Category Archives: Foreign policy

Hilary Mantel: I am ashamed to live in nation that elected this government

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Double Booker prize winner tells La Repubblica she may take Irish citizenship to feel European again

Hilary Mantel has said she feels “ashamed” by the UK government’s treatment of migrants and asylum seekers and is intending to become an Irish citizen to “become a European again”.

In a wide-ranging interview with La Repubblica, the twice Booker prize-winning novelist also gave her view on the monarchy, told how endometriosis has “devastated my life”, and how Boris Johnson “should not be in public life”. She also addresses the criticism of JK Rowling and her stance on transgender rights.

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Evacuations from Kabul may resume ‘in near future’, says Raab

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Foreign secretary says UK must engage with Taliban in Afghanistan after meeting with Qatari officials

Evacuations may be able to resume from Kabul airport “in the near future”, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said as he expressed a need for direct engagement with the Taliban.

Speaking after talks in Qatar on Thursday, Raab raised hopes that the Britons and Afghans left behind may be able to leave on flights from Afghanistan’s capital.

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Brexit: food and drink exports to EU suffer ‘disastrous’ decline

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First-half sales fall £2bn, says industry body, as barriers are compounded by staff shortages

Exports of food and drink to the EU have suffered a “disastrous” decline in the first half of the year because of Brexit trade barriers, with sales of beef and cheese hit hardest.

Food and Drink Federation (FDF) producers lost £2bn in sales, a dent in revenue that could not be compensated for by the increased sales in the same period to non-EU countries including China and Australia.

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UK has little option but to talk with the Taliban

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Analysis: Insurgents’ cooperation is needed for evacuations, but PM could face criticism for engaging with them

Boris Johnson’s decision to dispatch a senior spy chief to talk directly to the Taliban in Qatar reflects an uncomfortable but necessary reality: the UK has little option but to engage with the insurgent group now in control of Afghanistan.

Thousands of Afghans eligible for resettlement in the UK are believed to remain trapped in the country – UK ministers refuse to say how many – and hundreds of British nationals. With western troops withdrawn, it is only with Taliban cooperation that people will be able to leave safely and smoothly.

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Thousands of British students in limbo with post-Brexit visa chaos

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Students delay studying abroad and some even switch continents because of visa delays

Thousands of British students have been hit by post-Brexit visa hurdles, leaving many struggling to complete their language courses or take up internships in the EU.

While some have delayed studying abroad or even switched continents because of visa delays, hundreds of undergraduates taking modern foreign language courses may miss out on a vital part of their degree.

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Banned BBC journalist says Russia ‘moving in reverse’ in final report

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Moscow correspondent Sarah Rainsford told by officials that her visa would not be renewed

The BBC’s Moscow correspondent has used her final dispatch before her expulsion from Russia by the Kremlin to warn that the country was “moving in reverse” when it came to free speech and press freedoms.

Sarah Rainsford recorded the moments after she was pulled aside by authorities at the airport on a return trip to Moscow and informed that Russia’s FSB security service had banned her for life from the country.

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Racism doesn’t just exist within aid. It’s the structure the sector is built on | Themrise Khan

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To disrupt colonial power inequalities, the global south needs to take more control

There have been many studies published recently on the prevalence of racism in the international aid sector.

They have ranged from definitions of racial equity within global development, to the experiences of black, indigenous and other people of colour working in the sector, to the British government’s delayed sub-inquiry into racism as part of a larger inquiry into the culture and philosophy of UK aid.

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West may benefit from pragmatic approach after defeat to Taliban

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Analysis: forging an acceptable agreement with new Afghan regime will require careful diplomacy

The history of war is littered with losing parties struggling to accept the terms or even the fact of their defeat. At the end of the first world war, Germany’s then chancellor Philipp Scheidemann announced: “May the hand wither that binds us in such shackles.”

Some of the demands by the US and its allies on how the Taliban must behave now contain similar self-denial. It is as if the US remains in control of Kabul, as orders are issued on future Taliban actions ranging from the release of refugees to the future makeup of the government, its counter-terrorism policies and the place of women in society.

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Couple divided by Irish border because of post-Brexit rules

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Corrinne and Brett Giles live in Donegal and Derry counties due to ‘borderline unconstitutional’ application of immigration rule

A South African doctor and her British husband are living on either side of the Irish border because of what one MP called a “borderline unconstitutional” application of post-Brexit immigration rules.

Corrinne and Brett Giles live 25 miles apart in Donegal and Derry counties respectively, with Corrinne in a “constant state of anxiety” waiting for a family permit to join her husband in the UK.

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UK has not forgotten those who still need to leave Afghanistan, says ambassador – video

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The British ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, said it was 'time to close this phase' of the evacuation effort, after the final UK flight for Afghan nationals left Kabul airport. About 14,000 people have been airlifted out of the country by British forces in less than two weeks

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Minister urges firms to invest in UK-based workers in HGV driver shortage

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Business secretary reported as saying foreign labour only offers ‘temporary solution’ as companies face supply chain crisis

Employers have been told to invest in UK-based workers rather than relying on labour from abroad as supermarkets and suppliers struggle to contend with a chronic shortage of lorry drivers caused by the exodus of hauliers from EU countries because of Brexit and Covid.

The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, wrote to business leaders on Friday saying foreign labour only offered “a short-term, temporary solution” after industry groups, Logistics UK and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) called on the department to provide temporary UK visas to EU truck drivers. They said the lack of drivers was “increasingly putting unsustainable pressure on retailers and their supply chains”.

