Keir Starmer is in crisis talks with rebel Labour MPs, after more than 125 backbenchers called for the government to scrap plans to cut disability and sickness-related benefit payments. With opposition growing, says Politico, it now appears to be “a matter of when, not if” the prime minister performs one of his trademark climbdowns. Donald Trump hailed a “great victory” at the Nato summit in The Hague yesterday, after alliance members agreed to spend 5% of GDP on defence by 2035. The US president said the meeting left him thinking “people love their countries” and that Nato is “not a rip-off”. Dune director Denis Villeneuve will direct the next James Bond film, Amazon MGM Studios has announced. The Oscar-nominated French-Canadian, also known for Sicario and Arrival, says he is a “die-hard” 007 fan and intends to “honour the tradition”.

Like it or not, we need to keep “Daddy” happy

Europe’s leaders did everything they could to keep Donald Trump sweet at this week’s Nato summit in The Hague, says Sylvie Kauffmann in Le Monde. He was given the honour of staying with the king of the Netherlands at the Huis ten Bosch palace, while the other 31 heads of state slummed it at hotels. The summit’s agenda was slimmed down to reduce the chances of a Trumpian outburst, and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky was largely sidelined. In a welcoming text message reposted by Trump on social meda, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte sycophantically congratulated him for succeeding where his predecessors had failed – “the form of flattery Trump appreciates most” – and promised that on defence spending “Europe is going to pay in a BIG way”. Rutte also defended Trump for comparing Iran and Israel to toddlers and saying “they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing”, joking: “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language.” Is all this abasement really necessary?

Unfortunately so, says Max Hastings in Bloomberg. Like it or not, this is the “unchallenged master” of the richest nation on earth – and the rest of us cannot risk forfeiting his “indispensable support”. The key issue is Ukraine. Trump is squeezing American arms deliveries to Kyiv, having already completely suspended them once. The Europeans know they can’t provide Zelensky with what he needs to stave off Russia’s attack. So, sucking up it is. Much of this is meaningless: many of the Nato nations will surely never hit their 5% spending target. And it’s impossible to know whether all the “flattery and deceit” will work. Trump may well return to the White House and tear up everything Nato members think has been agreed. But that’s the world we live in. Europe will go on “stroking the president”, presumably for another three years and seven months. “If it helps to save Ukraine, it will be worth it.”