From 8 Apr 2025 16.27 BST US top general in Europe says ‘planning to keep’ soldiers where they are General Cavoli gets pointedly asked about plans to keep US troops on the Eastern flanks of Nato, amid concerns in Poland and Romania I reported earlier today. He says: We move forces around frequently in Europe, our air forces are hopping all around. Our maritime force, or even our ground forces move, move from place to place. But the principal locations where we have forces right now, that’s where they are, and that’s where I’m planning to keep them. He goes on to specifically praise Poland and Lithuania for their investment and support for US troops stationed there. Share

8 Apr 2025 18.05 BST Italy’s Meloni to meet Trump in Washington next week In the meantime, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed her plans to visit Washington next week to discuss US tariffs on the European Union with president Donald Trump. View image in fullscreen Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, talks with media during the European Council Meeting on March 20, 2025 in Brussels, Belgium. Photograph: Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images AFP reported that in comments to a meeting with businesses published by her office, the far-right leader backed the European Union’s calls for a negotiated solution to the situation. “This is the negotiation that must see us all engaged and at all levels… and that involves me, who will be in Washington on 17 April and obviously I intend to address this issue with the US president,” Meloni said. But she warned against “panic and alarmism” that she said “risk doing more damage than the measure itself”, AFP said. “I think we can all agree that a trade war between Europe and the United States does not suit anyone,” she said. The Italian prime minister also indicated the government could use €11bn in cohesion funds to help businesses impacted by US tariff policy. Share

8 Apr 2025 18.05 BST And that concludes the open session – with more answers to be given in the classified part, which (sadly) we won’t be able to listen to. Share

8 Apr 2025 17.53 BST European nations lined up to buy $265 billion military equipment Cavoli says that during the course of Russian invasion of Ukraine, there has been a 600% increase in orders from allies looking to buy American equipment, with 4,000 cases worth $265bn. “As the Allied Commander, I encourage that. I want more capability and capacity as fast as we can get it,” he says, stressing that buying American is the easiest way to ensure interoperability within the alliance. Share

8 Apr 2025 17.48 BST Cavoli also gets asked about the importance of the US military relationship with Denmark. He says it is “one of our strongest allies,” for whom it is “their most important bilateral security relationship” which the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederikson, “she would any conversation with that comment.” He says Denmark has “a hi-tech military, not a big one, but it’s hi-tech” with “extremely competent” special and naval special forces. Thompson then get asked about Trump’s comments on Greenland, but broadly sidesteps the question, saying “there is a lot of cooperation” with Denmark, but with “room for growth.” Share

8 Apr 2025 17.33 BST Cavoli gets asked about what would be the impact of cutting US forces in Europe on its ability to respond to any conflict. He says: It would increase the amount of time it took to respond. It depends, of course, on what forces were hypothetically to be removed. It depends on what kind of action were required to counter Russia. But clearly, moving things to the other side of the Atlantic increases the time space challenge. He specifically confirms that it would slow the US response to a hypothethical Russian assault on eastern European allies. Discussing the potential threats from Russia, he says that nuclear arsenal poses the largest threat, and also points to cyber threats. But he also says “conventionally their strategic advantage continues to be mass that they can put in direct proximity to Nato forces that challenges us to respond in time across the spaces required,” stressing that is “the essence” of why the US needs “conventional deterrence on the continent.” Share

8 Apr 2025 17.26 BST US ‘not considering’ leaving SACEUR post to non-American Repeatedly confronted about the US plans for the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, or SACEUR, Thompson eventually directly denies reports the US could abandon the post and says: “So first and foremost on the SACEUR question. If the question is, is the department considering that change, my definitive answer is no.” Now is not the time for the US or Europe to go it alone, warns Nato chief Read more Share Updated at 17.26 BST

8 Apr 2025 17.22 BST EU allies ‘want American leadership’ and US head of Allied Command Operations of Nato, general says Cavoli gets asked about the US command in Europe again, saying “allies want American leadership, our allies would like to have an American at SACEUR,” and says the posotion gives the US “quite a bit of influence”. “Of course what the US decides to go is always going to be a policy matter, and there are other considerations that our civilian leadership will take into consideration as they think these things,” he says. Share

