UK News
US to review benefits of having troops in Europe with ‘era of free-riding’ over – Europe live | World news
US to conduct a review of forces in Europe
Hegseth says the US will be “doubling down” on its efforts to get allies to spend what they need to spend.
He says his department will conduct a six-month review of US forces in Europe.
He says it will look at actual benefits of having US military in Europe – and will be a real review.
“It will be designed to ensure that Nato is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defence of Europe.”
He then goes further to say that the US dues to the Nato budget will be contingent on other countries meeting their defence spending targets.
“Where other allies do not spend with urgency, our dues, contributions will go down. Nato will be a two-way street.”
He adds:
“America cannot care for or pay more for Europe’s defence than our allies do.”
Key events
-
US defence secretary urges UK to spend more on defence, ‘step up and do even more’
-
US force review will ‘change how we look at continent,’ Hegseth says
-
Russian oil refinery on fire after barrage of Ukrainian drones strike Moscow
-
Trump was ‘pumped with’ harmful ideas during G7 summit, Kremlin says
-
Nato agrees to modernise nuclear capabilities, strengthen planning
-
Hegseth’s frustration is not new, but still striking – snap analysis
-
‘Our direction of travel is and has been clear,’ Hegseth tells Nato
-
Some Nato countries ‘will fail’ US posture review, Hegseth says
-
US to conduct a review of forces in Europe
-
Hegseth says ‘era of free riding’ is over
-
Nato allies refusal to help on Iran ‘shameful,’ Hegseth says
-
US ‘gave allies test to support America … and too many failed it,’ Hegseth says
-
‘There have been real setbacks we cannot ignore,’ Hegseth tells Nato
-
‘Europe was not supposed to be a dependency of the US,’ Hegseth tells Nato
-
‘Nato has been a paper tiger and a one-way street,’ US Hegseth tells Nato ministers
-
Morning opening: Ukraine hits Moscow oil refinery, disrupts flights in retaliation attack as Nato, EU leaders meet for talks
US defence secretary urges UK to spend more on defence, ‘step up and do even more’
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has also offered his view on the relationship with the UK, after meeting Britain’s new defence minister Dan Jarvis.
His predecessor resigned in protest against low government spending on defence.
Hegseth said it was “a good meeting,” stressing that “the US-British defence alliance is an important one.”
He praised Jarvis for having first-hand experience of serving in a combat zone.
But he said “the message was the same: hey, we need you guys to step up and do even more, spend even more.”
He added:
“If we need access and basing, whether it’s in the UK or say at Diego Garcia, we can’t live in a world where other countries are standing at the end of a runway with a clipboard trying to decide what flies and what doesn’t. It’s not gonna, it’s not gonna work for us. It’s not good in contingencies, and I don’t think it’s what he wants either.”
He continued saying that “the more the UK spends on defence, the stronger Nato is going to be, the stronger western civilization is, and that’s a good thing.”
“I think [it was] a good start to a relationship that we need to renew even more,” Hegseth said.
US force review will ‘change how we look at continent,’ Hegseth says
We are now again hearing from US defence secretary Pete Hegseth again, as he’s speaking with reporters after his explosive speech at the Nato ministerial in Brussels this morning.
Just as I argued (10:15), he tells them that the message is not new, with many countries already stepping up – but not all of them.
“We will be clear with them, and as we do this review, we’ll change how we look at the continent as a result,” he says.
Separately, speaking on Iran, he also notes that a number of European countries are “prepared to step up” to help with the strait of Hormuz.
“It’s an international water bill, and frankly, European countries and Asian countries use it a lot more than we do,” he says.
Russian oil refinery on fire after barrage of Ukrainian drones strike Moscow
Peter Beaumont in Pavlograd and Warren Murray
Ukrainian drones have hit several locations across Moscow, including setting an oil refinery on fire, sending out flames and towering plumes of smoke over the city and forcing the capital’s airports to suspend flights.
The scale of the long-range attack, apparently designed to shut down operations at the key oil refinery in the Kapotno area, caught most Muscovites by surprise in a city that does not typically warn residents with air raid alarms, and prompted panicked messages on social media.
Footage posted online showed three plumes of smoke rising from the refinery.
The strike was the second in two days on the facility, in what the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, then called “a just response to Russian strikes”.
“Air defence forces are continuing to repel a large-scale attack. Several drones managed to reach the [Moscow oil refinery],” said Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow’s mayor, adding that a shopping centre was also damaged. He claimed about 180 drones heading for the capital had been downed.
Sobyanin said emergency crews were working at the site and also reported “damage” to Sadovod shopping centre in the south-eastern part of the city. At least seven drones appear to have beaten Russia’s air defences to strike targets in the city.
