Iceland to launch negotiations on security, defence partnership with EU
Frostadottir said she was hoping to conclude talks by the end of the year.
"This is very important for us to show that we can have cooperation on critical infrastructure, civil protection, any sort of dual use defence investment and this also includes hybrid and cyber threats," she said.
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Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Russia pulls out of treaty prohibiting short and medium-range nuclear missiles and issues warning to the West
Putin has dramatically pulled out of a Cold War-era treaty banning short and medium-range nuclear missiles while warning the West to 'expect further steps' as tensions spiral. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev - now deputy head of the country's powerful Security Council - blamed NATO nations for forcing Moscow 's hand. In a fiery post on X, he wrote: 'The Russian foreign ministry's statement on the withdrawal of the moratorium on the deployment of medium- and short-range missiles is the result of NATO countries' anti-Russian policy. 'This is a new reality all our opponents will have to reckon with. Expect further steps'. Medvedev, who has been exchanging barbs online with US President Donald Trump, gave no details about what those steps entailed. But his warning comes just days after Trump said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to 'appropriate regions' in response to Russian threats. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed in 1987 by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, eliminated an entire class of ground-launched missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500km. The US withdrew from the deal in 2019, accusing Russia of breaching its terms - a charge Moscow vehemently denied. Since then, Russia had pledged not to deploy such weapons unless Washington did so first. The collapse of the INF Treaty has stoked fears of a replay of a Cold War-era European missile crisis, when the US and the Soviet Union both deployed intermediate-range missiles on the continent in the 1980s. Such weapons are seen as particularly destabilising because they take less time to reach targets, compared with intercontinental ballistic missiles, leaving no time for decision-makers and raising the likelihood of a global nuclear conflict over a false launch warning. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signalled last December that Moscow would abandon the moratorium if 'destabilising actions' by the US and NATO continued. Lavrov told Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti in December that Moscow's unilateral moratorium on the deployment of such missiles was 'practically no longer viable and will have to be abandoned'. 'The United States arrogantly ignored warnings from Russia and China and, in practice, moved on to deploying weapons of this class in various regions of the world,' he told the news agency. In a statement yesterday, Russia's Foreign Ministry confirmed it no longer considered itself bound by the ban, citing NATO's growing military presence in Europe and Asia-Pacific. It specifically cited US plans to deploy medium-range Typhoon and Dark Eagle missiles in Germany starting next year. 'Since the situation is developing towards the actual deployment of US-made land-based medium- and short-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian Foreign Ministry notes that the conditions for maintaining a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar weapons have disappeared,' the statement said. According to its statement, the West is openly stationing short-and medium-range missiles in various parts of the world, while Russia's initiatives on the issue have seen no reciprocity. In its first public reaction to Trump's comments on the repositioning of US submarines, the Kremlin on Monday said it was not looking to get into a public spat with the US president. 'In this case, it is obvious that American submarines are already on combat duty. This is an ongoing process, that's the first thing,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 'But in general, of course, we would not want to get involved in such a controversy and would not want to comment on it in any way,' he said. 'Of course, we believe that everyone should be very, very careful with nuclear rhetoric,' he added. It comes as Russia's missile forces chief declared that the new Oreshnik intermediate-range missile, which Russia first used against Ukraine in November, has a range to reach all of Europe. Oreshnik can carry conventional or nuclear warheads. Putin has praised the Oreshnik's capabilities, saying its multiple warheads that plunge to a target at speeds up to Mach 10 are immune to being intercepted and are so powerful that the use of several of them in one conventional strike could be as devastating as a nuclear attack. The Russian leader has warned the West that Moscow could use it against Ukraine's NATO allies who allowed Kyiv to use their longer-range missiles to strike inside Russia. But as Russia escalates its nuclear rhetoric, Ukraine continues to face relentless attacks. The move comes amid a deadly wave of missile strikes pounding Ukraine overnight, with one railway worker killed and four others injured after Russian forces targeted a key rail hub in Lozova. The strike on Lozova - described by the city's mayor as 'the most massive attack since the beginning of the war' - injured two children and damaged residential areas. Elsewhere, two more people were wounded in a Russian drone attack on Zaporizhzhia , while Ukraine's air defences reported shooting down 29 Iranian-made Shahed drones overnight. The developments come as a deadline set by Trump for Russia to take 'steps to end the war' looms, with his envoy Steve Whitkoff set to visit Moscow this week for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Brussels will ‘punish' Britain for not following its demands as PM's deal pushes UK into clutches of EU, economist warns
