Category Archives: Foreign policy

Hezbollah and Iran condemn US and UK strikes against Houthis

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Tehran-backed Lebanese group says ‘aggression confirms that US is a full partner’ in Israel’s actions in Gaza

The Iran-backed Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah has condemned the US and UK’s overnight strikes against Yemen’s Houthis, as countries across the Middle East express fears over the latest escalation of the conflict in the region.

Although anxiety was widespread, most vocal were countries and militant groups backed by Tehran, which accused the US and the UK of destabilising the region.

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Rishi Sunak visits Kyiv after announcing rise in UK military aid to Ukraine to £2.5bn

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Friday’s trip comes as PM stresses Britain’s continued backing for Kyiv before meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy

The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is visiting Ukraine on Friday to meet his counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as the UK announced it would provide further military aid to the country over the coming year.

The UK has been one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters since Russia’s invasion and Sunak said Britain would boost its support in the next financial year to £2.5bn, an increase of £200m on the previous two years.

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UK accused of hypocrisy in not backing claim of genocide in Gaza before ICJ

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Experts say submission to international court of justice on Myanmar six weeks ago makes stance ‘wholly disingenuous’

The UK is facing accusations of double standards after formally submitting detailed legal arguments to the international court of justice in The Hague six weeks ago to support claims that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya ethnic group through its mass mistreatment of children and systematically depriving people of their homes and food.

The UK made its 21-page “declaration of intervention” jointly with five other countries, but it is not supporting South Africa as it prepares to try to convince the ICJ on Thursday that Israel is at risk of committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

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Spanish woman removed from UK after returning from Christmas holiday

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Woman was detained overnight and removed despite presenting Home Office documents showing her right to work and live in UK

A 34-year-old Spanish woman was forcibly removed from the UK after returning from a Christmas holiday near Málaga despite presenting Brexit paperwork to border officials showing she has a right to live and work in the country.

She was flown back to Spain after being detained overnight in Luton airport on 26 December and told she was “wasting her time” if she thought the Home Office documentation she had showing her right to live in the UK was valid.

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Key Covid inquiry report creates election date headache for PM

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Heather Hallett’s first findings are to be published before the summer and will show how austerity and Brexit hit pandemic planning

An explosive report spelling out how the Conservative government failed to prepare the country for the Covid-19 pandemic as it obsessed about Brexit is to be released before the likely date of the next general election, the Observer has been told.

In a move that will cause alarm in Downing Street, Heather Hallett’s independent Covid-19 inquiry will issue a detailed interim report “before the summer” on the first batch of public hearings held last June and July, which revealed a catalogue of errors, including the lack of PPE and failures to act on recommendations of previous pandemic planning exercises.

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Students find Erasmus replacement scheme inadequate, analysis finds

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Some UK applicants forced to quit Turing scheme when places not confirmed or they failed to receive funds in time

Students taking part in the government’s post-Brexit replacement for the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange scheme were forced to drop out because places were confirmed too late, while others failed to receive funding until after their return, according to analysis.

The first official analysis of the Turing scheme, which was announced by the then prime minister Boris Johnson and launched in 2021, found that four out of five universities (79%) had difficulties with the application process, which was overly complex, repetitive and “tedious”.

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UK has failed to act to free Alaa Abd el-Fattah from jail in Egypt, family says

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Rishi Sunak told activist’s sister in 2022 that government was ‘totally committed’ to resolving the case

The family of the imprisoned British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah have said the British government has failed to act to free him, a year after the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, told his sister the government was “totally committed to resolving your brother’s case”.

A figurehead in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, which overthrew Hosni Mubarak as president, Abd el-Fattah spent most of the past decade behind bars for his activism. He was rearrested in 2019 following a brief period out of prison but under police surveillance, and was sentenced in December 2021 to a further five years in detention for spreading “false news undermining national security”, after resharing a social media post about torture.

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Brexit has completely failed for UK, say clear majority of Britons – poll

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Only one in 10 feel leaving the EU has helped their finances, while just 9% say it has benefited the NHS, despite £350m a week pledge according to new poll

A clear majority of the British public now believes Brexit has been bad for the UK economy, has driven up prices in shops, and has hampered government attempts to control immigration, according to a poll by Opinium to mark the third anniversary of the UK leaving the EU single market and customs union.

The survey of more than 2,000 UK voters also finds strikingly low numbers of people who believe that Brexit has benefited them or the country.

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Why are ties between Russia and Israel ‘at lowest point since fall of the Soviet Union’?

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Russia’s pro-Palestinian stance has inflamed tensions and underscored shift in relations since invasion of Ukraine

When Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone this month to Benjamin Netanyahu, their first conversation in weeks, the two leaders found themselves in an unusual dynamic, engaging not as partners but against the backdrop of historic tensions.

Once touting their friendly relationship – Netanyahu has used billboards showing himself next to Putin during election campaigning in Israel, even last year – the events of 7 October and Russia’s pro-Palestinian stance in the aftermath have brought a decisive schism in their ties.

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Venezuela mounts military exercises as UK sends warship to support Guyana

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Nicolás Maduro orders ‘defensive’ manoeuvres as British Navy deploys vessel in territorial dispute

Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro has ordered more than 5,600 military personnel to participate in “defensive” exercises, after the UK deployed a warship to waters off the coast of Guyana in a show of support for the former British colony.