Traffic was halted on Moscow’s ring road near the refinery, the broadcaster RIA cited the interior ministry as saying, while air traffic was disrupted at Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, and Zhukovsky airports.

Jakub Krupa
Let’s get a bit more on these Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow.
Trump was ‘pumped with’ harmful ideas during G7 summit, Kremlin says
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has offered its take on yesterday’s G7 summit – including a supportive statement on Ukraine (Europe Live, Wednesday) – saying that the US president, Donald Trump, was “pumped with” harmful ideas by the EU.
The US had no contacts with Moscow after the meeting, Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov was quoted by Interfax and Reuters as saying.
Ushakov also disputed the EU’s assumption that the battlefield situation was changing in Ukraine’s favour.
Nato agrees to modernise nuclear capabilities, strengthen planning
Separately, Nato has agreed to modernise its nuclear capabilities and strengthen its nuclear planning capacity, the alliance’s senior body for nuclear deterrence said in a statement quoted by Reuters.
All Nato allies except France are members of the Nuclear Planning Group, which serves as a forum for consultation and decision-making on nuclear deterrence.
Defence ministers taking part in the meeting “recalled that the strategic nuclear forces of the Alliance remain the supreme guarantee of Allied security and underpin Nato’s extended deterrence architecture,” the statement said.
Hegseth’s frustration is not new, but still striking – snap analysis

Jakub Krupa
None of this is really new new – Hegseth largely repeats the US’s main frustrations and grievances with the alliance, repeatedly expressed by Trump – but the tone of the delivery is still very, very striking.
Hegseth has laid into Nato allies for not helping enough with bases and overflights during its early Iran operations – and once he did not name any countries, it’s likely targeted at the likes of Spain, Italy, Portugal.
In other parts, it is just a broader criticism of what the US sees as “free riding” from the allies, as they do not move quickly enough on spending.
Coming just weeks before the Nato summit in Ankara, it is clearly intented to serve as a warning to several of the allies that still don’t spend enough and don’t seem to act with the urgency the US is expecting them to increase that spending – or even offer a credible path towards it.
The proposed posture review – and explicit threat that some of them will fail it – and the suggestion the US could reduce its contributions if others do not pay enough, will make some think twice about their plans in the next few weeks.
As Hegseth ends his remarks, Rutte says “there’s much to discuss and decide today.”
You bet it’s going to be lively.
‘Our direction of travel is and has been clear,’ Hegseth tells Nato
Hegseth says “our direction of travel is and has been clear.”
“This is the right thing to do by the American people. It’s the right thing to do by this alliance.
Europe can and must take primary responsibility for its conventional defence as it pledged at The Hague Summit, and in the process safeguarding Europe’s defence for generations to come, we know our allies can do it, and it’s time.”
Some Nato countries ‘will fail’ US posture review, Hegseth says
Hegseth makes it clear that the review will not be just a box-ticking exercise.
“It’s a review that some countries will fail and others will pass with flying colours. In the end, the review is intended to both improve US force posture and basing and strengthen Nato 3.0.”
US to conduct a review of forces in Europe
Hegseth says the US will be “doubling down” on its efforts to get allies to spend what they need to spend.
He says his department will conduct a six-month review of US forces in Europe.
He says it will look at actual benefits of having US military in Europe – and will be a real review.
“It will be designed to ensure that Nato is moving fast and irreversibly toward Europe leading, stepping up to take primary responsibility for the defence of Europe.”
He then goes further to say that the US dues to the Nato budget will be contingent on other countries meeting their defence spending targets.
“Where other allies do not spend with urgency, our dues, contributions will go down. Nato will be a two-way street.”
He adds:
“America cannot care for or pay more for Europe’s defence than our allies do.”
Hegseth says ‘era of free riding’ is over
Hegseth says that “some of Nato’s largest economies, some of our richest countries, allies that are happiest to go on about the rules-based international order and middle powers banding together still think the era of free riding is here.”
He says Trump disagrees.
“This is not what any reasonable person would expect, and it’s not going to cut it any more.”
(He may be thinking of, among others, Spain, which has long been the target of US criticism, and has clashed with it in recent months.)
Nato allies refusal to help on Iran ‘shameful,’ Hegseth says
Hegseth makes it very clear how the US is annoyed about the perceived lack of support on Iran.
“The United States has defended Europe for generations, and the President said all he said was that our jets would need to take off from bases in Europe or our ships from ports to strike targets in the Middle East, Iranian targets that threaten European interests even more directly than they threaten us.
But too many of our allies said no, or tried to drown us in arcane legal debates, or criticised us publicly for doing what they aren’t prepared or able to do themselves. It was shameful.
