UK Labour MPs ‘scared’ to challenge Starmer on Gaza, Lebanon
UK Labour MPs ‘scared’ to challenge Starmer on Gaza, Lebanon/node/2573770/world
UK Labour MPs ‘scared’ to challenge Starmer on Gaza, Lebanon
MP Zarah Sultana, who was suspended by the party earlier this year, told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program: “Many (disagree with Starmer) because we’re seeing (the) deaths of 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza. (AFP)
UK Labour MPs ‘scared’ to challenge Starmer on Gaza, Lebanon
MP Zarah Sultana tells BBC ex-colleagues who disagree with PM risk losing their jobs
Labour leader has drawn criticism over failure to do more against Israel
Updated 03 October 2024
Arab News
LONDON: A former Labour MP has said colleagues are “scared for their jobs” over disagreeing with the party’s leader, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, on Israel’s war in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon.
Starmer has called for immediate ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon, saying at the UN General Assembly last week that “escalation serves no one.”
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy also announced a review into arms export licenses to Israel in July, amid fears that items sold to the country could be used to commit war crimes in Gaza. Thirty licenses were suspended in September.
However, Starmer has found himself at odds with many in his party, with some believing that he has not done enough to facilitate an end to the fighting in the Middle East, or that he has been slow to act. Currently, 320 arms exports licenses from the UK to Israel remain valid.
MP Zarah Sultana, who was suspended by the party earlier this year, told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program: “Many (disagree with Starmer) because we’re seeing (the) deaths of 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza. We’re seeing death in Lebanon, and we know the UK government could take a different route where it prioritized lives, treated them all equally and ended all arms sales.
“I think it’s deeply concerning that people aren’t willing to be public about that because they’re scared for their jobs.”
One of the program’s hosts, Nick Robinson, told listeners that he had contacted six Labour MPs to ask them to comment on Sultana’s claims, but said: “None would come on the program as they said, and I quote one of the MPs we contacted, ‘it would cost us our jobs.’”
Sultana was one of seven Labour MPs suspended by the party in July after voting for a Scottish National Party motion to amend the King’s Speech, which is the UK government’s policy platform for the coming year. She currently sits as an independent MP in the House of Commons.
Philippines, US launch joint combat drills in ‘full battle test’
The Philippines will test its own modern missiles in live-fire exercises with American counterparts
About 9,000 US soldiers and 5,000 Filipino troops are participating this year, officials say
Updated 5 sec ago
Reuters
MANILA: More than 14,000 Filipino and American soldiers kicked off annual military exercises on Monday for a “full battle test” between the two defense treaty allies in the face of regional security concerns, including tensions in the South China Sea. The annual “Balikatan” (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises will run for three weeks until May 9, showcasing an array of US weapons that include the NMESIS anti-ship missile system and HIMARS rocket launchers. The Philippines will test its own modern missiles in live-fire exercises with American counterparts, according to a summary shared with media. Lt. Gen. James Glynn, the exercise director for the US side, described this year’s drills as “full battle tests” where capabilities of both forces will be measured in multiple scenarios. Exercises include defending against missile threats, preventing invasions at sea, and sinking a decommissioned Philippine navy vessel in a maritime strike test. “The full battle tests is intended to take into consideration all of the regional security challenges that we face today, beginning in the South China Sea,” Glynn told a media briefing. About 9,000 US soldiers and 5,000 Filipino troops are participating this year, officials said. Small contingents from Australia, Japan, Britain, France and Canada are also participating and 16 other countries have signed up as observers. The exercises come as regional tensions simmer in Asia over China’s activities in the South China Sea and around Taiwan, which neighbors the Philippines. Major General Francisco Lorenzo, the exercises director for the Philippines, said the drills were not directed at any country, but could act as deterrent against conflict. “The Balikatan exercise may probably help deter the conflict in Taiwan. But for our concern, it is only for deterrence of any possible coercion or invasion to our country,” Lorenzo said. Tensions between China and the Philippines have escalated the past two years over run-ins between their coast guards in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims sovereignty over almost in its entirety.
Russia launches missiles, drones as Putin’s Easter ceasefire ends, Ukraine says
Both Kyiv and Moscow had accused each other of thousands of attacks that violated the Easter truce
Updated 50 min 58 sec ago
Reuters
Russia launched missiles and drones targeting Ukraine early on Monday, waking up Kyiv and the eastern half of the country, hours after the one-day Easter ceasefire declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin came to an end.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damages from the attacks, regional Ukrainian officials said on social media. The scale of the attack was not immediately clear.
Both Kyiv and Moscow had accused each other of thousands of attacks that violated the truce that the Kremlin indicated on Sunday would not be extended.
