UK moves warplanes to Middle East amid Iran crisis
Starmer said the situation was 'fast moving' and 'intense'.
High-rise buildings are pictured in Tel Aviv on June 14, 2025. Israel and Iran exchanged fire on June 14, a day after Israel unleashed an unprecedented aerial bombing campaign that Iran said hit its nuclear facilities, 'martyred' top commanders and killed dozens of civilians. Picture: Jalaa Marey/ AFP
Britain is deploying fighter jets and other 'assets' to the Middle East amid an escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday.
'We are moving assets to the region, including jets, and that is for contingency support,' Starmer told reporters travelling with him on his plane to Canada for G7 talks.
The UK leader said he had spoken with both US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since Israel launched attacks on Iranian military and nuclear sites early Friday.
According to officials, dozens of people have been killed, including top army and Revolutionary Guards commanders as well as civilians.
Iran has responded with barrages of drones and missiles fired at Israel overnight Friday into Saturday.
Starmer said the situation was 'fast moving' and 'intense'.
'We're having ongoing discussions with our allies all of the time, both myself and (foreign minister) David Lammy… who also spoke to the Iranians,' he said.
'Our constant message is de-escalate, and therefore everything we're doing, all discussions we're having are to do with de-escalation.'
The UK leader said his talk on Friday with Netanyahu had been 'good and constructive' and had 'included discussions about the safety and security of Israel'.
Foreign Secretary Lammy said earlier Saturday that he was 'alarmed' by further strikes overnight.
'We must urgently de-escalate & prevent any further harm to civilians,' Lammy said in a post on social media, adding that he had spoken to his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi 'to urge calm'.
© Agence France-Presse
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
eNCA
an hour ago
- eNCA
Woman arrested over alleged links to Colombia presidential candidate shooting
BOGOTA - A woman arrested Saturday in southern Colombia was suspected of being involved in the attempted murder of presidential candidate Miguel Uribe, police said. Uribe, a 39-year-old conservative senator, was shot twice in the head and once in the leg while giving a speech in a park on June 7 in western Bogota. The alleged shooter, a 15-year-old boy, and an accomplice who was accused of participating in the "logistics" of the attack had already been arrested. On Saturday, a police source informed AFP of a woman suspected of having links to the attack who was arrested in the Amazon region of Caqueta. "In the next few hours, they will transfer her to Bogota," the police source said, without providing further details. The other two detainees, heavily guarded in a prosecutor's bunker, are accused of homicide and carrying weapons. The minor, identified as the alleged gunman, pleaded not guilty to the charges on Tuesday. According to a report Saturday in Colombian magazine Semana, he said he was offered 20 million pesos (more than $4,800) to kill the politician. The newspaper El Tiempo also reported that one of the accused named a criminal who lives in Ecuador and controls a drug dealing area in Bogota as the alleged mastermind. Uribe remained hospitalized in intensive care, though he showed some signs of improvement this past week, doctors said Wednesday. President Gustavo Petro said the senator's improving health "cannot be explained by science." "He should be dead... and what's happening is that he's recovering," Petro said Saturday. Uribe's party, the opposition Democratic Center, temporarily suspended its campaign events for the 2026 presidential elections on Friday. Uribe has been a strong critic of Petro, Colombia's first left-wing president, who sought in vain to make peace with the country's various remaining armed groups.
