NETHERLANDS: Two centre-left political parties agreed to merge today, as they prepared for a general election where they will seek to turn the political tide away from the far-right.

Members of the Labour and Green Left parties both voted overwhelmingly in favour of the move to form a single new group. The parties have been working together in parliament for years. 

Now they will go to the polls in October as a single entity known by its Dutch name, Groen Links-PvdA. 

WAR: The number of Russian troops killed or wounded in Ukraine has topped a million, military officials in Kiev said today.

The claim by Ukrainian military leaders, which came on ”Ruissia Day” marking Russian ”independence” from the USSR, is in line with Western intelligence estimates.

President Vladimir Putin marked Russia Day by hosting a Kremlin meeting with soldiers decorated for their war service, but neither he nor any other officials commented on the death toll.

ISRAEL: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government survived an attempt to dissolve parliament today. Most of his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners joined him in voting against a Bill that would have forced them to register for military service while the country is at war.

The vote was the most serious challenge to Mr Netanyahu’s government since Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack, the biggest security failure in Israel’s history.

The Bill’s failure means that no other Bill to dissolve Knesset can be submitted for at least six months, shoring up Mr Netanyahu’s embattled coalition.

POLAND: Security services have detained three men who were allegedly planning an attack inspired by far-right perpetrators of mass killings.

The Internal Security Agency said the suspects had gathered extensive materials related to firearms use, combat tactics and explosive devices.

“They ... studied how the attacks were carried out, and analysed the mistakes that were made. The content they consumed contributed to the development of extremely radical moral attitudes,” the security agency said.