8 Apr 2025 16.53 BST Lawmakers also repeatedly express their thanks to the Lithuanian society and the country’s leadership for the way they handled the death of four US soldiers during a training exercise, often contrasting this with the reaction of the US president, Donald Trump. Three of the soldiers were found dead last Monday when rescuers recovered their M88 Hercules armoured vehicle from a swamp in eastern Lithuania, where it had gone missing the week prior. The fourth soldier was found a day later, as AFP reported. View image in fullscreen Officials and guests pay their respects as they attend a ceremony to bid farewell to the US soldiers who died at Pabrade military training ground, at the Cathedral Square in Vilnius, Lithuania, with Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda in centre. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Officials and guests pay their respects as they attend a ceremony to bid farewell to the US soldiers who died at Pabrade military training ground, at the Cathedral Square in Vilnius, Lithuania. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Officials and guests pay their respects as they attend a ceremony to bid farewell to the US soldiers who died at Pabrade military training ground, at the Cathedral Square in Vilnius, Lithuania. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images View image in fullscreen People with US and Lithuanian national flags attend a solemn farewell ceremony at Cathedral Square in Vilnius, Lithuania. Photograph: Mindaugas Kulbis/AP View image in fullscreen People attend a Holy Mass for the four US soldiers who went missing during exercises conducted by the United States at the Pabrade training ground, at the Cathedral Basilica in Vilnius, Lithuania. Photograph: Mindaugas Kulbis/AP Share Updated at 16.58 BST

8 Apr 2025 16.40 BST Asked the same question, Thompson only says “we’re in the process of a global posture review, and no decisions have been made in any theater.” But she says that “as part of this global force posture review, we are taking into account competing requirements,” listing a number of threats, “not only posed by Russia.” Share

8 Apr 2025 16.38 BST Cavoli gets again asked about the risk of US withdrawing troops from eastern Europe. General says “that will be a policy decision that will be made as time goes on,” but says “we are in a good position now.” Asked further with the question suggesting the withdrawal of “two rotational brigades out of Europe” – in line with the NBC News report – he says “there is a constant review of this all the time,” and adds “usually, the dynamic is services are asking to recover some forces, they have readiness concerns, modernization concerns.” “Those discussions continue right now,” he says. Share

8 Apr 2025 16.27 BST US top general in Europe says ‘planning to keep’ soldiers where they are General Cavoli gets pointedly asked about plans to keep US troops on the Eastern flanks of Nato, amid concerns in Poland and Romania I reported earlier today. He says: We move forces around frequently in Europe, our air forces are hopping all around. Our maritime force, or even our ground forces move, move from place to place. But the principal locations where we have forces right now, that’s where they are, and that’s where I’m planning to keep them. He goes on to specifically praise Poland and Lithuania for their investment and support for US troops stationed there. Share

8 Apr 2025 16.25 BST US values European allies ‘to extent they are willing to step up’ and ‘pull their weight’, US defence officials ays Katherine Thompson, of the Department of Defence, is asked whether the US considers European alliances critical to American national security. She says “a strong defence and deterrence in Europe is certainly in our national interest, particularly as the department has an aim to focus on homeland defence” and points to “the looming threat of conflict with China and the Indo-Pacific.” Asked to clarify her comments further, she says “we do value our partners in Europe to the extent that they’re willing to step up and be strong allies and partners with us, and that means pulling their weight.” “That’s the tough message and the honest message that this administration has been delivering. And we believe it’s important to be honest with our allies, and that that only builds a stronger relationship for us and for our European allies and partners,” she says. Share

8 Apr 2025 16.18 BST General Cavoli is also asked about the importance of a US general holding the role of Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), amid rumours that the US could be prepared to leave the position to European allies in the next reshuffle. Congressional Republicans threaten revolt over Trump-led defence shake-up Read more Cavoli confirms the existence of US nuclear weapons in Europe – adding that “the number and the modification of them is classified, but their existence is not” – and stresses they fall under his command and control. “If those nuclear weapons were going to be offered to the alliance for nuclear deterrence … that would come under the command of the Supreme Allied Commander,” he says, adding it would currently be also him. “The way we’re currently set up I, as the commander of EUCOM [United States European Command], own the weapons, and I hand them to myself as the Supreme Allied Commander. That’s possible because I am the same person and I am American,” he says. His answer isn’t direct, but hinting that if the US were to continue offering nuclear protection for Europe, it should keep the post of SACEUR. Share Updated at 16.19 BST

It has been an exceptionally dry spring in north-western Europe and the second warmest May ever globally, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

Countries across Europe, including the UK, have been hit by drought conditions in recent months, with water shortages feared unless significant rain comes this summer, and crop failures beginning to be reported by farmers.

