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Trump tells Texas campaign rally crowd he’s rolling back environmental rules to curb methane pollution – as it happened

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Speaking to reporters on the tarmac before departing for a campaign event in Michigan, JD Vance responded to a question about President Trump’s remarks branding Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as a “jihadist.”

Vance, who has sparred with the progressive El-Sayed repeatedly on the campaign trail, took a somewhat softer tone. But he didn’t walk away from Trump’s remarks.

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© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

© Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Kyiv hopes for ‘new momentum’ in peace talks after Finnish and Norwegian leaders’ call with Putin – as it happened

Alexander Stubb and Jonas Gahr Støre held ‘substantive’ talk with Russian president on peace negotiations, but faced sceptical reactions from some European leaders

Meanwhile, Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, has warned that Russia’s Vladimir Putin is “testing us and testing Nato’s resolve” as he condemned hybrid threats and “state-sponsored terrorism” from Russia.

Streeting repeated his recent warnings that “we have to be ready for a scenario in which the United Kingdom and the Nato alliance finds itself at war with Russia”. He went on:

Not because we want war – we have no quarrel with the Russian people, and we have no desire for war with Russia; Nato is a defensive alliance – but when Putin gives assurances that he has no intentions to provoke a war with Nato, we are reminded of what he said about Ukraine only days before the invasion.

The more ready we are to face against Russia, to defend every inch of Nato territory, the less likely we are to find ourselves in that scenario.

Poland is one of our greatest and certainly our most reliable friend in Europe, and we value and treasure this friendship very much.

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© Photograph: Heiko Junge/Pool NTB/AP

© Photograph: Heiko Junge/Pool NTB/AP

© Photograph: Heiko Junge/Pool NTB/AP

Kyiv hopes for ‘new momentum’ in peace talks after Finnish and Norwegian leaders’ call with Putin – as it happened

Alexander Stubb and Jonas Gahr Støre held ‘substantive’ talk with Russian president on peace negotiations, but faced sceptical reactions from some European leaders

Meanwhile, Wes Streeting, the defence secretary, has warned that Russia’s Vladimir Putin is “testing us and testing Nato’s resolve” as he condemned hybrid threats and “state-sponsored terrorism” from Russia.

Streeting repeated his recent warnings that “we have to be ready for a scenario in which the United Kingdom and the Nato alliance finds itself at war with Russia”. He went on:

Not because we want war – we have no quarrel with the Russian people, and we have no desire for war with Russia; Nato is a defensive alliance – but when Putin gives assurances that he has no intentions to provoke a war with Nato, we are reminded of what he said about Ukraine only days before the invasion.

The more ready we are to face against Russia, to defend every inch of Nato territory, the less likely we are to find ourselves in that scenario.

Poland is one of our greatest and certainly our most reliable friend in Europe, and we value and treasure this friendship very much.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Heiko Junge/Pool NTB/AP

© Photograph: Heiko Junge/Pool NTB/AP

© Photograph: Heiko Junge/Pool NTB/AP

Serbia wakes up to new reality after student-led movement ousts Vučić – as it hapepned

Hopes raised for a reset in relations with EU and other partners following the defeat of authoritarian president

Back to Serbia, we are expecting to hear from two groups of election monitors in the coming hours: first, very shortly, from Serbia’s Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), and then a bit later from a group of international observers, including from the OSCE, the ODIHR, and the European parliament.

I will keep an eye on their findings and bring you the key lines.

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© Photograph: Marko Dimic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Marko Dimic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Marko Dimic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

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