UK to use diplomatic influence to de-escalate Iran conflict: Peter Kyle
The UK says it will use all its diplomatic influence to de-escalate the Iran conflict. Its lead representative for the arrival of its Carrier Strike Group in Singapore said this on Jun 23. British Secretary of State Peter Kyle added that the UK is among a group of nations trying to ease the tensions before the need for military action takes place. He was speaking exclusively to CNA.
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CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Kremlev says Olympics will be just for kids if IBA stays excluded
LONDON :Olympic boxing will become just a youth tournament if the International Boxing Association stays excluded as a governing body, IBA president Umar Kremlev said on Monday. The Russian told Reuters through a translator that the IBA, suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2019 and stripped of recognition in 2023, was heading into a 'golden era' of its own. "For the boxers it will be important to participate in the world championships and the IBA tournaments. The Olympics will be for the children. It's children's sport," he said via a Zoom call. "It's like football and the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics. "The Olympic games are not developing the sport itself while the International Federation does. "The most important tournaments should be IBA tournaments including world championships as a pinnacle and Olympic tournaments should be in parallel just for the youth generation, for kids." Speaking on the day former Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry took the helm of the IOC from Thomas Bach, Kremlev spoke of the German in derogatory terms and offered no conciliatory words to either. He said future IOC presidents should be elected by countries rather than individual IOC members and Coventry should "leave no trace of Bach". Kremlev has history in attacking the IOC and Bach, doing so at the Paris Games in a long and rambling press conference last August that drew a withering response from the Olympic organisation. "If you ever needed any evidence at all that the IBA is unfit to run boxing just look at the key members of the IBA who took part in that travesty," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said at the time. Kremlev also repeated a call for Olympic athletes to be paid prize money. Kremlev heaped scorn on World Boxing, the body created in 2023 that now has more than 100 members and is set to organise the 2028 tournament after the last two were run by the IOC. "Nobody should compare this particular organization with the IBA because the IBA is a huge elephant and this organization is a fly, a small insect who doesn't live," said the Russian. The boxing competition at the Paris 2024 Games was run by the IOC after it stripped the IBA of recognition for failing to implement reforms on governance and finance. The IBA decided anyway to award prize money to boxers competing in Paris. Kremlev said more details about the IBA's future plans would come at a press conference in Istanbul on July 2. He also gave an update on legal action, threatened in February, against the IOC for allowing Algerian gold medallist Imane Khelif to compete in the women's tournament at the Paris Games in a gender-eligibility row. Kremlev said the IBA's legal team was still looking into the matter but would be taking it to civil courts and not the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
UK and Ukraine agree to deepen ties as Zelenskyy meets Starmer
LONDON: Seeking to shore up support more than three years into Russia's invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a surprise visit to London on Monday (Jun 23), cementing a military co-production deal. Zelenskyy met with Starmer at his Downing Street home, after earlier visiting King Charles III at Windsor Castle. The trip comes on the eve of a NATO summit in The Hague, which Zelenskyy is due to attend. Addressing Ukrainian military personnel undergoing training in the UK, Starmer said the pair had had "an excellent bilateral meeting" and agreed an "industrial military co-production agreement", which he called "a massive step forward in the contribution that we can continue to make". Zelenskyy, speaking beside Starmer, insisted the deal "will be very strong and will transform both nations", although no details were released. After the meeting, Starmer said it was "really a privilege, a pleasure" to welcome Zelenskyy, calling him "a regular now at Downing Street". Starmer told the Ukrainian troops it was "really humbling" to see their "level of professionalism, commitment and bravery". More than 50,000 troops have now been trained as part of the international partnership. Zelenskyy said the scheme had helped "strengthen our army" and enabled Ukraine to "survive and fight". The UK has been one of Ukraine's staunchest supporters since Russia invaded in early 2022, levelling rounds of sanctions against Moscow and supplying multiple packages of military aid. Crucial summit Starmer promised the support would continue "for the rest of the conflict" and help put Ukraine in "the strongest possible position" to negotiate a ceasefire. Zelenskyy said his country was "very thankful to the UK... for such big support of Ukraine from the very beginning of this war". The Ukrainian leader earlier travelled to Windsor Castle, where he "visited The King... and remained to luncheon", Buckingham Palace said. Zelenskyy is expected at the NATO summit in The Hague on Tuesday and Wednesday, where Ukraine's allies will work "to ensure that Ukraine is in the best possible position as we go into the next stage of this conflict", according to Starmer. NATO allies are poised to take a "quantum leap" by hiking defence spending to counter the threat of Russia, Secretary General Mark Rutte said on the eve of the two-day summit. The alliance's 32 members will pledge to boost defence expenditure to five percent of gross domestic product, a key demand of President Donald Trump, who has long grumbled that the US pays too much for NATO. NATO's members have thrashed out a compromise deal to dedicate at least 3.5 percent of GDP to core military needs by 2035, and 1.5 percent to broader security-related items like cyber-security and infrastructure. "The defence investment plan that allies will agree in The Hague introduces a new baseline, five percent of GDP to be invested in defence," Rutte told reporters at a pre-summit news conference.
CNA
4 hours ago
- CNA
Study to evaluate 8 offshore islands' vulnerability to sea level rise
Singapore is studying how vulnerable eight of its offshore islands are to rising sea levels. This was announced at the opening of the Singapore International Water Week. In a pre-recorded message, Sustainability and the Environment Minister Grace Fu said strengthening the country's flood resilience and adaptation is an "urgent priority". CNA speaks to Dr Renard Siew, Climate Adviser at the Centre for Governance and Political Studies and Adjunct Professor of Sustainability at Taylor's University in Kuala Lumpur.