The new Copernicus data shows that May 2025 was the second-warmest May globally, with an average surface air temperature of 15.79C, 0.53C above the 1991-2020 average for May. The month was 1.4C above the estimated 1850-1900 average used to define the pre-industrial level. This interrupts a period of 21 months out of 22 where the global average temperature was more than 1.5C above the pre-industrial level.

Carlo Buontempo, director of C3S at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), said: “May 2025 breaks an unprecedentedly long sequence of months over 1.5C above pre-industrial. Whilst this may offer a brief respite for the planet, we do expect the 1.5C threshold to be exceeded again in the near future due to the continued warming of the climate system.”

The 1.5 degrees is the climate target agreed by the 2015 Paris agreement. The target of 1.5C is measured over a decade or two, so a single year above that level does not mean the target has been missed, but does show the climate emergency continues to intensify. Every year in the past decade has been one of the 10 hottest, in records that go back to 1850.

Dry weather has persisted in many parts of the world. In May 2025, much of northern and central Europe as well as southern regions of Russia, Ukraine, and Türkiye were drier than average. Parts of north-western Europe experienced the lowest precipitation and soil moisture levels since at least 1979.

In May 2025, it was drier than average in much of north America, in the Horn of Africa and across central Asia, as well as in southern Australia, and much of both southern Africa and South America.

May also saw abnormally high sea surface temperatures in the north-eastern Atlantic, reaching the highest ever recorded, according to Copernicus.

Japan has imported rice from South Korea for the first time in a quarter of a century in an attempt to address soaring prices and growing consumer anger.

South Korean rice arrived in Japan last month for the first time since 1999, according to media reports, as the price of domestically produced grain continued to rise, despite government attempts to relieve the pressure on shoppers.

The price of Japan-grown rice has more than doubled since this time last year, fuelling demand for cheaper foreign grain, despite the heavy tariffs imposed on imports.

The quantity of South Korean rice, which was sold online and at supermarkets, is still relatively low at just two tonnes, but there are plans to ship a further 20 tonnes in the coming days, the public broadcaster NHK said.

While Japanese consumers have traditionally been sceptical about the quality and taste of foreign rice – Thai rice imported after an unusually cool summer in 1993 largely went unsold – the current crisis has forced Japanese consumers to develop a taste for foreign rice.

South Korea’s rice exports to Japan are expected to reach their highest since 1990, according to the Yonhap news agency, while the crisis has also opened up potential export opportunities for producers in the US.

Arata Hirano, who runs a restaurant in Tokyo, switched from Japanese to American rice last year when a shortage of the domestic grain triggered a steep rise in prices.

Hirano told Reuters that the price of the Californian product he now served had doubled since his first purchase last summer, but was still cheaper than homegrown rice.

And he has had no complaints from diners, including Miki Nihei, who was surprised to find out the rice she had eaten wasn’t grown in Japan. “I had no idea,” she said. “I have no qualms about eating imported rice. Prices have gone up, so I’m always looking for cheaper options.”

In the week to 6 April, Japanese supermarket rice prices reached an average of ¥4,214 ($30/£22) for 5kg – more than double the same period a year earlier.

The trend has forced the Japanese government to take the unusual step of dipping into its vast rice reserves. In March it began releasing 210,000 tonnes of stockpiled rice in an attempt to arrest price rises caused by a combination of record summer heat, panic buying and distribution problems.

Japan had previously dipped into its rice reserves in the aftermath of natural disasters or crop failures, but this was the first time it had intervened over distribution issues.

The measure has had little impact, however.

Last week the agriculture ministry said “logistical problems” meant only a tiny quantity of the released rice had reached shops.

About 142,000 tonnes of stockpiled rice were released in the first auction held in mid-March, but as of the end of the month just 426 tonnes, or 0.3% of the total, had reached supermarkets and other outlets, the ministry said, blaming the bottleneck on a shortage of delivery vehicles and the time needed to prepare the grain for sale.

Japan’s rice stockpiles had already depleted after record-breaking temperatures affected the 2023 crop. Stockpiles shrank again last year, partly due to a rise in consumption caused by record numbers of tourists. Supplies were also hit by panic buying in the wake of typhoon and earthquake warnings, forcing some retailers to restrict sales.

Forty-two people have been killed in four communities in central Nigeria in attacks blamed on itinerant herders, in the latest wave of violence that continues to upend life in the rural region.

