Trump, Starmer say US-UK trade deal finalised, World News
KANANASKIS, Alberta — US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday (June 16) said they had finalised a trade deal reached between the two allies last month.
Trump, standing alongside Starmer at the Group of Seven summit in Canada, said the relationship with Britain was "just fantastic," as he waved, and briefly dropped, a document which he said he had just signed.
"We signed it and it's done," he said. Starmer said the proclamation would implement agreements reached on auto tariffs and aerospace, without providing any details.
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Straits Times
10 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Russia kills at least 15 in strikes on Kyiv, other cities
Residents react at the site of an apartment building damaged during a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 17, 2025. PHOTO: REUTERS Russia kills at least 15 in strikes on Kyiv, other cities KYIV - Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Ukraine on June 17, hitting dozens of civilian targets in Kyiv including a large apartment block, killing at least 15 people and wounding scores, Ukrainian officials said. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian forces directed more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine. He described the destruction in Kyiv as among the 'most horrific' in the capital of the war. 'Such attacks are pure terrorism. The whole world, the United States, and Europe must finally respond as a civilized society responds to terrorists. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin does this solely because he can afford to continue the war.' About 27 locations in the capital were hit during several waves of attacks throughout the night, and residential buildings, educational institutions, and critical infrastructure facilities were damaged, officials said. A ballistic missile struck a nine-storey residential building in Kyiv's Solomianskyi district, wiping out a whole section of it, which was flattened into a pile of debris. Emergency workers were combing through the rubble and dousing the flames with hoses. They used a crane to lower a wounded elderly woman in a stretcher out of the window of a flat in an adjacent section of the building. 'I have never seen anything like this before. It is simply horrific. When they started pulling people out, and everyone was cut up, elderly people and children... I do not know how long they can continue to torment us, ordinary people,' said Ms Viktoriia Vovchenko, 57, who lives nearby. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said 14 people were killed in Kyiv and one more in Odesa in southern Ukraine. Nearly a hundred people were injured in the capital and the nearby region, Odesa, and Chernihiv in the north, officials said. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the dead in the capital included a 62-year-old US citizen, who died from shrapnel wounds. Ukraine has also launched drones deep into Russia, although its attacks have not caused similar damage to civilian targets. Russia's Defence Ministry said it had intercepted and destroyed 147 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, including the Moscow region, overnight. Russia's full-scale invasion is now in its fourth year, and the hostilities have heated up in recent weeks as Kyiv and Moscow failed to reach any agreement during two rounds of peace talks in Istanbul. Russian troops are pressing on with a grinding advance in eastern Ukraine and have opened a new front in the Sumy region in the north-east, despite calls for a ceasefire from US President Donald Trump, who promised to end the war quickly. Mr Zelensky was in Canada to attend the Group of Seven summit, hoping to gather more support for tighter sanctions against Russia and continued military aid for Ukraine. He had also hoped to meet US President Donald Trump to discuss weapons purchases, but Mr Trump left the G-7 summit a day early due to the situation in the Middle East, the White House said. Mr Trump has reoriented US policy away from supporting Kyiv towards accepting Moscow's justifications for its invasion, and has so far resisted calls from European allies to impose tighter sanctions of Moscow for rejecting his calls for a ceasefire. At the summit, Mr Trump called for the G-7 to readmit Russia, which was expelled in 2014 after an earlier attack on Ukraine. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
CNA
39 minutes ago
- CNA
Israel, Iran trade blows as air war rages into fifth day
TEHRAN: Israel and Iran exchanged missile fire for a fifth consecutive day on Tuesday (Jun 17), as United States President Donald Trump abruptly left the G7 summit and warned Tehran residents to "immediately evacuate" amid rising fears of a wider conflict. The Israeli military said it targeted multiple missile and UAV sites in western Iran, including surface-to-surface missile infrastructure, surface-to-air launchers and drone storage facilities, in a statement accompanied by black-and-white footage showing missile launchers exploding. Shortly after, air raid sirens sounded in parts of Israel. Loud booms were heard over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, AFP journalists reported, as the Israeli army warned of incoming missiles launched from Iran. "Sirens sounded in several areas across Israel following the identification of missiles launched from Iran," the military