Emily Thornberry calls for UK to join France, as Emmanuel Macron says June UN conference must be decisive moment
The Foreign Office is under pressure from Labour MPs to recognise a Palestinian state if Emmanuel Macron, the French president, presses ahead with plans to recognise Palestine at an international conference set for June.
France is co-chairing the conference at the UN in New York alongside Saudi Arabia, and Macron has said the conference must be a decisive moment.
Continue reading...Daughter of Peter and Barbie Reynolds, 79 and 75, says they have ‘no idea’ why they have been in jail for two months
An elderly British couple taken captive by the Taliban have been interrogated 29 times since they were imprisoned more than two months ago, and still have “absolutely no idea” why they have been incarcerated, their daughter has said.
No charges have been brought against Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife, Barbie, 75, who ran school training programmes and were arrested alongside an American friend, Faye Hall, as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, in central Afghanistan, in February.
Continue reading...Brother of Jagtar Singh Johal claims he is being ‘mentally tortured’ through unwarranted detention
The British Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal, detained for seven years in an Indian jail, has been placed into solitary confinement and under 24-hour surveillance despite being acquitted of all terrorism charges against him by a Punjab court on 4 March, his family have claimed.
Johal is still facing the exact same charges in a parallel case in a clear example of double jeopardy, his brother Gurpreet said when giving testimony at Westminster to an all party committee on arbitrary detention. He said the Indian courts have not granted his brother bail, despite the prosecutor’s failure to produce any credible evidence or witnesses in the Punjab court.
Gurpreet said UK consular staff met his brother in jail on Tuesday and were told he had been put into solitary confinement with a 24-hour guard, adding no explanation had been given.
Continue reading...No 10 says deal to cede UK’s last African colony now being finalised after months of doubt
Donald Trump has signed off the UK’s handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, Downing Street has indicated, paving the way for the UK to cede sovereignty over its last African colony after a six-month standoff.
Under the terms of the deal, the UK will give up control of the Chagos archipelago while paying to maintain control of a joint US-UK military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia, under a 99-year lease.
Continue reading...Alexandra Clarke, 26, was on a diving excursion near Koh Tao when blaze broke out
A British tourist is missing in Thailand after the tour boat she was travelling on caught fire off the island of Koh Tao.
Alexandra Clarke, 26, from Lambeth, south London, was onboard the Davy Jones Locker for a diving excursion.
Continue reading...Mahmoud Khalil described by former colleague at UK office for Syria as well liked and extensively vetted
A detained Columbia University graduate threatened with deportation after the Trump administration claimed he poses a risk to US foreign policy is a former employee of the British government who was extensively vetted before working at the embassy in Beirut.
Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate from a Columbia University master’s programme, was arrested at home on 9 March as he returned with his wife from a dinner to break their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Hundreds of thousands of world’s poorest children could die if aid programme slashed, experts warn
Hundreds of thousands of children in the world’s poorest countries will die if the UK cuts back funding for a hugely effective vaccination programme as part of its significant reduction in overseas aid, the Guardian has been told.
According to data collated by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi), to which the UK has previously been one of the main contributors, even a small cut in UK funding would be expected to result in millions fewer vaccinations, leading to huge numbers of preventable deaths.
Continue reading...Daughter of Peter and Barbie Reynolds says government must do ‘everything in their power’ to secure their release
The family of a British couple arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan have called on the government to do “everything in their power” to secure their release.
Peter and Barbie Reynolds, 79 and 75, who run education and training programmes in Afghanistan, were detained by the Taliban on 1 February while returning to their home in the central province of Bamiyan.
Continue reading...Civil servant Josie Stewart found to have been unlawfully dismissed in 2022 after she told BBC about failures
A civil servant who blew the whistle about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and Boris Johnson’s involvement in a decision to evacuate a pet charity from Kabul has won her case for unfair dismissal against the government in a legal first.
An employment panel of three judges unanimously found the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) unfairly dismissed Josie Stewart in 2021 after she leaked information in the public interest.
Continue reading...Ex-Foreign Office official says he saw conduct that ‘crossed the threshold into complicity with war crimes’
Britain’s system for controlling arms exports is broken, subject to political manipulation and has seen conduct that crossed the threshold into complicity with war crimes, a former UK diplomat has claimed.
