Former head of US intelligence under the influence of a guru

For nearly a year, a Washington Post journalist has been tracing the trail of hundreds of confidential memos addressed to Tulsi Gabbard, the former US Director of National Intelligence, who stepped down from her post a few days ago. Many of these documents – totalling more than 25,000 pages – originate from an email domain used by the office of Chris Butler, the guru whom Gabbard once described as her spiritual mentor.

Spanning the years 2011 to 2017, the memos dictated to the then Member of Congress which bills to propose, which positions to defend and how to conduct herself on camera, sometimes in a scathing tone. By comparing 32 television interviews between 2014 and 2016 with the corresponding notes, the newspaper found that Gabbard had repeated the text almost word for word on 24 occasions. The same close alignment can be seen on key issues, from veterans’ care to opposition to US intervention in Syria.

Butler, who does not use a computer, dictated his advice to secretaries who transcribed it, then sent it in coded form and without a signature to conceal its author. The documents also describe an operation involving fake accounts designed to defend Gabbard online. Gabbard’s aides declined to answer questions from the Washington Post. Washington Post

🇬🇧 United Kingdom • Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation today, his voice choked with emotion outside 10 Downing Street, less than two years after coming to power. His position had become untenable following Thursday’s election of Andy Burnham – the popular Mayor of Greater Manchester, nicknamed “the King of the North” – as an MP, after Labour’s crushing defeat in the local elections on 7 May. Burnham, who describes himself as a supporter of “pro-business socialism”, was sworn in at Parliament and is now the favourite to take Downing Street. The succession process will begin on 9 July and could be completed by around 16 July, making Burnham the seventh British Prime Minister in 10 years.

🇷🇺 Russia - 🇺🇦 Ukraine • Russian attacks have left six people dead in Ukraine today, including three members of the same family in the Sumy region and two people in Zaporizhzhia, two days after Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow was preparing a massive strike. Ukraine, for its part, has stepped up its drone raids, causing the temporary closure of Moscow’s four airports and targeting a major refinery in the capital for the third time in a week. In annexed Crimea, Ukrainian strikes have killed five people, cut off part of the electricity supply and forced the authorities to suspend the sale of fuel, which is now reserved for essential services. According to Kyiv, nearly a third of Russia’s refining capacity is currently shut down.

🇭🇺 Hungary • Prime Minister Peter Magyar today announced a wide-ranging anti-corruption plan dubbed “Operation Purgatory”, involving amendments to 47 laws and the creation of a National Office for Asset Protection and Recovery, tasked with investigating alleged embezzlement over the past two decades. He is also initiating impeachment proceedings against President Tamas Sulyok, accused of supporting former leader Viktor Orban, and is preparing a constitutional reform to be put to a referendum in the autumn. Corruption is said to have cost Hungarians up to 10 per cent of GDP, according to him.

🇮🇹 Italy • Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has hit back strongly at Donald Trump, who claimed that she had begged him to pose for a photo at the G7 and accused her of turning her back on the United States. “My popularity is none of your business; focus on your own,” she wrote on Instagram, denouncing the attacks as “nonsensical”. Once a close ally of the US president in Europe, she has seen her relations with Washington deteriorate, particularly since Rome’s refusal to allow the United States to use its bases in Italy to strike Iran. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has cancelled a visit to the United States.

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🇵🇸 Palestine • Israeli air strikes and shelling killed at least nine people, including a child, on Saturday in the Gaza Strip, according to local health authorities. An air strike killed four people in a block of flats in Gaza City, and another killed three, including a Palestinian photographer, in the Bureij refugee camp. More than 1,010 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire came into force in October. Donald Trump’s peace plan remains at a standstill, due to a lack of agreement on the disarmament of Hamas and an Israeli withdrawal.

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🇵🇭 Philippines • Two pupils, aged 14 and 15, opened fire “at random” today at a secondary school in Tacloban, in the centre of the country, killing three teenagers and injuring seven others.

🇹🇼 Taiwan • The Taiwanese military is conducting a combat readiness exercise until Friday, as part of a simulation of a Chinese attack. The island is now basing its preparations on a scenario in which Beijing would turn one of its regular exercises into a full-scale offensive.

🇦🇺 Australia - 🇨🇦 Canada • Australia today signed a deal with Canada for the sale of its over-the-horizon defence radar for 2.5 billion Australian dollars (1.5 billion euros), its largest defence export and the first international sale of this system developed by BAE Systems Australia. Capable of surveillance over several thousand kilometres, the radar will be used by Ottawa to monitor the Arctic.

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