These allies, they put America’s sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, at risk by denying them the predictable access facing an overflight that never should have been in question at all.”
US ‘gave allies test to support America … and too many failed it,’ Hegseth says
Hegseth now goes hard on some Nato countries that are still paying below the expected levels.
He says “for all of our clarity, too many allied capitals seem to still miss something in translation” and “too many allies still do not recognise the historic need … to forge a relevant, powerful military alliance.”
He says the US “gave our allies a test to support America when we asked for their help and too many failed it.”
‘There have been real setbacks we cannot ignore,’ Hegseth tells Nato
Hegseth says that Trump is clear about his intention to increase defence spending so the US leads and shows others “it’s not do as I say, it’s do as we do.”
He says he believes the US approach has been validated on Ukraine, with allies taking more responsibility for Ukraine’s defence – and this approach actually yielding positive results.
“It is happening, and it’s a validation of President Trump’s approach, an approach that will set the table for peace.”
But he says that “for all these early steps in the right direction, there have also been real setbacks that we cannot ignore.”
Hegseth continues by saying that Nato 2.0 was “an era of distraction, de-industrialisation and demilitarisation,” with “an era of free riding.”
“Those were lost years that we are not going back to.”
He says that’s why his department is “so clear and so candid” about the need to “restore Nato’s core military role and character” and why it’s returned US troop levels to pre-2022.
He says the alliance needs to return to its roots to be as strong as required and “if need be, make good on Article Five.”
He says some countries “got the message and stepped up,” but others are still failing.
‘Europe was not supposed to be a dependency of the US,’ Hegseth tells Nato
Hegseth seems to praise spending commitments adopted at last year’s Nato summit in The Hague, saying they were “all about transforming Nato back into a real military alliance that is focused on hard power and real deterrence.”
But in another eye-catching quote, he goes on to say:
“Europe was not supposed to be a dependency of the United States. That’s not what Winston Churchill or Charles de Gaulle or Konrad Adenauer wanted or expected. No, Europe was supposed to be a military power, allied with a strong America.”
He goes back in Nato history to 1951, quoting Eisehower comments that “if in 10 years all American troops stationed in Europe for national defence purposes have not been returned to the US, then this whole process will have failed.”
But he says that Nato 2.0 in the following decades increasingly focused on “gender equality and climate change” instead of “tanks and fighters and air defences.”
“Europe’s borders flew wide open, welfare states expanded, defence budgets cratered, along with Europe’s belief in itself and its civilization. Nato lost its way.”
Ouch, again.
‘Nato has been a paper tiger and a one-way street,’ US Hegseth tells Nato ministers
US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth has asked to speak at the beginning of the Nato ministerial in Brussels, and it very much looks like his comments will set the tone for the day.
He begins by saying that Trump “has said again and again … our allies must step up.”
“Nato has been a paper tiger and a one-way street. No more.”
Ouch.
Morning opening: Ukraine hits Moscow oil refinery, disrupts flights in retaliation attack as Nato, EU leaders meet for talks

Jakub Krupa
Ukraine hit an oil refinery near Moscow and other targets in Russia overnight in what president Volodymyr Zelenskyy called “a justified response” to recent strikes on Ukraine.
Russian officials were quoted as saying that the attack forced commercial flights and airports to be suspended for safety reasons and caused a temporary halt on Moscow’s ring road, after some 180 drones were shot down over the Russian capital.
“This is a fully justified response to Russian attacks on our cities and communities, and another important result of our warriors’ work against facilities that sustain Russia’s war machine,” Zelenskyy said.
The strikes come on the day of a Nato ministerial meeting in Brussels, the last before next month’s summit in Ankara.
Nato allies are expected to discuss the latest on their defence spending plans, with the US pressing Europe to take more responsibility for the defence of the continent.
Later on, the ministers will also take part in the Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting, a key forum to coordinate on support for Ukraine, which is expected to be attended by Zelenskyy.
The main event comes fairly late in the day, as EU leaders are expected to gather for the European Council meeting on Ukraine and the Middle East. It’s a two-day summit, likely to go late into the night.
Lots for us to cover.
It’s Thursday, 18 June 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
UK News
David Guetta and Sia’s song Titanium got me through my fertility treatment | Dance music
At the end of 2011, party season was under way but I was in no mood for festivities. Two years into fertility treatment, my body was pumped full of synthetic hormones and felt like a pin cushion, while my head was filled with both the fragile hope of having a baby, and the exhaustion of failed clinical attempts to do so.
I was in my late 20s. I met my husband when I was 22; we got married when I was 25. “I want to have kids young,” I’d told him. It was a feeling I’d harboured since my teenage years. But I’d also had the nagging sense that it might not come easily to me. As it turned out, my intuition was right. Approaching 28, I was a regular on the infertility merry-go-round.