Writing for the Guardian, Mark Smith, who resigned from the Foreign Office in August, said officials were instructed to manipulate findings on the misuse of UK arms by allies, and if they did not do so, their reports were edited by senior colleagues to give the impression that the UK was in compliance with the law.
Continue reading...Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s family reveal letters showing his despair after initial hopes David Lammy could get him freed from Cairo jail
Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the British-Egyptian political dissident held in a Cairo jail for more than five years, has reached such a state of despair over the UK’s inability to secure his release that he has contemplated renouncing both his British and Egyptian citizenship, his letters reveal.
His family have given permission for some of his private letters to be published to show his situation and his concern for his 68-year-old mother, Laila Soueif, on hunger strike seeking his release.
Continue reading...Marcus Fakana from north London was convicted of having sex with British girl, now 18, when they were on holiday
Protesters have marched through central London calling for the release of a teenager in prison in Dubai for having sex with a 17-year-old British girl.
Marcus Fakana, from Tottenham in north London, was jailed last month after being convicted of having sex with the girl, who has now turned 18, when they were on holiday in September.
Continue reading...Biographer says government departments give contradictory refusals to requests and accuses them of ‘cover up’
Researchers have called for greater transparency from the Foreign Office over the files it holds on the Duke of York. Officials responding to freedom of information requests have given a variety of reasons why the files cannot be released.
Andrew Lownie, an author who is researching a biography of Prince Andrew, was told that the files could not be made public until 2065, and implied there was a general rule that papers relating to members of the royal family must remain closed until 105 years after their birth.
Continue reading...Exclusive: letter reveals dates for visit that was planned by Tsai Ing-wen before Foreign Office intervened
Taiwan’s former president Tsai Ing-wen had been due to visit the UK between 16 and 18 October before the Foreign Office intervened, the Guardian can disclose.
Tsai was scheduled to visit London for two days as part of her first international tour since leaving office and was in discussions about addressing the UK parliament, according to a leaked letter.
Continue reading...Former Tory defence minister says leadership of Sunak era is lacking and bureaucracy is holding up equipment
Momentum on Ukraine has “dropped back” since Labour took office, according to the ex-Tory defence minister and former army officer Sir Ben Wallace.
Responding to recent comments by Kyiv officials that Ukraine’s relationship with the UK has “got worse” since Keir Starmer was elected prime minister, Wallace said that was because “the leadership that Britain showed right from the start has started to drop back into the pack”.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary discussed China’s treatment of Uyghurs and support of Russia as well as ‘areas of cooperation’
David Lammy pressed his Chinese counterpart on human rights concerns and China’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during talks in Beijing, the Foreign Office has said.
The foreign secretary had been under pressure to take a tough line on a range of human rights issues with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, when the pair met on Friday during Lammy’s first visit to China since taking office.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Party drops plan for formal recognition laid out last year by David Lammy, who will visit Beijing on Friday
Labour has backtracked on plans to push for formal recognition of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide in the run-up to David Lammy’s trip to the country this weekend.
The foreign secretary is expected to arrive in Beijing on Friday for high-level meetings before travelling to Shanghai on Saturday.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary and PM call on nationals and their dependants to evacuate on Sunday’s flight, the last one scheduled for now
A new flight has been chartered by the UK government for British nationals to leave Lebanon on Sunday, amid the growing conflict in the region.
More than 250 UK citizens have left Lebanon on government-chartered flights amid the conflict, the Foreign Office said. The UK chartered a fourth flight to leave Beirut-Rafic Hariri airport in Beirut on Sunday.
Continue reading...Officials believe victims were swept away in flash flood amid heavy storms, after body of British woman was also found on island on Wednesday
Police searching for a British man believed to have been swept away by heavy flooding in Mallorca have found a body.
It comes after the body of a British woman was found on the Spanish tourist island on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Department twice provided written advice to No 10 before mistake that came to define Sunak’s election campaign
Senior officials at the Foreign Office repeatedly warned No 10 that Rishi Sunak should not leave June’s D-day commemoration in Normandy early, according to new revelations in a book about the Tories’ 14 years in power.
The department passed on two messages to Downing Street in the weeks leading up to the event, which were then ignored in what has gone down as the worst election campaign blunder of the last 14 years.
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