Keir Starmer accepts invitation to meet Donald Trump in Scotland
Police Scotland has previously said that it expects the visit to require a 'significant policing operation' and confirmed that preparations were underway.
READ MORE: Dates of Donald Trump's state visit to UK confirmed by Buckingham Palace
Reports have suggested that as many as 5000 officers will be drafted in to support the operation which is expected at the end of July.
It is understood that there will be no private meeting with King Charles, however a date has now been set for Trump's second visit to the UK this year, which will see him hosted by the Palace.
(Image: Carl Court/PA Wire)
On the state visit, due to take place from September 17 to 19, he will be hosted at Windsor Castle.
It will be the second state visit for the US president, who was previously hosted by Queen Elizabeth in 2017.
READ MORE: Labour politicians fail to declare all-expenses-paid trip to Israel
His appearance in Scotland is almost certain to draw protests, and a demonstration has already been called to greet Trump in London later in the year.
Trump's mother was from Lewis and his last visit came in 2023.
His golf resort at Turnberry in Ayrshire was recently targeted by pro-Palestine activists who daubed its clubhouse with red paint and wrote 'Gaza is not for sale' on the walls, in reference to his plans to ethnically cleanse the territory and develop it as a holiday destination.
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South Wales Guardian
9 minutes ago
- South Wales Guardian
French action ‘has prevented nearly 500 small boat crossings this year'
Yvette Cooper told MPs nearly 500 crossings had been 'prevented' by the French police, with 385 reaching British shores. Speaking in the Commons, Ms Cooper told MPs the Government had five tactics to address small boat crossings, including strengthening the border and clamping down on illegal working. Her statement came days after the Government secured a new agreement with France over returning migrants who had arrived on small boats. She said: 'French actions have prevented 496 boat crossings this year, but 385 boats have crossed. 'And criminal gangs are operating new tactics, increasing the overcrowding of boats so that more people arrive, and loading them in shallow waters, exploiting the French rules that means their authorities have not been able to intervene in the water.' It is unclear whether the figure refers to small boat crossings being stopped before or during attempts to leave the coastline, or by other means such as seizing boats from warehouses. The Home Secretary referred to 'appalling scenes' of people clambering onto crowded boats in shallow waters, and said French police had faced 'disgraceful violence' from gang members behind the crossings. She continued: 'We cannot stand for this. That is why the new action agreed with France includes establishing a new French Compagnie de Marche of specialist enforcement officers, with stronger public order powers to address increases in violence on French beaches and prevent boat launches before they reach the water.' Some 22,492 people have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel, according to latest Home Office figures. This is up 57% on this point last year (14,291) and 71% higher than at this stage in 2023 (13,144), according to PA news agency analysis. Last week's agreement saw a deal struck for a one in, one out system that would see a small boat migrant exchange for a legal asylum seeker. No details have been given about how many people will be covered by the scheme, but reports from France have indicated it could initially be limited to around 50 a week – a small fraction of the weekly average this year of 782. Priority will be given to people from countries where they are most likely to be granted asylum as genuine refugees, who are most likely to be exploited by smuggling gangs and also asylum seekers who have connections to the UK. The accord came at the end of a state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to the UK. Ms Cooper said: 'The new agreement reached at the summit last week means stronger partnership working with source and transit countries to prevent illegal migration.' Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp rubbished the idea that progress had been made on the issue, and said statistics showed small boat crossings had risen under Labour. Mr Philp said the 12 months since Labour's election last July had seen a 40% rise year-on-year in terms of crossings. He said: 'The Home Secretary comes here today sounding rather pleased with herself. I'm afraid she has no reason to. 'A year ago, she promised to smash the gangs, she said again and again that was her plan, indeed it was her only plan. Yet today, there is no mention of what was once her favourite catchphrase. 'That's because her claim to smash the gangs has become a joke, an embarrassment to her and to the Government.' He added that rather than closing asylum hotels, there were 3,000 more people in them than last year. 'She is setting records, just all the wrong ones,' he said. Ms Cooper replied: 'This crisis, the small boats chaos, went on for 340 weeks under the Tories, a period in which when he was immigration minister, overall migration near trebled and small boat crossings increased tenfold when he was the immigration minister in charge.' She later said the Government's plan would involve greater co-operation with other governments, rather than 'standing at the shoreline shouting at the sea'. Ms Cooper said: 'We will best strengthen our border security by working with countries on the other side of those borders who face exactly the same challenges far better than just standing at the shoreline shouting at the sea.' Conservative former minister Andrew Murrison asked the Home Secretary to respond to the idea that the UK was 'perceived as being attractive to illegal migrants'. She replied: 'I do think frankly it has been too easy to work illegally in this country for too long, and we know that one of the things that the criminal gangs say to people is, 'it will be easy to get a job'. 'They will even give people discounts if they can come and work for those same criminal gangs operating in the UK.'