Washington said it would welcome an extension of the truce, and President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated several times Ukraine’s willingness to pause strikes for 30 days in the war.
But Putin, who launched Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and who ordered on Saturday the halt in all military activity along the front line until midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT) on Sunday, did not give orders to extend it.
“There were no other commands,” Russia’s TASS state news agency cited Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying when asked whether the ceasefire could be prolonged.
While eastern Ukraine was placed under air raid alerts starting minutes after midnight on Monday that are yet to be called off, according to data from the Ukrainian air force, Kyiv and the central regions were placed on alert for about an hour, starting at 0140 GMT.
There were no reports of strikes on the Ukrainian capital, but officials in the port city of Mykolaiv said that it had been hit by Russian missiles. There were no immediate reports of damages.
Russia’s Voronezh region that borders Ukraine was also under air raid alerts for two hours overnight, and the borders regions of Kursk and parts of Belgorod were briefly under missile threat as well, regional officials said.
While there were no air raid alerts in Ukraine on Sunday, Ukrainian forces reported nearly 3,000 violations of Russia’s own ceasefire with the heaviest attacks and shelling seen along the Pokrovsk part of the frontline, Zelensky said earlier on Monday.
Russia’s defense ministry said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times and said it had counted more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, saying also that there were deaths and injuries among the civilian population.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
US President Donald Trump, hoping to clinch a lasting peace deal, struck an optimistic note Sunday, saying that “hopefully” the two sides would make a deal “this week” to end the conflict.
On Friday, Trump and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said the US would walk away from peace efforts unless there are clear signs of progress soon.
US Vice President JD Vance’s visit comes two months after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with US President Donald Trump at the White House
Updated 21 April 2025
AFP
NEW DELHI: US Vice President JD Vance began a four-day visit to India on Monday as New Delhi looks to seal an early trade deal and stave off punishing US tariffs.
Vance’s visit comes two months after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
A red carpet welcome with an honor guard and troupes of folk dancers greeted Vance after he stepped out into the sweltering sunshine of New Delhi, where he is set to meet with Modi.
Vance’s tour also includes a trip to Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, the white marble mausoleum commissioned by a Mughal emperor.
The US vice president is accompanied by his family, including his wife Usha, who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, with New Delhi’s broadcasters dubbing the visit “semi-private.”
Modi, 74, and Vance, 40, are expected to “review the progress in bilateral relations” and also “exchange views on regional and global developments of mutual interest,” India’s foreign ministry said last week.
India and the United States are negotiating the first tranche of a trade deal, which New Delhi hopes to secure within the 90-day pause on tariffs announced by Trump earlier this month.
“We are very positive that the visit will give a further boost to our bilateral ties,” India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters last week.
Vance was welcomed at the airport by Ashwini Vaishnaw, a senior member of Modi’s government.
Vance’s visit comes during an escalating trade war between the United States and China. India’s neighbor and rival faces US levies of up to 145 percent on many products.
Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods.
India has so far reacted cautiously.
After the tariffs were announced, India’s Department of Commerce said it was “carefully examining the implications,” adding it was “also studying the opportunities that may arise.”
Modi, who visited the White House in February, has an acknowledged rapport with Trump, who said he shares a “special bond” with the Indian leader.
Trump, speaking while unveiling the tariffs, said Modi was a “great friend” but that he had not been “treating us right.”
During his visit to Washington, Modi said that the world’s largest and fifth-largest economies would work on a “mutually beneficial trade agreement.”
While the United States is a crucial market for India’s information technology and services sectors, Washington has made billions of dollars in new military hardware sales to New Delhi in recent years.
Trump could visit India later this year for a summit of heads of state from the Quad – a four-way grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the United States.
Second Boeing jet starts return from China as trade war with US escalates
Confusion over changing tariffs could leave many aircraft deliveries in limbo, with some airline CEOs saying they would defer delivery of planes rather than pay duties, analysts say
Updated 21 April 2025
Reuters
SEOUL, South Korea: A second Boeing jet intended for use by a Chinese airline was heading back to the US on Monday, flight tracking data showed, in what appears to be another victim of the tit-for-tat bilateral tariffs launched by President Donald Trump in his global trade offensive.
The 737 MAX took off from Boeing’s Zhoushan completion center near Shanghai on Monday morning and was heading toward the US territory of Guam, data from flight tracking website AirNav Radar showed.
Guam is one of the stops such flights make on the 5,000-mile (8,000-km) journey across the Pacific between Boeing’s US production hub in Seattle and the Zhoushan completion center, where planes are ferried by Boeing for final work and delivery to a Chinese carrier.
On Sunday a 737 MAX painted with the livery for China’s Xiamen Airlines made the return journey from Zhoushan and landed at Seattle’s Boeing Field.
