Turkey has dismissed thousands of state employees under an emergency decree for alleged links to terrorism groups. Under the decree, published on the Official Gazette early on Sunday, 18,632 people, including nearly 9,000 police officers, 6,000 members of the military and hundreds of teachers and academics were sacked. Their passports will be cancelled.

Turkey has been under a state of emergency for nearly two years, declared after a coup attempt in July 2016. The government blames a US-based cleric for orchestrating the coup and has sacked or arrested people suspected of links to him. The cleric, Fethullah Gülen, denies the allegations. But the purge has broadened to include other “terrorism groups”, with more than 130,000 people dismissed. Sunday’s decree also reinstated 148 people previously sacked through emergency decrees.(theguardian)…[+]

Disarmament talks between the US and North Korea ended in Pyongyang on Saturday with the North Korean regime accusing Washington of a “gangster-like mindset” and warning of “yet another tragedy” if negotiations collapse. The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, responded that if the US was a gangster, so was the whole world, as it had the same demand that North Korea dismantle its nuclear weapons programme.

He insisted sanctions would remain in place until Pyongyang completed disarmament.

Pyongyang, however, made clear it had no intention of carrying out the comprehensive unilateral disarmament Donald Trump has claimed was the outcome of his 12 June summit in Singapore with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. In rebuffing the US approach to talks, the regime laid out its most detailed negotiating position to date, suggesting confidence-building measures each side could take, including a proposal to freeze production of intercontinental ballistic missiles and a call for a formal declaration ending the Korean war of 65 years ago.(theguardian)…[+]

Michael Gove has urged Eurosceptic Conservative MPs to rally behind Theresa May as she prepares to face down her backbench critics in person before publishing a white paper on leaving the EU. The environment secretary, a leading Brexiter, said the deal the prime minister achieved at Chequers was not everything he had hoped for but insisted the cabinet was behind it and collective responsibility would prevail.

“Those of us who believe that we want to execute a proper Brexit, and one that is the best deal for Britain, have an opportunity now to get behind the prime minister in order to negotiate that deal,” he said. The prime minister is facing an angry backlash from Brexit-supporting MPs when she addresses the House of Commons on Monday, before a meeting of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, in an attempt to get them behind the plans.

Since Friday, several more Conservative MPs were said to have added their names to a list supporting a vote of no confidence, although No 10 insiders have indicated May would fight any challenge and the numbers looked to be in her favour. Boris Johnson, a leading critic of the plans, spent several minutes at the Chequers summit spelling out his concerns, saying anybody defending the deal would be “polishing a turd” if they tried then to sell it to the party and the public.(theguardian)…[+]