Defence minister agrees to help in one of most dangerous missions undertaken by the UN
British troops will be deployed in Mali next year to join in the world’s deadliest peacekeeping operation, the Ministry of Defence has announced.
The 250-strong force will provide a long-range reconnaissance capability for the United Nations deployment in the troubled African country which has struggled to decisively counter Islamic militants, armed separatists and traffickers.
Continue reading...FCO minister critical of Johnson in Darroch affair joins Hammond and Gauke in resigning in protest
Alan Duncan has resigned as a Foreign Office minister ahead of the expected arrival of Boris Johnson at Downing Street, the latest in a string of ministers to pre-emptively quit their jobs in protest at his likely direction as prime minister.
The departure of Duncan followed the announcements on Sunday by Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and David Gauke, the justice secretary, that they will quit on Wednesday, just before Johnson formally becomes prime minister.
Continue reading...Tehran signals it will not release British-flagged tanker until UK frees one of its vessels
The British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is under intense pressure to join US-led plans for an international maritime protection force in the Gulf as signs grow that Iran is preparing for a long standoff over the British-flagged tanker it has detained.
As Tehran signalled it would refuse to release the Steno Impero until the UK released an Iranian-flagged ship seized off the coast of Gibraltar a fortnight ago, the British government faced accusations it had failed to sufficiently guard its shipping in the Gulf.
Continue reading...Likely new PM could find no-deal option thwarted by senior Tories such as Philip Hammond
Boris Johnson’s hoped-for triumphant march into Downing Street this week is set to be dampened by a carefully timed series of resignations by senior ministers, who will retreat to the backbenches with a vow to thwart any moves towards a no-deal Brexit.
The announcements by Philip Hammond and David Gauke that they will step down on Wednesday, immediately before Johnson is likely to head to Buckingham Palace, highlight the perilous political climate for Theresa May’s expected successor.
Continue reading...Steven Edginton says his name was left out of original story to avoid ‘possible controversy’
New questions have emerged over leaks of confidential UK diplomatic cables criticising Donald Trump after a 19-year-old Brexit activist was revealed to be the person who obtained them.
In a lengthy feature in the Mail on Sunday, Steven Edginton, who describes himself as a freelance journalist and who since April has worked for the Brexit party, said he was passed Sir Kim Darroch’s briefings on the White House.
Continue reading...Tory leadership rivals kept informed about spiralling crisis in the Gulf as ex-naval chief blasts government
Admiral Lord West: ‘our political establishment have been focused on the election of a new prime minister’
Boris Johnson will be tested by a major international crisis in his first days as prime minister, senior military figures and politicians have warned, after Iran seized a British-flagged tanker in a move that raised tensions in the Gulf to new heights.
Johnson, who is expected to win the race to succeed Theresa May as Tory leader and be installed as the new prime minister on Wednesday, was kept informed about the spiralling crisis on Saturday by his rival for the top job, Jeremy Hunt, whom he is expected to reappoint as foreign secretary.
Continue reading...US president refers to message about Met police twitter account, calling London mayor ‘incompetent’
Donald Trump has retweeted the British far-right commentator Katie Hopkins and launched another attack on Sadiq Khan.
Referring to a message from Hopkins that the Met’s Twitter account had been targeted by hackers on Friday night, in which she said officers had “lost control of London streets” and “lost control of their Twitter account too”, Trump tweeted: “With the incompetent mayor of London, you will never have safe streets!”
Continue reading...Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt says Britain’s response will be ‘considered but robust’ if UK-flagged tanker is not released
The British government has warned that Iran is choosing “a dangerous path of illegal and destabilising behaviour” and advised UK ships to avoid the strait of Hormuz after Iran seized a British-flagged tanker as the crisis in the Gulf escalates.
The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said on Saturday morning that Britain’s response would be “considered but robust” if the British-flagged Stena Impero was not released, although he had earlier said the government was not contemplating military action.
Continue reading...Pro-Europe grassroots groups to voice opposition to a Johnson premiership
Protesters will take to London’s streets on Saturday for a “No to Boris. Yes to Europe” march days ahead of Boris Johnson’s widely anticipated move into No 10.
A Boris toddler blimp was launched in Parliament Square at 10am, featuring salmon-pink skin, the politician’s trademark “faux-dishevelled hairstyle”, mismatched running gear and a Brexit-bus T-shirt, according to March for Change.
Continue reading...Exclusive: extra time could be used for renegotiation but will be billed as chance for no-deal planning
Brussels is preparing to offer Boris Johnson a no-deal Brexit extension beyond 31 October in an attempt to help him keep the Conservative party together and provide one more chance to strike an agreement deal.
The extra period of EU membership would be used for renegotiation but could be billed to Conservative Brexiters as an opportunity to prepare further for leaving without a deal.
Continue reading...Exclusive: newly elected EU chief suggests there could be emergency help for Ireland
The European commission’s new president has said a hard Brexit would have “massively negative consequences” for both Britain and the EU, and said Brussels could provide emergency help for nations such as Ireland that bear the brunt of such an outcome.
In her first interview since narrowly being approved for the post by the European parliament on Tuesday, Ursula von der Leyen said the withdrawal deal concluded between Theresa May and the commission’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michael Barnier, would remain the basis of any future talks.