Times
11 minutes ago
- Times
EU has few cards with Donald Trump, and it's bad at playing them
Donald Trump is treating the European Union like a plaything. Over the past three months, the president has made repeated unilateral threats of tariffs against the bloc, moving deadlines and throwing negotiations into turmoil at the drop of a Truth Social post. The latest skirmish was over the weekend, when Trump derailed hopes of a tentative 'deal' with Brussels negotiators by threatening a sweeping 30 per cent levy on the bloc from August 1. That's down from the 50 per cent he threatened in May but above the 10 per cent minimum that the EU was hoping to land on and which the UK has already secured. • Trump slaps 30% tariff on EU and says trade deficit is 'threat to security' Trump's capriciousness towards the Continent is a reflection of the US's strong negotiating position vis-à-vis the EU, compared to China. The contrast in rhetoric and strategy from the White House on the two trade negotiations is stark. With Beijing, America's subservient dependence on China's raw materials export licences, and the fact that Beijing's mercantilist export model has continued unabashed this year, shows who holds most of the cards in US-China trade negotiations. So much so that the administration was quick to 'celebrate' a Geneva accord with Beijing that, a month on, no one knows the details of. Europe simply doesn't boast anywhere near the negotiating leverage over Trump that China wields. It cannot easily weaponise Americans' love for luxury clothing or German cars, and instead is hampered by economies such as Ireland — an open small trading nation — whose economic fortunes hinge on retaining giant American multinationals on its shores. Ireland would be hit by import taxes in areas like pharmaceuticals, and even more so if Trump's larger threats force 'repatriation' of US multinationals. • Ireland has most to lose if tariffs force companies back to US Europe's messy economic relationship with the US skews the tariff talks odds in favour of the other side. But so does the nature of the EU itself. Of all the US's major trade-negotiation partners, Brussels has been uniquely ill equipped to handle Trump. The bloc has approached the head-to-head with its quintessentially legal and technocratic set of asks just as it would a conventional trade agreement. The past week alone has underlined why the technicalities of tariff levels or goods trade simply don't matter to Trump. He is using tariffs, for example, to beat up the centre-left government of Brazil, which runs a trade surplus with the US, to defend his ally Jair Bolsonaro. The Europeans this month gave up their right to impose a 15 per cent tax on US tech giants, hoping it would help pave the wave for a 10 per cent tariff deal — to no avail. It's little surprise that Bernd Lange, a German MEP and head of the European parliament's trade committee, was incandescent at Trump's 'impertinent slap in the face'. This just isn't how Brussels is used to doing things. • Trump threatens Brazil with 50% tariffs 'over Bolsonaro witch hunt' Member states are also divided about what to do next. Brussels has said it will delay planned counter-tariffs on metals that were due to come into force this week, in order to try and placate Trump. A new round of counter-measures worth €72 billion was agreed by EU trade ministers yesterday, but there is no guarantee they will ever be used. A more aggressive move to prepare ways to hit the US with an anti-coercion instrument has been left in reserve. It's no surprise that Trump keeps moving the goalposts. • Trump's tariff may make normal trade impossible, says EU negotiator A 30 per cent minimum tariff, if it comes into force, would result in a 1.25 per cent hit to the bloc's GDP over the next 18 months, according to figures from Goldman Sachs. The other growing worry for some European companies is the strength of the euro, which has brought complaints from the Continent's exporters and has also depressed earnings valuations for its businesses in recent weeks. This is a 'triple whammy' of hits for some of the most export-oriented firms in the bloc, where trade with the rest of the world accounts for about a fifth of total GDP. The euro has gained 13 per cent against the dollar this year and is about 6 per cent stronger on a trade-weighted basis — a sustained and impressive appreciation for a currency that most thought was heading to below $1.00 at the start of the year. Similar to the 'should we or shouldn't we retaliate against Trump?' issue, Europeans are unsure how to feel about their rapidly strengthening currency. There is a reasonably simple mechanical relationship between a strong exchange rate and variables such as inflation. A rough rule of thumb for the euro is that a 1 per cent trade-weighted appreciation will lower average consumer prices by about 0.1 per cent. The pass-through is usually even higher when the euro's strength is down to 'external' factors — such as worries about the dollar — rather than internal factors such as improved growth. This means the eurozone's inflation target of 2 per cent is almost certain to undershoot to about 1.6 per cent next year and could fall even further in 2027. The European Central Bank will then find itself in the familiar position of having to cut interest rates to ultra-low levels to stimulate price growth — much as it has done for the past decade with the exception of 2022-2023. But the ECB and its president, Christine Lagarde, have also made it clear that they think the world is entering a 'global euro moment' where the single currency can benefit from the dollar's sustained decline and worries over its reserve status. This is an unusually pointed political intervention by the ECB, which has been historically 'neutral' on the reserve status of the euro. Previously, it has been the European Commission that has pushed the 'internationalisation' of the euro as an explicit stated aim — despite having no tools at its disposal to achieve this. A number of factors need to be in place before the euro can play a role anything like the dollar in the world's financial system; a likely eurozone safe asset through commonly issued debt is one of them. A reserve currency is also a strong, rather than undervalued one. The ECB should be careful what it wishes for.
