The Latest Breaking News from NATO

Former Ukip leader defended his Ukraine war comments and hit out at Boris Johnson as he made another incendiary claim – that there had been an ‘invasion of people arriving on small boats’

In today’s newsletter: The Reform leader keeps wheeling out his Ukraine-sceptic, Russia-curious foreign affairs takes – but why?

Yes, the Reform leader’s words were opportunistic. But at their root is a call for peace – and that should be on everyone’s minds, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

Mark Rutte, the outgoing prime minister of the Netherlands, will become Nato’s next secretary general when Jens Stoltenberg steps down in the autumn. Rutte’s candidacy has been endorsed by all 32 member states, most recently by Hungary and Slovakia, which confirmed their backing on June 18. The Romanian president Klaus…

Rishi Sunak also accused the Reform UK leader of ‘playing into Putin’s hands’

Polish President Andrzej Duda has met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a visit to Beijing that brings the leader of a NATO member to a country that has backed Russia in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Reform UK leader accuses group of trying to stop his party breaking through into parliament

Russian state news agency Tass says that armed militants attacked two Orthodox churches, a synagogue and a traffic police post in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan, killing a priest, a church security guard and at least six police officers

The Ministry of Defence said Russia would be ‘hard to encircle’ in a video posted after Nigel Farage’s controversial comments

Behind the pageantry of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea, a strong signal came through: In the spiraling confrontation with the U.S. and its allies over Ukraine, the Russian leader is willing to challenge Western interests like never before

IAN Murray has been asked if he will stand by his “lifelong” opposition to nuclear weapons if he becomes Scottish secretary – or fall in line…