Continue reading...Potential PM will not say whether he had police protection during weekend in Italy while foreign secretary
Boris Johnson is refusing to give details of a trip he made to Italy when he was foreign secretary for a weekend-long party held at a restored castle owned by the media billionaire and socialite Evgeny Lebedev.
The Guardian has learned that the likely next prime minister went to Palazzo Terranova in Perugia in April 2018 at the invitation of Lebedev, the owner of the London Evening Standard and the Independent who is renowned for hosting glamorous events for the world’s rich and famous.
Continue reading...Michel Barnier says the UK will ‘have to face the consequences’ of crashing out
Boris Johnson’s suggestion he could use the threat of no deal to win an improved Brexit deal for the UK risks falling on deaf ears in Brussels, the EU’s top negotiator has suggested.
Michel Barnier suggested, in an interview carried out in May for the BBC Panorama programme, that Theresa May’s negotiating team never tried to use the spectre of a no-deal Brexit despite calls from Tory hardliners to do so.
Continue reading...Report identifies Zimbabwe-style seizures as key concern in the event of a united Ireland
Some unionists in Northern Ireland fear Zimbabwe-style land seizures by Irish nationalists if the region joins a united Ireland, according to a report that lays bare anxieties about any Brexit-fuelled breakup of the UK.
Farmers and others with Protestant and unionist backgrounds worry that Catholic and nationalist neighbours would claim their land in a cultural, economic and political takeover by Dublin – “the mother of all fears”, the report found.
Continue reading...President Rodrigo Duterte’s violent crackdown has left 20,000 dead, and in a devout country, he has repeatedly hurled insults at bishops, the pope – and even God. But only a handful of Catholic activists are brave enough to speak out. By Adam Willis
One of the most famous victims – and a rare survivor – of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs is a 30-year-old pedicab driver named Francisco Santiago Jr. In September 2016, while cycling through central Manila, Santiago was abducted by a Philippine national police (PNP) officer posing as a passenger. Santiago’s name was not on the “kill list” of the PNP’s now-infamous drug-sting operation known as Oplan Tokhang, or “Operation Knock and Plead”, but he had become a target, nonetheless.
After he was taken to a police station and beaten for the better part of a day, Santiago was led back into the streets and shot multiple times, suffering wounds to his chest and arms. Thinking him dead, one officer approached Santiago and placed a pistol next to his hand. Santiago waited, barely breathing as blood pooled around him, until he heard the hurried sounds of journalists arriving at the scene. He sat up, pleading for his life and waving his blood-soaked arms in surrender. By the next morning, local newspapers had already assigned Santiago a new name: Lazarus.
Continue reading...The Home Office’s hostile handling of visiting African professionals doesn’t bode well for Global Britain
An African passport is the most egalitarian of documents, in that if you have one then class, employment status and professional invitations from the country you are visiting all count for nothing. From university professors to unskilled labourers, anyone holding a passport issued by a country in Africa will be treated the same by UK border officers. They will also show no compassion for or recognition of the need for people to be reunited with family or to see friends.
In fact it’s not too far-fetched to say an African passport is a no-travel document. Even countries within Africa are miserly with each other. I am a veteran visa applicant, and I can tell you there is no respite. A European visa is as prohibitively hard to secure as one to a neighbouring African country. My Sudanese passport meant that I had to become an Olympian visa-applier in order to visit, study and settle in the UK. You can’t slouch with a passport from a country on a terror watchlist.
Continue reading...Foreign leaders Boris Yeltsin and François Mitterrand also subjects of gossipy anecdotes, papers show
Confidential and sometimes unflattering appraisals of foreign leaders have been a staple of the diplomatic cable long before the leaking of the former US ambassador Kim Darroch’s emails.
Boris Yeltsin, Bill Clinton, François Mitterrand and the Saudi royal family were all subjects of candid pen portraits and gossipy anecdotes during John Major’s premiership.
Continue reading...No 10 frontrunner wrote ‘pro-European letter’ to Tory peer’s widow a year before campaigning for leave
Boris Johnson revealed his support for the European Union’s single market in “a pro-European” letter written the year before he decided to campaign for leave, it has emerged.
The likely prime minister’s pro-EU market sympathies were said to be revealed in a letter of condolence to the wife of the late Tory politician Sir Leon Brittan, who died in January 2015.
Continue reading...Twenty seven per cent rise to 1,187 deaths puts country on par with US in terms of per capita fatalities
Scotland’s drug-related death toll has increased by 27% over the past year to reach a record high of 1,187, putting the country on a par in terms of the fatality rate per capita with the United States, where synthetic opioids like fentanyl have devastated drug-using populations.
The death rate is now more than three times that of England and Wales, and has more than doubled since 2008, when there were 574 deaths.
Continue reading...Next PM will be told in ‘no uncertain terms’ that axing backstop amounts to no deal
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt’s Brexit plan to axe the Irish border backstop from the withdrawal agreement will be rejected outright by the European Union, EU sources have said.
Informed sources say that it is doomed to failure and if the next prime minister goes to Brussels with such a plan, he will be told in “no uncertain terms” that it amounts to a declaration of no deal.
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