eNCA
an hour ago
- eNCA
'This is a culture': TikTok murder highlights Pakistan's unease with women online
ISLAMABAD - Since seeing thousands of comments justifying the recent murder of a teenage TikTok star in Pakistan, Sunaina Bukhari is considering abandoning her 88,000 followers. "In my family, it wasn't an accepted profession at all, but I'd managed to convince them, and even ended up setting up my own business," she said. Then last week, Sana Yousaf was shot dead outside her house in the capital Islamabad by a man whose advances she had repeatedly rejected, police said. News of the murder led to an outpouring of comments under her final post -- her 17th birthday celebration where she blew out the candles on a cake. In between condolence messages, some blamed her for her own death: "You reap what you sow" or "it's deserved, she was tarnishing Islam". Yousaf had racked up more than a million followers on social media, where she shared her favourite cafes, skincare products and traditional shalwar kameez outfits. TikTok is wildly popular in Pakistan, in part because of its accessibility to a population with low literacy levels. On it, women have found both audience and income, rare in a country where fewer than a quarter of the women participate in the formal economy. But as TikTok's views have surged, so have efforts to police the platform. Pakistani telecommunications authorities have repeatedly blocked or threatened to block the app over what it calls "immoral behaviour", amid backlash against LGBTQ and sexual content. TikTok has pledged to better moderate content and blocked millions of videos that do not meet its community guidelines as well as at the request of Pakistan authorities. After Yousaf's murder, Bukhari, 28, said her family no longer backs her involvement in the industry. "I'm the first influencer in my family, and maybe the last," she told AFP. - 'Fear of being judged' - Only 30 percent of women in Pakistan own a smartphone compared to twice as many men (58 percent), the largest gap in the world, according to the Mobile Gender Gap Report of 2025. "Friends and family often discourage them from using social media for fear of being judged," said a statement from the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF). In southwestern Balochistan, where tribal law governs many rural areas, a man confessed to orchestrating the murder of his 14-year-old daughter earlier this year over TikTok videos that he said compromised her honour. In October, police in Karachi, in the south, announced the arrest of a man who had killed four women relatives over "indecent" TikTok videos. These murders each revive memories of Qandeel Baloch, dubbed Pakistan's Kim Kardashian and one of the country's first breakout social media stars whose videos shot her to fame. After years in the spotlight, she was suffocated by her brother. AFP | Farooq NAEEM Violence against women is pervasive in Pakistan, according to the country's Human Rights Commission, and cases of women being attacked after rejecting men are not uncommon. "This isn't one crazy man, this is a culture," said Kanwal Ahmed, who leads a closed Facebook group of 300,000 women to share advice. "Every woman in Pakistan knows this fear. Whether she's on TikTok or has a private Instagram with 50 followers, men show up. In her DMs. In her comments. On her street," she wrote in a post. In the fifth-most-populous country in the world, where 60 percent of the population is under the age of 30, the director of digital rights organisation Bolo Bhi, Usama Khilji says "many women don't post their profile picture, but a flower, an object, very rarely their face". "The misogyny and the patriarchy that is prevalent in this society is reflected on the online spaces," he added. A 22-year-old man was arrested over Yousaf's murder and is due to appear in court next week. At a vigil in the capital last week, around 80 men and women gathered, holding placards that read "no means no". "Social media has given us a voice, but the opposing voices are louder," said Hira, a young woman who joined the gathering. The capital's police chief, Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi, used a press conference to send a "clear message" to the public. "If our sisters or daughters want to become influencers, professionally or as amateurs, we must encourage them," he said.
IOL News
3 hours ago
- IOL News
G7 Summit: Will Global South Voices Be Heard?
