Even at Starmer's favorite pub, U.K. prime minister is a ‘beige' mystery
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Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sir Keir Starmer is caught between Trump, Macron and MPs over Palestine recognition
Parliament may have shut up shop for a six-week summer break, but MPs and the French president are turning up the heat on Sir Keir Starmer over the Middle East. More than one in three of all 650 MPs have written to the prime minister calling on the UK to recognise a Palestinian state at a United Nations conference next week. In response to the call, his answer is essentially: Yes, but not yet. That, of course, won't satisfy the 222 MPs backing an all-party letter to the PM penned by the Labour MP Sarah Champion. The majority of names on the letter, predictably, are Labour, Lib Dem and SNP MPs. But there are some Tory big hitters too, including Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh and former cabinet minister Kit Malthouse. Until now, the PM and foreign secretary David Lammy have argued that the gesture of recognising Palestine on its own won't end what Sir Keir himself calls "the appalling scenes in Gaza". But the pressure for recognition isn't just coming from MPs. French President Emmanuel Macron has said France will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September. Read more: Might Mr Macron - whose bromance with the PM during his state visit to the UK could not have been warmer - persuade Sir Keir to do the same? Possibly. He's not ruling it out. But there's one big obstacle to Sir Keir bowing to the pressure from MPs and the French president. And that's the towering figure who's in Scotland this weekend: the golfing president of the United States. When Donald Trump was asked about President Macron's vow to recognise Palestine in September, his response was brutal and bordering on condescending. "What he says doesn't matter," the president told reporters at the White House as he headed for Air Force One. "He's a very good guy. I like him, but that statement doesn't carry weight." Ouch! But the US president's unflinching support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu places Sir Keir in an awkward spot: Caught between the opposing stances of the French and US presidents. The PM is, therefore, also under pressure from President Trump, and he won't want to fall out with him when he meets him this weekend. Hence, his carefully worded statement responding to the letter from the MPs. Appearing to try and please the US and French presidents - and the large number of Labour MPs backing Sarah Champion's letter - Sir Keir said he's "working on a pathway to peace" in the Middle East. He spoke of "concrete steps" to turn a ceasefire into a lasting peace and said recognition of a Palestinian state "has to be one of those steps", adding: "I am unequivocal about that." And he concluded: "But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis. "This is the way to ensure it is a tool of maximum utility to improve the lives of those who are suffering - which of course, will always be our ultimate goal." Read more from Sky News: As well as his own statement, the PM issued a joint statement with President Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, both of whom have held talks with Sir Keir in the UK in the past fortnight. That statement was tough, beginning: "The time has come to end the war in Gaza." It went on: "The humanitarian catastrophe that we are witnessing in Gaza must end now." Yet there's little sign of either the war or the humanitarian catastrophe ending any time soon. And that means that throughout parliament's summer break, MPs will no doubt continue to turn up the heat on the PM.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump Says U.S. Has ‘50-50 Chance' of Reaching Trade Deal With EU
President Trump arrived in Scotland to meet the U.K. and the European Union leaders, saying the U.S. has a 'good, 50-50 chance' to strike a trade deal with the EU. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Boston Globe
24 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Israel to allow humanitarian airdrops over Gaza
The Israeli announcement followed rising international condemnation of the dire state of affairs in Gaza, with many countries — including some of Israel's traditional allies — holding the Israeli government responsible for the situation. Israel says it is doing everything it can to allow aid into the Palestinian enclave. 'The humanitarian catastrophe that we are witnessing in Gaza must end now,' the governments of Britain, France, and Germany said in a joint statement Friday. Advertisement The severity of the humanitarian crisis over 21 months of grinding war has led some Western nations, once sympathetic to Israel's actions in Gaza, to shift their stance toward the entrenched conflict. On Thursday, France said it would soon recognize an independent state of Palestine, adding its name to a growing list of European countries to do so. Starmer said in his address Friday that he was 'unequivocal' in his support of recognizing a Palestinian state but that it would need to be part of a 'wider plan, which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.' Advertisement Experts criticized the planned airdrops as largely symbolic and warned that they were unlikely to provide enough aid to the roughly two million Palestinians in Gaza, who are in dire conditions after 21 months of war. Nearly one in three people in the territory is not eating for days at a time, according to the United Nations' World Food Program. Gaza health authorities say that acute malnutrition is rising and that children have died. Ordinary Palestinians in Gaza recount that basic goods like flour are sold for sky-high prices — or are not available at all. Doctors and health workers say their colleagues are struggling to keep working as they, too, go hungry. Major news agencies, including The Associated Press, said their employees in Gaza were less and less able to feed themselves. On Friday, the United Nations accused Israel of throwing up 'bureaucratic, logistical, administrative, and other operational obstacles' to the distribution of aid. Those restrictions compound other problems with getting food to hungry people, the UN's office of humanitarian affairs said in a statement, including attacks on convoys by armed criminals inside Gaza. 'Why use airdrops when you can drive hundreds of trucks through the borders?' said Juliette Touma, the chief spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. 'It's much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper,' she added. Israeli officials say they have not limited the number of trucks entering the territory, and they say the UN has failed to distribute hundreds of truckloads' worth of food and other provisions from border crossings deeper into the Gaza Strip. Advertisement Ceasefire talks to end the war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian armed group, have stalled. Many Gaza residents had hoped a truce would allow large amounts of food to flow freely into the enclave. But on Thursday, the Israeli government and the United States announced that they were recalling negotiators from Qatar, where they had held talks with Hamas. The announcement paused hopes for an immediate ceasefire, although Israeli and Hamas officials expressed optimism that the negotiations would soon resume. Throughout Israel's nearly two-year war with Hamas, Israeli authorities have permitted some aid drops, including by the United States. But UN officials have consistently argued that the best way to bring enough food into Gaza is by land, through borders controlled by Israel and Egypt. Israel permitted hundreds of trucks with aid to enter each day for several weeks during a ceasefire that lasted from January to March. But as further truce talks between Israel and Hamas sputtered to a halt, Israel barred practically all aid from entering the Gaza Strip for more than two months, including food, fuel, and medicine. Israeli authorities began allowing convoys into Gaza again in May. But relatively little assistance entered the Gaza Strip in June compared with other points during the war, according to official Israeli data. At least one recent attempt by the UN to bring food into Gaza led to chaotic scenes as Israeli soldiers shot at crowds of Palestinians rushing to seize bags of flour. Gaza health officials reported that dozens of people were killed and wounded. On Sunday, a 25-truck convoy operated by the World Food Program made its way into the Gaza Strip. Shortly after passing the final checkpoint into Gaza, the trucks encountered huge crowds of hungry Palestinians. Advertisement 'As the convoy approached, the surrounding crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers, and other gunfire,' the World Food Program said in a statement. 'These people were simply trying to access food to feed themselves and their families on the brink of starvation.' The Israeli military said its forces had fired 'warning shots' after thousands of Palestinians rushed the area. The military disputed the death toll provided by Gaza officials but did not provide an alternate figure. This article originally appeared in