said, adding the air force was "operating to intercept and strike where necessary to eliminate the threat". Around 20 minutes later, the army said people could leave protected spaces. Police said shrapnel fell in Tel Aviv, causing damage but no casualties. The fire service said its teams were on the way to battle a blaze in the commercial hub. Despite mounting calls to de-escalate, neither side has backed off from the missile blitz that began Friday, when Israel launched an unprecedented aerial campaign targeting Iranian nuclear and military facilities. A new wave of Israeli strikes on Tehran - including a dramatic hit on state television's headquarters that the broadcaster said killed three people - prompted both sides to activate missile defence systems overnight. Israel's army briefly urged citizens to seek shelter, amid growing fears of a regional war. The Israeli military on Tuesday said it had killed Iran's top military commander, Ali Shadmani, in an overnight strike, calling him the closest figure to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In a statement, the military said following "a sudden opportunity overnight, the (Israeli air force) struck a staffed command centre in the heart of Tehran and eliminated Ali Shadmani, the wartime Chief of Staff, the most senior military commander, and the closest figure to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei". The Israeli army said Shadmani had commanded both the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian armed forces. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the US was deploying "additional capabilities" to the Middle East. The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz left Southeast Asia on Monday, scrapping a planned Vietnam stop, amid reports it was heading to the region. A White House spokesman said US forces remained in a defensive posture. The US leader Trump has repeatedly declined to say whether the United States would support Israeli military action and has insisted Washington was not involved in the initial strikes. After calling for talks, Trump issued an extraordinary warning on his Truth Social platform: "Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!" He left the G7 summit in Canada a day early to return to Washington. Later, he dismissed reports that he left to broker a ceasefire, lashing out at French President Emmanuel Macron. "Publicity seeking President Emmanuel Macron ... mistakenly said I left the G7 ... to work on a 'cease fire,'" Trump posted on Truth Social. "Wrong! He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire. Much bigger than that.. Stay Tuned!" "ONE AFTER THE OTHER" After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war, Israel launched its surprise air campaign last week, saying it aimed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons - a charge Tehran denies. Iran has responded with multiple missile salvos. The Revolutionary Guards vowed Monday night the attacks would continue "without interruption until dawn". The escalation has derailed nuclear talks and stoked fears of broader conflict. Trump urged Iran to return to the negotiating table. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said a missile strike lightly damaged a building used by the American embassy in Tel Aviv. The State Department warned Americans not to travel to Israel. At least 24 people have been killed in Israel and hundreds wounded, according to the prime minister's office. Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists, and civilians. It has not issued an updated toll since then. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was eliminating Iran's security leadership "one after the other". "We are changing the face of the Middle East, and that can lead to radical changes inside Iran itself," he said. "STOP" CIVILIAN STRIKES International calls for calm have mounted. At the G7 summit in the Canadian Rockies, leaders including Trump called on Monday for "de-escalation" while stressing Israel had the right to defend itself. "We urge that the resolution of the Iranian crisis leads to a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza", G7 leaders said in a joint statement that also affirmed "Iran can never have a nuclear weapon". China called on Israel and Iran to both "immediately take measures to cool down the tensions" and avoid plunging the region into deeper turmoil. The US and Iran had engaged in several rounds of indirect talks on Tehran's nuclear programme in recent weeks, but Iran said after the start of Israel's campaign that it would not negotiate while under attack. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday that "absent a total cessation of military aggression against us, our responses will continue". "It takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu. That may pave the way for a return to diplomacy," he wrote on X. A senior US official told AFP that Trump had intervened to of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Business Times
2 hours ago
- Business Times
Britain's housing splurge is long overdue