I was recovering from my second miscarriage that year when I heard Sia’s raspy voice on the car radio belting out words that sounded emotionally weighty for an electronic dance number – her David Guetta collaboration, Titanium.
It’s not a song I would have necessarily rated or listened to again – I’m more likely to play 00s R&B and hip-hop – but it came at the perfect time in my life. I had forgotten how days felt before fertility drugs and the diarised cycles of administering them. I’d been constantly wearing a brave face and cramming in hospital appointments before and after work, going about my job through a fog of longing and hormones. It had left me in a “cry on the bedroom floor” kind of a heap. I needed something to drag the hope back into me.
I turned the radio up and listened to the lyrics: “I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose / Fire away, fire away.” It felt as if it was talking to and about me, issuing a riposte to all those shots of disappointment that had been fired our way. As Sia’s vocals ascended through the chorus with Guetta’s soaring synths – “Ricochet, you take your aim” – I cried, but I felt myself gaining power with her, too. “You shoot me down, but I won’t fall / I am titanium.” Those were the words I needed to hear.
I felt like a puppet pulled upright again. I streamed it on repeat in the days that followed. I might not have been able to face the work Christmas party but I wasn’t going to languish on the bedroom floor any more.
Over the next months, I spent a lot of time in my car, travelling to work and to fertility appointments to get my blood tested, hormones measured or insides scanned. Listening to Titanium became routine. Each time, its cinematic surge had the same empowering effect and I’d turn up the volume, wind down the windows and defiantly sing along in my terrible voice so it could wash over me.
The following May, when my husband and I headed to the clinic for another IVF embryo transfer, I let it motivate me; when we drove back from scans confirming we were six weeks, then 12 weeks pregnant, I celebrated with it. As I nervously made my way through my pregnancy, I turned to it when I needed the boost.
In January 2013, our first son was born. Today, he is the eldest of three: his brother arrived 15 months later, via IVF too (the last of our fertilised embryos) and four years later, another brother, without fertility treatment. We consider ourselves unspeakably lucky; for many, the outcome is not the same.
In our family, everyone knows Titanium is my fight song. It’s the only big commercial dance hit on my playlists, and a marker of something I overcame.
My kids call me in whenever it streams or plays on TV. When I made my husband a playlist for our 15th wedding anniversary, it’s the song that represented our 2011. And the other week, when he was out with friends, he sent me a voice note from the bar: he’d recorded it playing in the background.
There’s something all-consuming about fertility treatment: you view life only through the filter of your efforts to get pregnant. If you’re lucky, the filter lifts. It did for me, but the fight song remained. So, now, elsewhere in life, when I need a shot of strength and find myself alone in the car, down goes the window and on it goes.
UK News
Parents 'facing uncertainty' as SEN children left without school places
Amy Gibney says she is one of eight families at her child’s school to find out that they don’t have a place for next year.
Source link
UK News
Edinburgh airport reopens after security alert but passengers warned of ‘knock on’ effect | Scotland
Edinburgh airport reopened on Saturday morning after parts of the terminal building were evacuated on Friday night because of a security alert.
An explosive ordnance disposal team was sent to the airport to investigate what Police Scotland described as a “potentially suspicious package” discovered at about 6.50pm on Friday.
An evacuation was ordered and a police cordon was set up, with roads closed.
Passengers faced disruption as result of the operation and the airport warned that schedules would continue to be affected on Saturday.
In a statement at about 3am on Saturday, the airport confirmed it had reopened and would work to restore normal services as quickly as possible.
“Following investigations by specialist teams, the airport has now reopened.
“This incident will have knock-on impacts throughout today and staff are working hard to address these and support passengers.
“Operational teams are continuing to work to restore normal services as quickly as possible.
“Please check with your airline for the latest information on your flight.”
The statement did not provide an update about the examination of the suspicious package.
-
Oxford News3 weeks agoOxfordshire families invited to free day of fun in Bicester
-
Crime & Safety4 weeks agoNew video call system to help domestic abuse victims
-
Crime & Safety3 weeks agoPhotos as 1979 Pontiac Firebird ‘bursts in flames’ at Tesco
-
Business & Technology3 weeks agoNew ‘high-quality’ mushroom business launched in Oxford
-
Business & Technology4 weeks agoNHS IT outages disrupt 274,620 patient interactions
-
Student Life3 weeks agoTransgender rights protest in central Oxford following updated EHRC guidance
-
Crime & Safety4 weeks agoCo-op incident in Oxfordshire town leads to police charge
-
Business & Technology3 weeks agoOxford firm wins major backing for fin-based tidal power
