a “green light” from Trump to launch another attack on Iran if it were deemed to be making “progress” with its nuclear programme.

“I do not see a situation where Iran will restore the nuclear facilities after the attack,” he said.

For his part, Netanyahu said on Thursday that the outcome of the war presented a “window of opportunity” for further formal diplomatic agreements with Arab states.

The conflict ended with a US-brokered ceasefire after Iran responded to the US strikes with a missile attack on Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base, which houses US troops.

“We have fought with determination against Iran and achieved a great victory. This victory opens the path to dramatically enlarge the peace accords,” Netanyahu said in a video address, in an apparent reference to the Abraham Accords, which established official ties between Israel and several Arab countries in 2020.

Iran also declared victory after the war, saying that it thwarted the Israeli objectives – namely ending Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes – and managed to force Netanyahu to end the assault with the missile strikes that left widespread destruction in Israel.

Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova has withdrawn from Eastbourne with a thigh injury just four days before her SW19 title defence begins.

The Czech was taken to three sets in both of her matches on the south coast, beating Britons Harriet Dart and Jodie Burrage in round one and two respectively.

She was set to face France’s Varvara Gracheva in the quarter-finals but pulled out before the match began.

Two-time major singles champion Krejcikova initially felt the issue on Wednesday and said it had “got worse” overnight.

“I’m very sorry to have to withdraw as I’m having some soreness in my right thigh,” the 29-year-old said.

“I think it’s better with Wimbledon in the next couple of days just to rest it and to see what’s going on and to resolve that.”

Krejcikova, who will open play on Tuesday at Wimbledon as the defending women’s champion, has played just six matches this year after a lengthy lay-off with a back injury.

She lost her first-round match at Queen’s last week then saved match points against both Dart and Burrage.

The world number 17 beat Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the Wimbledon final last year.

In what marks a major shift for NATO, the bloc’s member states have agreed to raise defence spending to five percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The move will inject billions more dollars into armies and weapons, raising questions over how governments will foot the bill.

With public budgets under strain, many European politicians dismissed the target as unachievable earlier this year, when US President Donald Trump demanded it.

Europe’s priorities now appear to be shifting to security, citing growing threats from Russia.

And Chinese goods are flooding markets from Southeast Asia to Europe.

Plus, top economists call for debt relief in developing nations.

The US has been pressuring its allies to adopt new targets for defence spending in response to the Russian threat.

A who’s who of world leaders has been converging on the Netherlands for the annual North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, where members are expected to sign off on major boosts to defence spending in response to pressure from the United States.

The two-day NATO meeting kicks off in The Hague on Tuesday against a backdrop of increasing global instability, with ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and the Middle East. High on the agenda is an agreement to significantly increase defence expenditure across the 32 member states. This follows pointed criticism from the administration of US President Donald Trump, who says the US carries too much of the military burden.

Trump has demanded that NATO allies increase their defence spending to 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP), up from the current target of 2 percent. He has questioned whether the alliance should defend countries that fail to meet the spending targets, and has even threatened to leave the bloc.

Speaking to reporters in The Hague ahead of the summit on Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that NATO members were set to approve “historic new spending targets” at the summit.

“The security architecture that we relied on for decades can no longer be taken for granted,” she said, describing it as a “once-in-a-generation tectonic shift”.

“In recent months, Europe has taken action, action that seemed unthinkable just a year ago,” she said. “The Europe of defence has finally awakened.”

Speaking ahead of the summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stressed that there was “total commitment” from the US to the alliance, but he noted that it came with the expectation of a boost in defence spending.

US pressure

Earlier this month, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered an ultimatum to NATO defence ministers at a meeting in Brussels, saying that the commitment to 5 percent spending “​​has to happen by the summit at The Hague”.

In response to the pressure, Rutte will ask member states at the summit to approve new targets of 5 percent of GDP for their defence budgets by 2032, with 3.5 percent to be spent on core defence spending and the remainder allocated to “soft spending” on infrastructure and cybersecurity.

In 2023, in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine, NATO leaders agreed to raise defence spending targets from 1.5 percent to 2 percent of GDP. However, only 22 of the alliance’s 32 members met the revised targets.

While some countries like Spain have pushed back against the latest proposed hike as unrealistic, other members have already announced plans to significantly ramp up military spending in response to a changed security environment.