BRUSSELS will dole out punishments to the UK for not adhering to its demands, a top economist warns. Eurocrats are pushing Britain into the clutches of the customs union and single market without the ability to make our own rules, Catherine McBride says. The revelation comes after the UK and the EU agreed a new framework back in May on post-Brexit trading arrangements on areas such as farming, defence and trade. The expert insists that new documents outlining the EU Commission's full demands from the reset will see the continent take "retribution" through our current trading relationships. She says this will strip the UK of any ability to foster the latest farming techniques or even import food from non-EU countries. McBride says that the EU Commission will have control all over the UK's agriculture and industrial imports - and also affecting our independent trade policy with the rest of the world. McBride, in a Briefings for Britain article, writes: "The UK government has effectively given the EU a free pass to penalise or, more likely, fine the UK for any transgression. "The EU will be the lawmaker, the policeman and the Judge – there will be no jury." She even echoes comments from former Prime Minister Boris Johnson who said that Sir Keir Starmer was ready to make us the EU's "gimp". When Britain voted to leave the EU it left the single market, customs union and also left the freedom of movement arrangements. Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel last night said: 'The stark cost of Labour's EU surrender plan is on full display. 'Keir Starmer and his cronies have bent the knee to Brussels at every turn, and no matter the price the British public will have to pay, and now the EU is coming back for more. 'The Conservatives will always defend the democratic will of this country, and won't let Labour give up anymore of our hard earned sovereignty without a fight.' A Labour source said: 'The report is riddled with nonsense claims. "If the Shadow Foreign Secretary wants to talk about surrender, let's look at how she designed a post-Brexit migration system that was supposed to be controlled, but led to record levels of net migration. "Labour is resetting our relationship with the EU - delivering a new deal that protects jobs, lowers bills, and strengthens our borders." A Government spokesperson said: "Since 2020, British traders and shoppers have faced red tape, rising prices and delivery delays. We set out to fix this with a new partnership with the EU that will add nearly £9 billion a year to the UK economy. 'We will always act in Britain's national interest and have been clear there will be no return to freedom of movement, the customs union or the single market.'
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Italy moves to tighten controls on gender-affirming medical care for minors
ROME, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Italy will tighten controls on the supply of gender-affirming medical care for minors, according to a draft law approved by the government that has triggered protests from transgender rights advocates. The law, passed by the cabinet late on Monday but still subject to parliamentary approval, will regulate medicines such as puberty blockers and feminising or masculinising hormones for those under the age of 18 who are experiencing gender dysphoria. In a statement, the government said it was needed "to protect the health of minors" and introduce "effective data monitoring." Gender dysphoria is the clinical diagnosis of significant distress that can result from an incongruence between a person's gender identity and their assigned sex at birth. The new bill states that gender-affirming medicines will only be dispensed following protocols yet to be drafted by the health ministry, and, pending that, after approval by a national ethics committee of paediatricians. It also sets up a national registry at the Italian Medicines Agency to monitor "the correct use of (these) medicines" and collect the detailed medical histories of each transgender person undergoing treatment. "This is a form of profiling of trans people, with all their sensitive data, in the hands of a government-nominated agency ... it is extremely serious," Roberta Parigiani, a spokesperson for the Trans Identity Movement, told Reuters on Tuesday. She said that introducing more layers of screening for the approval of gender-affirming medical care was concerning, as it increases the risk that treatment may be delayed for young teenagers or pre-teens waiting for it. "It's not like you can wait one or two years," Parigiani said. Under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a self-described enemy of what she and her allies call the "LGTB lobby" and "gender ideology," Italy has a right-wing government that espouses so-called traditional family values. In the nearly three years that it has been in office, Meloni's coalition has made it harder for same-sex couples with children to be both recognised as legal parents, and has made it illegal for any couple to go abroad to have a baby via surrogacy. The draft bill could be rejected or substantially amended by parliament, but given that Meloni's coalition has a solid majority and backs its objectives, there is a high chance it will be approved.