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Final UK evacuation flight purely for Afghan nationals has left Kabul airport

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Chaotic airlift ends after taking around 14,000 people out of Taliban-controlled country

The final UK evacuation flight purely for Afghan nationals has left Kabul airport, ending an often chaotic process in which about 14,000 people were airlifted out of Afghanistan by British forces in less than two weeks, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

Any further flights to leave Kabul under the UK’s evacuation operation will also have UK diplomatic and military personnel onboard. It is thought any further flights would be able to transport those still needing evacuation, but would now also include personnel travelling back to the UK.

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Fleeing Afghans should try to get to border, says UK defence secretary

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Ben Wallace signals few places remain on UK rescue flights as fears of attack grow and deadline looms

Afghans who want to flee to Britain may be better off “trying to get to the border” than awaiting RAF evacuation, the defence secretary has said as British troops made last-ditch attempts to airlift at least 1,500 remaining interpreters and others who have supported the UK.

Ben Wallace, in a briefing to MPs, signalled there were few places left on British rescue flights, which have evacuated more than 10,000 people from Kabul since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan less than two weeks ago.

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Biden pours salt into wounds of relations with Europe at G7 meeting

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Analysis: US president dashes hopes he might acknowledge damage done by handling of Afghan withdrawal

In the end it took only seven minutes for Joe Biden to pour salt into the wounds of his fractured relationship with European leaders, telling them firmly on a video call that he would not extend the 31 August deadline for US troops to stay in Kabul, as he had been asked by the French, Italians and most of all the British. The rebuff follows Biden’s earlier decision in July to insist on the August deadline previously set in 2020 by Donald Trump for the withdrawal, a decision the US president relayed to his EU colleagues as a fait accompli.

For Europe the episode has been a rude awakening, and a moment of sober reassessment. Only on 25 March Charles Michel had afforded Biden the chance to address a meeting of the European Council, the first foreign leader given the honour since Barack Obama 11 years earlier. Biden after all had said his foreign policy would only be as strong as his system of alliances, the true shield of the republic, and Europe would be at the heart of that system.

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Ministers accused of failing to secure rights of Britons with foreign spouses in EU

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Campaigners say Britons are facing problems with Home Office over rights to return to UK

Ministers have been accused of breaching their promise to secure the post-Brexit rights of thousands of British nationals who settled in the EU and married foreigners.

Campaigners at British in Europe (BiE) have written to the Foreign Office minister Wendy Morton and the immigration minister Kevin Foster telling of the “heartbreak” and “distress” endured by British citizens who are facing problems with the Home Office over their rights to return home to the UK.

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Labour says PPE contracts must not go to Xinjiang firms that use forced workers

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Exclusive: Emily Thornberry appeals to Sajid Javid to tackle issue of forced labour in Chinese province

Labour has written to the health secretary, Sajid Javid, urging him to ensure a new £5bn contract for NHS protective equipment including gowns and masks is not awarded to companies implicated in forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region.

Following up earlier concerns about medical gloves for the NHS being produced in Malaysia, where there have been consistent reports of forced labour in factories, Emily Thornberry called for an urgent response.

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UK imposes sanctions on seven Russians over Navalny poisoning

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FCDO says the individuals, said to be FSB members, will be subject to travel bans and asset freezes

Sanctions have been imposed on seven Russian nationals accused of involvement in the nerve agent poisoning of the key Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the UK government has said.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) announced that the individuals, said to be members of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), would be subject to travel bans and asset freezes.

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Africa’s park tourism crash is a wake-up call. Can we find new ways to finance conservation? | Peter Muiruri

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As Covid continues to curb visits to see our iconic wildlife, now is the time to move away from western-led funding models

That African governments have failed to mobilise funds to conserve their vast protected areas is not in doubt. Countries were just about managing to pay basic salaries to rangers who barely had enough to put fuel in their patrol vehicles. Covid has exacerbated this already dire situation, with the loss of income from foreign tourism.

The continent has more than 8,500 protected areas, described by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as government-led national parks, areas jointly governed by state agencies, communities, privately owned wildlife reserves, and public-private partnerships between governments, companies and NGOs. Included too, are what the IUCN calls “indigenous peoples and communities conserved territories and areas”.

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‘A perfect storm’: UK beet growers fear Brexit threatens their future

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They produce half the country’s sugar needs, but expect new trade deals to make their tough situation worse

In a field in Norfolk, the sight of lush green leaves sprouting from the soil are giving farmer Ed Lankfer cause for optimism. “I think this is one of the best crops we have ever grown,” he says, surveying one of his fields of sugar beet.

The signs are promising so far for this year’s harvest – known in the trade as a campaign – which takes place later than for other crops, during the autumn and winter. It would mark quite the turnaround from 2020’s terrible harvest, when bad weather and pests caused yields of the white sugar-yielding root to plummet by as much as 60%, leaving Lankfer with a £12,000 loss.

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Boris Johnson struggles to justify Afghanistan stance to hostile MPs

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Analysis: PM fails to make convincing defence of foreign policy amid criticism from across the Commons

Other leaders have had the luxury of being able to deliver an uninterrupted televised address. But Boris Johnson had to justify the ignominious retreat from Afghanistan in front of a testy, and at times hostile, House of Commons – dominated by critics from his own side asking if Britain could have been better prepared and if the collapse of the Kabul government could have been averted.

It was an occasion the UK prime minister struggled to rise to, not helped by the format that Downing Street had opted for: a general debate, which meant MPs were allowed to rise and seek to intervene as Johnson spoke, generating a crescendo of background noise after he had completed a line or two.

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