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Western alliance

This Month

What Donald Trump wants to do is likely to be very damaging to his MAGA supporters.

Trump and MAGA have split thanks to Epstein

Months of differences, not just over the disgraced former financier, show what post-Trump conservatism will look like.

President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in The Hague last month.

Trump to meet NATO chief as plan takes shape for Ukraine weapons sales

Mark Rutte’s Washington visit comes after the US President teased he would make a “major statement” on Russia as Ukraine struggles to repel air assaults.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a meeting with Chinese Communist Party official Chen Jining in Shanghai on Sunday.

Albanese stuck between Trump and China as he spruiks trade and tourism

Anthony Albanese has rebuffed US pressure to commit to defending Taiwan from attack, overshadowing a six-day visit to China aimed at bolstering economic ties with Australia’s biggest trading partner.

Anthony Albanese wants to expand Australia’s commercial relationship with China but maintain its security allegiance with Washington.

Albanese lost in translation as he heads to Beijing

The prime minister is sending a confused message on Australia’s relationship with the US. The contradictions will be sharper in his visit to China this weekend.

Ex-ASIO chief Duncan Lewis says Australia must sign on to massive European research fund.

Joining EU research fund a ‘no-brainer’, says former ASIO chief

Duncan Lewis says research, including for defence, would be given a spectacular boost if Australia finally signed on to Horizon Europe.

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A local woman walks past cars destroyed by a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine last week.

Europe to stockpile critical minerals due to risk of war

General Carsten Breuer, the German chief of defence, warned last month that Russia could attack an EU member state within the next four years.

June

Donald Trump

What kind of world does Trump want?

Both internationally and domestically, officials and investors are left struggling to understand if the US president is an interventionist or a peacemaker.

Ukraine destroys Russian helicopters in latest airfield drone strikes

The hit to the Kirovske base targeted Russian aircraft, air defence systems and storage facilities for ammunition and drones, according to Ukraine’s security service.

Donald Trump and NATO secretary General Mark Rutte

Albanese can’t escape ‘daddy’ Trump’s defence demands

Donald Trump wanted – and got – acclaim and obeisance from NATO leaders. It’s lucky Anthony Albanese wasn’t in the picture.

US President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

How NATO’s ‘daddy strategy’ conquered Trump

By playing to the president’s ego and rolling out the red carpet, the alliance has strengthened its bonds with its biggest financial backer.

US President Donald Trump is flanked by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the NATO summit.

Trump says US will speak with Iran next week, war ‘over’ for now

The president said America may sign an agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, and dismissed a report that said the impact of United States’ strikes was limited.

Donald Trump arrives in The Hague for this week’s NATO summit. The US president appears to have given up on the Russia-Ukraine war.

US plays the Trump card at NATO

The summit allows the US president to parade his ceasefire success and press NATO members to up their defence spending. Australia’s Richard Marles is the odd man out.

President Donald Trump, center, attends a dinner of NATO heads of state and government at the Paleis Huis ten Bosch ahead of the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 24, 2025.

Australia, Europe split over defence spending amid China, Russia risk

Anthony Albanese isn’t attending a summit of the world’s most powerful military alliance despite Europe’s alarm over Beijing’s “rapid” military build-up.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Marine One

Trump loses one Nobel Peace Prize nomination – but may gain another

Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of Ukraine’s foreign affairs committee, said he had lost “any kind of faith” in the president’s ability to end the war with Russia.

Keir Starmer has committed to lift defence spending.

UK vows to spend 5 per cent of GDP by 2035 to hit NATO goal

The new promise marks a significant increase on the government’s current plans, to reach 2.6 per cent – including intelligence spending – by 2027.

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United States Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the G7.

PM cannot say when he’ll meet Donald Trump

Anthony Albanese says whenever he meets the US president, it will be “at a time that’s convenient for both of us”.

A Japanese frigate docked in Darwin. Japan and other US allies in the region are under pressure to spend more on defence.

Japan refutes report US demanded defence spending of 3.5pc of GDP

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi says that the amount of spending is less important than how Japan raises its military capabilities.

Anthony Albanese at the G7 summit in Canada.

PM can’t be seen to be begging when it comes to Trump

Given the fallout from the G7 snub, a second in as many weeks would be disastrous.

Anthony Albanese may attend NATO if he can line up a meeting with Donald Trump.

PM mulls travel plan change, could meet Trump next week at NATO

Anthony Albanese has changed his mind about attending the NATO summit in The Hague and will go if he can talk to the US president.

Demonstrators wave Iranian and Hezbollah flags as one holds up a poster of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s regime is fighting for survival

Forty years after its war with Iraq, the Islamic republic faces a new existential test.

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