President Cyril Ramaphosa met several former African Heads of State and Government who are championing the African Leaders Initiative on Debt Relief at his official residence, Genadendal, in Cape Town on February 25, 2025. President Ramaphosa will attend the G7 summit in Canada today. For the Global South middle powers, an important responsibility in global G7 and G20 platforms is the commitment to articulate the interests of the G77 and the majority world, says the writer. Image: GCIS Ashraf Patel This year's G7 Summit takes place in Kananaskis Canada, under the theme Governance in a Fragmented World. The world in 2025 stands at a critical juncture. Geopolitical fragmentation, systemic economic shocks and accelerating technological change are reshaping the contours of the international order. While the values underpinning the postwar multilateral system — democracy, open markets, human rights and the rule of law — remain foundational, their global reach and efficacy face a real threat of erosion from multiple directions. In this context, a narrative has emerged of Southern powers that can, in some way, influence the global agenda via the G20 and some presence at the G7. Canada generally has good programs aligned with the UN SDGs and responsible middle power, but will it sway the big powers to a broader development agenda? What, then, is the value of Southern nations participating in the G7 in the current globally fractured era amidst trade wars and conflict? The BRICS nations bloc was conceived to chart an independent pathway due to these unequal relations in the world order. Currently, most G7 core nations are in perilous economic stagnation. The UK, Germany, France and the US face multiple crises. The US domestic situation is divided with major strife and an authoritarian turn, and today, many US cities mirror that of Global South societies. A key question then is what is to be gained from participation at the G7 when the policy prescripts in this context is a forgone conclusion. For President Cyril Ramaphosa, this is his 5th trip to a G7 Summit as an observer. Observer status of Global South leaders generally means they have at least a day to engage over lunch and working sessions with the G7's core leadership. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ For South Africa, it's a case of the same old dialogue. In 2020 the South African president was invited to the G20 in Gleneagles, UK. The Covid pandemic was at its peak and G7 nations and their pharmaceutical industries ensured Covid nationalism that left Africa languishing at the bottom of the pyramid. At that summit, a new Just Energy Transition (JET) program was conceived, and over the years transformed into an investment program JET IP. While couched in terms of 'development co-operation on climate', upon closer scrutiny, South Africans discovered that they were green loans repayable with interest. Even more concerning is that this year's G7 takes place against the backdrop of regressive Development Aid policies by core EU states - UK, Germany, and Netherlands which is predicated on a 'new development business interest paradigm' with cuts to core development aid, and linking Development Aid directly to investment and business outcomes. More concerning is the commitment by the EU and NATO states to increase Defence expenditure to 5% of GDP. Invariably, these structural shifts meant that the Northern world G7 would likely adopt more structural reforms, austerity and a push for neoliberalism in the Global South, meaning more extractive policies. This can be seen by increased oil and gas explorations by G7 nations across Africa, thus contradicting their commitments to UN Climate Change COP targets. It is in these multi-layered complexities - and contradictions that Middle Powers - India, South Africa and Brazil are invited to the G7 this weekend. Realistically, prospects for a 'new deal' on debt, climate finance and meeting SDGs in this austerity ecosystem are low indeed. By contrast, just this week China has removed tariffs for all 53 African states who export to China, thus boosting job creation and industrial development. In just one sweep it has done more for African trade than G7 nations communiques have done in a years. This is a concrete example of development solidarity and moves towards fair and balanced trade. By contrast, core G7 states are engaged in trade wars, tariff imposition and economic nationalism. The G7 themes do somehow weave into the G20 just as the BRICS nation's themes on green industrial development and IFI reforms have. In terms of Southern agency and agenda setting, South Africa is generally a middle power committed to multilateralism and the UN charter, a laudable approach, but it has limitations in the current era. For the Global South middle powers, an important responsibility in global G7 and G20 platforms is the commitment to articulate the interests of the G77 and the majority world. In the current context of Trump 2.0 trade wars and WTO ineffectiveness, geopolitical conflicts, and the lack of any agency or power by smaller nations such as Lesotho means that Low-Income Countries (LIC) are now most vulnerable and are facing ever deeper poverty as a result of trade wars and abrupt cuts in USAID etc. The recent G77 June statement has decried that at a time of converging global crises including conflict, climate change, hunger, poverty, food insecurity, rising inequalities, declining official development assistance, and rapid technological disruption and has reaffirmed development as a fundamental pillar of peace and security. Generally, the G7 agenda is about maintaining the hegemony of the Global North. Again, the current fractured era suggests that the Middle Powers now straddle the thin line between co-option into dominant patterns of unequal trade, finance and austerity, and Sovereignty. What pathways will be prioritised? * Ashraf Patel is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Global Dialogue, UNISA. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.