Delivering a major foreign policy address in Berlin on Tuesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Germany would ramp up its spending to become “Europe’s strongest conventional army” — not as a “favour” to Washington, but in response to the threat from Russia.

“We must fear that Russia wants to continue its war beyond Ukraine,” he said.

“We must together be so strong that no one dares to attack us.”

Kremlin: NATO ‘created for confrontation’

The summit will be attended by the leaders of all 32 members of the transatlantic alliance, along with the leaders of allied countries, including Japan, New Zealand and Ukraine.

While Kyiv is not a member of the alliance, its desire to join NATO was cited by the Kremlin as one of the reasons it attacked Ukraine in 2022.

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had no plans to attack NATO, but that it was “a wasted effort” to assure the alliance of this because it was determined to demonise Russia as a “fiend of hell”.

“It is an alliance created for confrontation … It is not an instrument of peace and stability,” Peskov said, the Reuters news agency reported.

Linfield will begin the defence of their Irish Premiership title against Dungannon Swifts on the opening weekend of the 2025-26 season.

The Irish League champions will host the Irish Cup winners at Windsor Park on the weekend of Saturday 9 August.

Before that, the teams will meet in the Charity Shield on 4 July, before embarking on their European adventures in the Champions League and Uefa Conference League qualifiers, prior to the start of the domestic season.

Other opening day fixtures see newly promoted Championship winners Bangor host Cliftonville on their return to the top flight, while last season’s runner-up Larne face a trip to big-spending Coleraine.

Crusaders are at home to Carrick Rangers, Glenavon entertain Ballymena United and Portadown host Glentoran in the first round of fixtures.

Highlights of the following weekend see Linfield travel to Ballymena United, Cliftonville play Coleraine and Larne against Crusaders.

A set of six matches are scheduled for the evening of Tuesday 19 August.

The first Belfast ‘Big Two’ encounter of the campaign is scheduled for Saturday 13 September at the Oval.

Ballymena United are set to face Coleraine in their first derby meeting at Warden Street on 11 October, with Crusaders at home to Cliftonville on the same day.

Portadown host Glenavon a week previous on 4 October in the opening mid-Ulster derby.

Larne have home advantage against Carrick Rangers in the east Antrim derby on 20 September.

This year’s traditional Boxing Day matches will see Linfield at home to Glentoran, Ballymena United up against Coleraine, Carrick host Larne, Cliftonville entertain Crusaders, Portadown at home to Glenavon and Dungannon come up against Bangor.

The final set of games in the regular season are set for Friday 20 March, with the post-split fixtures on 28 March, 7 April, 11 April, 18 April and 25 April.

All fixtures are subject to change, with the full list of preliminary fixtures as produced by the Northern Ireland Football League available to view here, external.

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez warns the spending hike would undermine EU efforts to build its own security and defence base.

Spain has reportedly asked to opt out of NATO’s proposed defence spending target of 5 percent of GDP, risking disruption to a key agreement expected at next week’s alliance summit.

In a letter addressed to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Thursday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged the alliance to adopt a more flexible framework, according to media reports.

The letter, seen by the Reuters and Associated Press news agencies, called for either the target to remain optional or for Spain to be exempt entirely.

“Committing to a 5% target would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive,” Sanchez wrote, warning that it would undermine efforts by the European Union to build its own security and defence base. “As a sovereign Ally, we choose not to.”

Sanchez insisted Madrid does not intend to block the outcome of the upcoming summit. But any agreement on increased defence spending must be approved unanimously by all 32 NATO members, giving Spain leverage to delay or water down the deal.

Spain currently spends approximately 1.28 percent of its GDP on defence, the lowest among NATO members, according to alliance estimates. While Sanchez has pledged to accelerate the country’s path to NATO’s current 2 percent goal, he argues that going beyond that risks harming the welfare state and compromising Spain’s broader policy vision.

NATO’s push for higher spending follows calls by US President Donald Trump and others to share the burden more fairly across the alliance. Rutte has suggested a new formula that allocates 3.5 percent of GDP to core military spending and an additional 1.5 percent to broader security needs.

Pressure to increase defence spending

The United States, NATO’s largest military contributor and Ukraine’s main backer since Russia’s 2022 invasion, is estimated to have spent 3.38 percent of its GDP on defence in 2024. Trump has repeatedly claimed European allies are not pulling their weight, and has threatened to withhold support for those who fall short.