Maduro said he was launching an action “of a defensive nature in response to the provocation and threat of the UK against peace and the sovereignty of our country”.

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Pint of wine anyone? UK looks to bring back ‘silly measure’

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Winemakers question plan as government champions Brexit ‘freedom’ to allow old-fashioned size

The poet Robert Burns imagined a man toasting his lover with a “pint o’ wine”, and Winston Churchill was perhaps the most famous proponent of the pint bottle for champagne. Now, Rishi Sunak’s government has spied a “Brexit opportunity” to legalise the sale of wine by the pint once more – if it can persuade anyone to make the bottles.

Still and sparkling wine will be sold in 200ml, 500ml and 568ml (pint) sizes in 2024, alongside existing measures, under new rules, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) announced on Wednesday. It said the change was made possible by Brexit.

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Italian woman facing removal from UK despite ‘permanent residency’ card

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Silvana one of potentially thousands who were unaware of need to apply for post-Brexit EU settlement scheme

An Italian environmental technology investor who has lived in the UK for 14 years has discovered she could be removed despite getting a “permanent residency” card after Brexit.

She is one of potentially tens of thousands of EU citizens who were unaware the Home Office changed the rules in 2019 requiring them to apply for a different scheme, called EU settlement.

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Hard cheese: Canada rejects British attempt to secure tariff-free exports

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Many UK cheese makers could face 245% duty from 1 January, making exporting unaffordable

A priceless opportunity to sell “more affordable high-quality cheese to Canada” was one of those many Brexit boons that Boris Johnson championed with his customary blather as prime minister.

A bespoke UK-Canada trade deal was going to open up the Canadian market to cheddar, stilton and wensleydale in a way that had never been possible under a trading agreement struck between the EU and Canada.

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Canada intelligence operation put diplomats in legal ‘grey zone’ – report

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Program – under scrutiny after imprisonment of Canadians in China – said to lack safeguards to protect officers overseas

A controversial intelligence-gathering program run by Canada’s foreign affairs ministry operates in a “distinctly grey zone”, puts its officers at risk and breaches global diplomatic conventions, says a damning watchdog report.

Canada’s global security reporting program (GSRP), a critical part of the foreign ministry’s security and intelligence footprint overseas, places officers in countries with “poor human rights records” including Ethiopia, India, Egypt, Turkey, Israel and China.

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No 10 drops proposal for end-of-year Sunak speech on immigration

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Idea quietly shelved after Tory splits over Rwanda bill, as Home Office is accused of ‘fiddling’ asylum claim data

No 10 has dropped a proposal for an end-of-year immigration update from Rishi Sunak amid concern that key policies that are meant to “stop the boats” are running into trouble.

The prime minister had been expected to make a statement in December outlining progress on the Rwanda deportation scheme and plans to house asylum seekers in ships such as the Bibby Stockholm and in former barracks, Whitehall sources said.

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DUP talks about post-Brexit trading have ended, Northern Ireland secretary says

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Chris Heaton-Harris says it is time to restore devolved government, in comments that appeared to surprise DUP leader

Talks with the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) over post-Brexit trading arrangements have ended and it is time to restore devolved government in Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland secretary has said.

The announcement by Chris Heaton-Harris on Tuesday appeared to surprise and discomfit the DUP leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who said the party still had concerns and that talks would continue.

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MPs clash in Commons as government urged to back instant Gaza ceasefire

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Lib Dem MP Layla Moran describes desperate plight of relatives in Gaza after she was granted urgent question on situation

The Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has made an impassioned plea in the House of Commons for the government to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as she told of the desperate plight of relatives who had taken refuge in a church there.

Those inside the Holy Family parish in Gaza City were down to their last can of corn, she told the development minister, Andrew Mitchell, who will meet her on Wednesday. Two women were allegedly killed by an Israeli military sniper in the church on Saturday.

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David Cameron calls on Hong Kong to release Jimmy Lai

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Foreign secretary’s plea made as publisher faces trial under national security law imposed by China


The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has called for the release of the British citizen Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy newspaper publisher facing a “politically motivated prosecution” in a high-profile trial in Hong Kong.

In a significant intervention, the former prime minister condemned the charges against Lai, 76, who faces a possible life sentence if convicted under a national security law that China imposed after the 2019 pro-democracy protests.

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Two-state solution would mean relocating 200,000 settlers, says Israeli lawyer who has David Cameron’s ear

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Lawyer who has advised foreign secretary says Israel has the capacity, but not the will, to relocate even one settler

Nearly 200,000 of the 700,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank would have to be relocated to Israel to create a viable Palestinian state, according to an Israeli lawyer from whom the UK foreign secretary, Lord Cameron, has sought advice on his visits to Israel.

Cameron has said he realises reaching a two-state solution would be tough, but he has not spelled out the practical consequences in terms of borders, including the need to persuade so many Israelis to relocate.

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Why the outcome of the Rwanda bill matters for Sunak – and the Conservatives

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Defeat for flagship immigration plan in the Commons would present serious legal and political problems for the PM

A revolt by 29 Conservative MPs could be enough to defeat the government’s Rwanda bill at its first Commons hurdle – something that has not happened to a piece of government legislation since 1986.

The legislation was designed to overcome concerns raised by the supreme court, which ruled last month that the previous policy for deporting people to Rwanda violated domestic and international law.

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