It is not clear which party made the decision for the two aircraft to return to the US.
Trump this month raised baseline tariffs on Chinese imports to 145 percent. In retaliation, China has imposed a 125 percent tariff on US goods. A Chinese airline taking delivery of a Boeing jet could be crippled by the tariffs, given that a new 737 MAX has a market value of around $55 million, according to IBA, an aviation consultancy.
The plane flew from Seattle to Zhoushan just under a month ago.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The return of the 737 MAX jets, Boeing’s best-selling model, is the latest sign of disruption to new aircraft deliveries from a breakdown in the aerospace industry’s decades-old duty-free status.
The tariff war and apparent U-turn over deliveries comes as Boeing has been recovering from an almost five-year import freeze on 737 MAX jets and a previous round of trade tensions.
Confusion over changing tariffs could leave many aircraft deliveries in limbo, with some airline CEOs saying they would defer delivery of planes rather than pay duties, analysts say.
‘Just more powerful’: Trump pushes presidential limits in first 100 days
Updated 21 April 2025
AFP
WASHINGTON: With Donald Trump back in the White House you never know what you’re going to get. Will he berate a foreign leader? Rock the global markets? Take vengeance against his foes?
But there has been one constant behind the chaos of his first 100 days — Trump is pushing US presidential power to almost imperial limits.
“I think the second term is just more powerful,” the 78-year-old Republican said during a recent event. “They do it — when I say do it, they do it, right?“
Trump has been driven by a sense of grievance left over from an undisciplined first term that ended in the shame of the 2021 US Capitol riots after his election defeat to Joe Biden.
And while Trump freed hundreds of those attackers from jail on his first day back in office, he is taking no prisoners when it comes to consolidating the power of the White House.
“Trump 2.0 is far more authoritarian-minded and authoritarian in its actions than Trump 1.0,” political historian Matt Dallek of George Washington University told AFP.
Trump has also stepped up the sense of an endless reality show in which he is the star, as he signs executive orders and takes questions from reporters in the Oval Office almost daily.
That slew of orders has unleashed an unprecedented assault on the cornerstones of American democracy — and on the world order.
“We have seen certainly not in modern times such a sustained attack to unwind constitutional safeguards,” added Dallek.
Controversially aided by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, Trump has launched a drive to gut a federal government he regards as part of a liberal “deep state.”
Protesters demonstrate during a "Tesla Takedown" protest against CEO Elon Musk in New York City on March 22, 2025. As President Trump marks 100 days in office, much ink will be spilt on his divisive transformation of the US governmen. (AFP)
He has invoked a centuries-old wartime act to deport migrants to a mega prison in El Salvador — while warning that US citizens could be next.
He has dug in for a confrontation with judges, and forced a string of punishing deals on law firms involved in previous criminal or civil cases against him.
He has cracked down on the media — which he still dubs the “enemy of the people” — and limited access to news outlets covering him at the White House.
And he has launched an ideological purge, cutting diversity programs, targeting universities and even installing himself as head of a prestigious arts center.
The US Congress, which is meant to have ultimate control over the government’s purse strings, has been sidelined. Republicans have abetted his power grab while crushed Democrats have struggled to muster a response.
“We are all afraid,” Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said recently.
“The president appears indifferent to formal — even constitutional — checks on his power,” added Barbara Trish, professor of political science at Grinnell College.
On the foreign stage Trump has made territorial claims over Greenland, Panama and Canada — asserting a sphere of influence that echoes Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expansionist bent.
Trump is meanwhile backed by a court of true believers. Aides with often fringe views, like vaccine-skeptic health secretary Robert Kennedy, take turns to praise him at cabinet meetings.
“Compared to the first term, the president has completely surrounded himself with aides who not only facilitate, but in some cases catalyze, his brazen power moves,” added Trish.
US President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on January 20, 2025. (AFP)
But Trump’s comeback has highlighted some familiar themes.
Trump is closing out his first three months with approval ratings well below all other post-World War II presidents — except for himself, in his first term, according to Gallup.
And there are signs of the same volatile leader the world saw from 2017 to 2021.
Trump’s wild televised meltdown in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — abetted by hawkish Vice President JD Vance — deeply alarmed allies who were already unnerved by his pivot to Russia.
Then there was his introduction of sweeping global tariffs — only to reverse many of them after tanking global markets proved to be the only real check on his power.
When asked how he had reached one of his tariff decisions Trump replied: “Just instinctively.”
The question now is whether Trump — who at one point referred to himself as “THE KING” on his Truth Social platform — will be willing to give up power.
Trump recently said that when he repeatedly mentioned a Constitution-defying third term he was “not joking.”