The Guardian
11 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Trump does deal with Nato allies to arm Ukraine and warns Russia of severe sanctions
Donald Trump has said he has sealed an agreement with Nato allies which will lead to large-scale arms deliveries to Ukraine, including Patriot missiles, and warned Russia that it will face severe sanctions if Moscow does not make peace within 50 days. After a meeting with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, Trump said they had agreed 'a very big deal', in which 'billions of dollars' worth of military equipment is going to be purchased from the United States, going to Nato … And that's going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.' Speaking in the White House alongside a clearly delighted Rutte, the US president said the arms deliveries would be comprehensive and would include the Patriot missile batteries that Ukraine desperately needs for its air defences against a daily Russian aerial onslaught. 'It's everything: It's Patriots. It's all of them. It's a full complement, with the batteries,' Trump said. He did not go into any more detail, but made clear the weapons would be entirely paid for by Washington's European allies, and that initial missile deliveries would come 'within days' from European stocks, on the understanding they would be replenished with US supplies. At a White House lunch with religious leaders later in the day, Trump said the deal was 'fully approved, fully done'. 'We'll send them a lot of weapons of all kinds and they're going to deliver those weapons immediately … and they're going to pay,' he said. At his meeting with Trump, Rutte said there was a significant number of Nato allies - including Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada – ready to rearm Ukraine as part of the deal. 'They all want to be part of this. And this is only the first wave. There will be more,' he said. The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said last week that Berlin was ready to acquire additional Patriot systems. Trump claimed there was one country, which he did not name, but which had '17 Patriots getting ready to be shipped'. Monday's deal would include that stockpile, or 'a big portion of the 17', he said. Such an arms delivery would represent a significant reinforcement of Ukraine's air defences. Kyiv is currently thought to have only six Patriot batteries, at a time it when is coming under frequent and intense Russian drone and missile bombardments. At the same time, Trump expressed increased frustration with Vladimir Putin, whom he accused of giving the impression of pursuing peace while intensifying attacks on Ukrainian cities. He gave the Russian president a new deadline of 50 days to end the fightingor face 100% tariffs on Russian goods, and more importantly, sweeping 'secondary tariffs', suggesting trade sanctions would be imposed on countries who continue to pay for Russian oil and other commodities. 'The secondary tariffs are very, very powerful,' the president said. The announcement marked a dramatic change for the administration, both in substance and tone. The Trump White House had not only made clear it would continue its predecessor's policy of continuing to supply Ukraine out of US stocks, but the president and his top officials have been derisive about Kyiv's chances of prevailing. On Monday, Trump delivered his most admiring language on Ukraine and its European backers to date, with Rutte on one side and the US vice-president, JD Vance, the administration's biggest sceptic on US involvement in Europe, on the other. 'They fought with tremendous courage, and they continue to fight with tremendous courage,' Trump said of the Ukrainians. 'Europe has a lot of spirit for this war,' he said, suggesting he had been taken by surprise by the level of commitment shown by European allies at the Nato summit in The Hague last month. 'The level of esprit de corps spirit that they have is amazing,' he said. 'They really think it's very, very important. 'Having a strong Europe is a very good thing. It's a very good thing. So I'm okay with it,' he said. Trump described his deepening disillusion with Putin, and suggested his wife, Melania, may have played a role in pointing out the Russian leader's duplicity in talks over a peace deal. 'My conversations with him are always very pleasant. I say, isn't that a very lovely conversation? And then the missiles go off that night,' Trump said. 'I go home, I tell the first lady: I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation. She said: Really? Another city was just hit.' Ukrainian regional officials reported at least six civilians killed and 30 injured by Russian bombing in the past 24 hours. The country's air force said Moscow had attacked with 136 drones and four S-300 or S-400 missiles. 'Look, I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy. It's been proven over the years. He's fooled a lot of people,' Trump said, listing his predecessors in the White House. 'He didn't fool me. But what I do say is that at a certain point, ultimately talk doesn't talk. It's got to be action,' he said. Russian officials and pro-war bloggers on Monday largely shrugged off Trump's announcement, declaring it to be less significant than anticipated. Konstantin Kosachev, a senior Russian lawmaker, wrote on Telegram that it amounted to 'hot air'. It was broadly welcomed in Kyiv, where there has been longstanding and deep anxiety about Trump's intentions. Andrii Kovalenko, a member of Ukraine's national security and defence council, posted a one-word response: 'Cool'. There was still scepticism however, over whether even the promise of new weaponry for Ukraine combined with the threat of trade sanctions would be enough to halt Russia's offensive. Illia Ponomarenko, a Ukrainian journalist and blogger wrote: 'How many Ukrainian lives could have been saved if, from the very beginning, Trump had listened to wise and honest people about helping Ukraine, instead of the artful lies of that cannibal Putin on the phone?'.
