What happened
Keir Starmer heads to the G7 summit in France facing growing questions over his leadership after the resignation of defence secretary John Healey and an escalating dispute over military spending.

The prime minister will meet with fellow leaders as discussions focus on conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. However, the domestic fallout from the government’s delayed defence investment plan is threatening to overshadow Britain’s role on the international stage.

The controversy intensified after reports emerged that new Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis would not receive additional funding beyond the £13.5 billion settlement that prompted Healey’s departure.

Who said what
A spokesperson for Starmer said the government’s goal at the G7 was to deliver “growth and security at home” while working with allies on international crises.

Starmer “could face criticism from Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz, the French and German leaders, who have financed defence investment through domestic borrowing”, said Tony Diver in The Telegraph.

What next?
Starmer is under mounting pressure to publish the long-delayed defence plan before next month’s Nato summit, where allies are expected to be presented with renewed demands to increase military spending. The PM also confronts the Makerfield by-election on Thursday, which could propel Andy Burnham into Parliament to launch a leadership challenge.

What happened
Ukraine and Moldova have entered the next stage of their bids to join the European Union, with ministers and senior officials meeting in Luxembourg today to start detailed membership discussions. The move marks the first substantive phase of the accession process for the two former Soviet republics.

Who said what
EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen (pictured above right) and António Costa praised the “determination, courage and hard work” shown by both countries in pursuing reforms.

Ukraine and Moldova were “quickly accepted” as EU candidate countries in 2022, having filed applications days after Russia’s full-scale invasion, said Jennifer Rankin in The Guardian. But “despite a symbolic decision”, substantive negotiations had remained blocked until Hungary’s pro-Russian president Viktor Orbán was voted out this year.

What next?
Although Brussels has welcomed the two countries’ reform efforts, officials say both still have substantial work ahead of them. Accession requires the adoption of thousands of EU laws and unanimous approval from every member state, a process that is expected to take years.

Nearly half of its customers paid nothing for their food and drink after a cafe in the US stopped charging them and asked instead for voluntary donations.

But since switching to this curious business model, the Post Modern Times cafe in Minneapolis is making a profit after mostly posting losses for years.

In a statement shared on Post Modern Times’ Instagram account in January, the cafe’s owner Dylan Alverson said he had decided to move to a donations-only model in response to a “government occupation” in Minneapolis.

The restaurant is just four blocks from where Renée Good was killed in January by Ice agents and six blocks from the site of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. “Effective tomorrow we are done making money for the fascists that occupy our city,” he said. “We refuse to generate taxes under the guise of a functioning for-profit capitalist business aligned with government strategy.”

Running on donations means the cafe doesn’t have to pay tax on sales and the staff are volunteers working for shared tips and community donations.

After “fighting to make a profit for 15 years”, Alverson had concluded that it was not possible without “taking advantage of people”. But since making the change, he has “succeeded more than I ever did when I was running a conventional business employing 22 people”.

Some 42% of US restaurant owners said their businesses weren’t profitable last year, according to the National Restaurant Association. So “what started as a workaround to paying sales tax” might “offer a solution to a broken industry”.