[LONDON] The £39 billion (S$67.7 billion) boost that Britain's Labour government has announced for affordable housing still leaves its ambition of building 1.5 million homes over five years looking like a stretch. That shouldn't obscure the broader point that the country has underspent for decades on accommodation for its most disadvantaged. Any attempt to reverse this trend has the potential to pay for itself in wider economic benefits and even lead to a healthier private property market. The state's retreat from providing housing began with Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s and gained added impetus after 2010 with the Conservative-led government's efforts to cut expenditure and repair the public finances following the global financial crisis. Rather than building homes, the government aimed to steer financial support to low-income households to enable them to rent in the private market or from not-for-profit housing associations. The guiding philosophy was that a more market-based approach would encourage a more aspirational society; public housing, by contrast, kept people caught in dependency. The observed outcomes haven't been kind to this theory. The market has failed to generate adequate supply, leading to a shortfall of homes estimated at more than 4 million by the London-based Centre for Cities think tank. Meanwhile, the presence of more former social-housing tenants competing for private accommodation has helped to drive up rents, underpinning a boom in property values that has made home ownership unaffordable for many. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Tuesday, 12 pm Property Insights Get an exclusive analysis of real estate and property news in Singapore and beyond. Sign Up Sign Up The government shelled out £35 billion in housing benefit last financial year – triple in real terms what it was paying at the start of the 1990s. And yet the number of homeless has soared, put at 354,000 people as of December by the charity Shelter. The self-defeating absurdity of the system is that the state has abdicated responsibility at one end while retaining it at the other. Having pushed people into the private market, the central government can (as it did in the 2010s) squeeze their benefit payments to save money – but if, as a consequence, a family can no longer pay the rent and are evicted by their private landlord, it becomes the responsibility of the local authority to rehouse them. The cost rebounds on the state. In the worst cases, for lack of alternatives, people can be placed in expensive and unsuitable short-term bed-and-breakfast hotels and hostels. Spending on these rose more than fivefold to £732 million between 2018 and 2024, according to a February report by researchers at the London School of Economics. It's a false economy that costs British taxpayers more than it would simply to fund appropriate levels of public housing in the first place. The government could save £1.5 billion a year by investing £5 billion annually to build more affordable homes, a 2023 study by University College London researchers found. The report estimated the costs of homelessness, including housing people in temporary accommodation, at £6.5 billion a year. This goes beyond financial calculations. The human and economic costs of housing policies must be considered. Safe and permanent shelter is fundamental to physical and mental well-being. A child living in a bed-and-breakfast hotel can't be expected to learn well at school. An adult won't be able give his or her best at work. Britain has issues with stagnant productivity, high rates of long-term sickness and economic inactivity, and poor educational outcomes for socially deprived children. How many of these comorbidities can be traced back to insufficient and substandard housing? Addressing the problem might just, rather than fostering a culture of welfare reliance, make the UK a more productive (as well as happier) country. Paradoxically, the advent of a large-scale, state-funded social-housing construction programme could also improve the functioning of the private market. For one thing, it will relieve pressure on rents. It could also be used to spur innovation and support small and medium-sized developers that have been increasingly squeezed out over the past four decades. The UK housing market is dominated by an oligopolistic group of large developers and is resistant to change; new-build quality is often perceived as poor. Counter-cyclical state spending can balance out the boom-and-bust property cycles that smaller builders are least able to withstand. Design of Labour's programme will be important. The government describes its 10-year funding plan as the biggest cash injection into 'social and affordable housing' in 50 years. Though there's some blurring between the categories, there's a difference. Affordable rental housing is charged at up to 80 per cent of the private market rate in the area. Social rents are generally around 50 per cent to 60 per cent of the average local rate, though this can be as low as 30 per cent in London. Only social housing is genuinely affordable because rents are set by a formula tied to local incomes, according to Shelter. This is where the need is most acute, yet social rented housing has shrunk as a share of the total. A parliamentary committee concluded last year that England needs at least 90,000 net additional social rent homes a year, while the UCL study projected building 72,000. Even if the entirety of Labour's programme was devoted to social housing, it wouldn't come close to those figures. In broad outline, though, the plan addresses an obvious market failure and is long overdue. As far as financial stability permits, the government should do more. BLOOMBERG Matthew Brooker is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business and infrastructure.