Reuters reports quote a local official, Victor Omnin, the chair of the Gwer West local government area in Benue state, as saying 10 people were killed in a Saturday attack on the villages of Tyolaha and Tse-Ubiam. Thirty-two others were killed the following day in a separate attack in the nearby Ahume and Aondona villages.

“It’s a pathetic situation,” Omnin told the press on Tuesday. “As we speak, we are still recovering corpses.”

According to Reuters, a Catholic priest was also shot in the area by the assailants, and the office of the Benue governor, Hyacinth Iormem Alia, who is also a priest, said he had been wounded and was in a critical but stable condition.

“They killed women and even children as young as two years old,” one resident of the area told the Daily Trust, which focuses on northern Nigeria.

Parts of central and north-western Nigeria have experienced waves of violent attacks as itinerant Fulani herders and Indigenous farmers clash when cows often left to graze openly sometimes stray on to farms.

In some villages, farmers have accused herders of being initial perpetrators and then banded into vigilante groups and militia to embark on reprisal attacks. And while many analysts blame the climate crisis and overpopulation for the conflict as pastoral land diminishes across the country, the villagers allege land-grabbing and ethnic cleansing.

According to Nextier’s Nigeria Violent Conflicts Database, at least 2,347 casualties were recorded in 359 incidents involving farmers and herders across Nigeria between 2020 and 2024. Some experts and locals say the numbers are conservative, as many of the incidents and fatalities are often undocumented.

The situation is especially prevalent in central Nigeria, known as the middle belt, where the conflict has religious undertones as the herders are usually Muslim and the farmers Christian. In April, 56 people were reportedly killed by herders during the Easter period in Benue state.

The conflict has also disrupted farming activities in Benue, an agrarian state known as the “Food Basket of the Nation” for producing significant amounts of Nigeria’s main food crops, such as yams, maize and soybeans.

Last year, the Benue state government announced that it would begin full implementation of a law enacted in 2017 banning open grazing and establishing ranches. That is yet to happen, some residents of the state claim.

“The relentless violence must end,” Asema Achado, a federal lawmaker, said in a statement last October. “Our farmers are the backbone of our economy, yet they live in constant fear.”

Vietnam has scrapped a longstanding policy limiting families to two children, as the communist-run country grapples with a declining birthrate.

State media announced on Wednesday that couples could make their own decisions about how many children to have, and how much time to wait between births, reversing a decades-old preference for one- or two-child families.

The promotion of two-child families dates back to the 1960s in communist North Vietnam, though this policy was further developed in the reunified Vietnam in the 1980s and 1990s, including through the country’s first decree on family planning in 1988. The two-child policy was not universally enforced, though members of the Communist party could face sanctions.

Authorities are now searching for ways to boost families, as Vietnam’s birthrate fell to a record low of 1.91 children per woman in 2024, which is below replacement level.

Officials fear the trend could lead to an ageing society, creating labour shortages, putting pressure on social welfare systems and threatening the country’s economic growth plans.

Birthrates are especially low in urban centres, such as Ho Chi Minh City, where the rising cost of living was identified as barrier for young families. Its birthrate fell to 1.32 in 2023.

Local provinces are offering various rewards and subsidies to encourage couples to have children. This includes certificates of merit and a financial reward of about 1m dong (£28) for women who have two children before the age of 35. Some provinces, such as Tien Giang in southern Vietnam, were also giving 30m dong to communes and wards in which 60% of couples of childbearing age had two children across three consecutive years, state media reported. Birthrates in the province are still falling, however.

The national birthrate of 1.91 children per woman recorded in 2024 was down from 2.11 children per woman in 2021, 2.01 in 2022 and 1.96 in 2023. Neighbouring countries, such as Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, have similar trends.

In Japan, the government released figures on Wednesday showing the number of births in 2024 had fallen below 700,000 for the first time on record.

Vietnam appeared to relax its two-child policy in 2003, but this was reversed in 2008.

Vietnam is also trying to tackle an imbalance in its sex ratio, driven by a historical preference for boys. On Tuesday the ministry of health proposed tripling a current fine to $3,800 “to curb foetal gender selection”, according to state media.

The gender ratio at birth, though improved, remains skewed at 112 boys for every 100 girls.

China ended its strict “one-child policy” in 2016 and in 2021 permitted couples to have three children, though its population fell for the third year running in 2024.