Sanchez, however, said rushing to meet a 5 percent target would force EU states to buy military equipment from outside the bloc, damaging the continent’s attempts to bolster self-sufficiency in defence.

The proposal also faces resistance from Spain’s political left. The left-leaning Sumar party, part of Sanchez’s coalition, opposes the move, while Podemos, not in government but often a key parliamentary ally, has also rejected it.

“If the government needs parliamentary support to approve spending, it will have a very difficult time in the current situation,” said Josa Miguel Calvillo, a professor of international relations at the Complutense University of Madrid, speaking to Reuters.

Italy has also raised concerns, reportedly seeking to shift the proposed deadline for the new target from 2032 to 2035 and drop the requirement to increase spending by 0.2 percent annually.

One senior European official told Reuters that Spain’s rejection complicates talks but said discussions are ongoing. “It doesn’t look good, indeed, but we are not over yet. Spain has demonstrated to be a steadfast ally so far.”

Iran’s air defence batteries have been firing overnight in the capital Tehran to counter a fourth night of Israeli strikes. Iranian officials say Israeli attacks have killed more than 224 people, including 70 women and children.

PM Albanese says government already increasing spending and decisions will be based on defence capability needs.

United States Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth has called on Australia to increase its military spending to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) “as soon as possible”.

Responding on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government will decide on Australia’s defence capability needs before announcing spending.

“What you should do in defence is decide what you need, your capability, and then provide for it,” Albanese told reporters.

“That’s what my government is doing. Investing to our capability and investing in our relationships.”

Albanese added that his government is already increasing defence spending by about 10 billion Australian dollars ($6.5bn).

“We’re continuing to lift up,” he said, citing his government’s goal to increase spending to 2.3 percent of GDP by 2033.

However, the government is facing other demands on its budget.

Albanese was speaking from a farm in the state of South Australia, which is experiencing a significant drought.

Meanwhile, Australia’s treasurer said the country is facing a bill of billions due to recent floods in New South Wales and Cyclone Alfred.

Public broadcaster ABC reported that increasing military spending to 3.5 percent of GDP would cost 100 billion Australian dollars ($65bn) annually, 40 billion Australian dollars ($25bn) more than it spends currently.

Matt Grudnoff, a senior economist with The Australia Institute, said “Australia already spends more than it should” on defence.

“Were Australia to increase its defence spending to 2.3% of GDP, we would be the ninth biggest spender on defence and the military,” Grudnoff said.

“Australia would be devoting more of its economy to defence than France and Taiwan, and on a par with the United Kingdom,” he added.

Worldwide military spending increased by 9.4 percent in 2024, the sharpest rise since the end of the Cold War, in part driven by increased spending by European countries, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The Australian government has already committed to spending hundreds of billions of dollars on US-manufactured nuclear submarines under its AUKUS agreement with the US and the UK in the coming decades.

It estimates that the programme could cost up to 368 billion Australian dollars ($238bn).

Hegseth and Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles discussed security issues, including accelerating US defence capabilities in Australia and advancing industrial base cooperation during a meeting on Friday, a Pentagon statement said on Sunday.

Australia’s role in manufacturing weapons components has come under increasing scrutiny amid Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, with protests outside Australian weapons factories and at Australian ports, as well as legal challenges.

Albanese says Australia’s position on Taiwan has not changed

Hegseth’s call for Australia to increase its military spending comes after the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday that “the threat China poses is real, and it could be imminent”.

“There’s no reason to sugar-coat it,” the Pentagon chief added. The US continues to warn of the threat that China poses to Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of Chinese territory.

China’s Defence Minister Dong Jun skipped the conference, which is considered to be the region’s top security event.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by saying: “The US should not entertain illusions about using the question over Taiwan as a bargaining chip to contain China, nor should it play with fire.”

Asked about Hegseth’s remarks, Albanese said Australia will “determine our defence policy”.

“Our position with regard to Taiwan is very clear, [and] has been for a long period of time, which is a bipartisan position to support the status quo,” he said.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has warned that China is preparing to invade Taiwan. Hegseth made the comments at a global defence meeting in Singapore. Chinese officials rejected the allegations as ‘defamatory’.