Trump to make unprecedented second state visit to UK in September

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer walk at the G7 summit, in Kananaskis, Alberta, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 14 July 2025
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Trump to make unprecedented second state visit to UK in September

  • The visit is seen as part of Starmer’s effort to keep Trump close and lessen the impact of some of his polices on the UK The relationship between the two appears amicable, and has helped the UK from facing the sort of hefty US tariffs

LONDON: US President Donald Trump will make an unprecedented second state visit to the UK between Sept. 17 and 19 when he will be hosted by King Charles II and Queen Camilla at Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace said Monday.
Trump, who is a big supporter of the royal family, particularly of the monarch, will be accompanied by his wife, Melania Trump during the three-day visit, the palace confirmed.
No US president has been invited for a second state visit. Trump previously enjoyed the pomp and pageantry of the state visit in 2019 during his first term when he was hosted by Charles’ late mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The invitation for the second state visit from the king was hand-delivered by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in February during a meeting at the White House.
After reading it, Trump said it was a “great, great honor” and appeared particularly pleased by the fact he will be staying at Windsor Castle, to the west of the capital. “That’s really something,” he said.
Precedent for second-term US presidents who have already made a state visit is usually tea or lunch with the monarch at Windsor Castle, as was the case for George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
State visits are ceremonial meetings between heads of state that are used to honor friendly nations and sometimes smooth relations between rivals. While the king formally issues the invitation for a state visit, he does so on the advice of the elected government.
The visit is seen as part of Starmer’s effort to keep Trump close and lessen the impact of some of his polices on the UK The relationship between the two appears amicable, and has helped the UK from facing the sort of hefty US tariffs that other nations are seeing.
But like Trump’s previous visit, it’s unlikely he will be welcomed by all. Last time, a day of protests saw the flying of a giant blimp depicting Trump as an angry orange baby from outside Parliament.
Lawmakers from Starmer’s Labour Party have also questioned whether the honor should be extended to Trump at a time that he is supporting Israel’s war in Gaza and threatening the sovereignty of allies such as Canada and Greenland.
Charles could also face some challenges during the visit because he is head of state of both the United Kingdom and Canada, which Trump has suggested should become the 51st US state. During a speech to the Canadian parliament in May the king highlighted Canada’s “unique identity” and “sovereignty,” while echoing the words of the country’s national anthem when he said “The True North is indeed strong and free.”
State visits to Britain are particularly prized by heads of state because they come with a full complement of royal pomp and circumstance, including military reviews, carriage rides and a glittering state banquet hosted by the monarch.
The events normally take place in and around Buckingham Palace in central London. But like last week’s state visit from French President Emmanual Macron and his wife Brigitte, the Trumps will stay at Windsor Castle. Buckingham Palace is undergoing extensive remodeling.

 


Injunction over asylum seekers hotel risks further protests, UK govt says

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Injunction over asylum seekers hotel risks further protests, UK govt says

LONDON: The British government argued a court ruling requiring asylum seekers to be temporarily evicted from a hotel risks sparking further chaotic protests outside the residences housing them, as it appealed against the decision on Thursday.
Last week, the High Court in London granted a temporary injunction to stop asylum seekers from being housed in the Bell Hotel in Epping, about 32 km northeast of London in the county of Essex.
The building had become a focal point of sometimes violent demonstrations by anti- and pro-immigration groups after an Ethiopian asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault offenses, and opposition lawmakers have called for more protests and legal action to have all such hotels closed down.
According to a regular tracker of voters’ concerns, immigration is now the biggest issue amid anger over record numbers of asylum seekers arriving in small boats across the Channel, including more than 28,000 this year.
On Thursday, the hotel owners and the British government sought permission to appeal against the injunction granted to the local authority on 
planning grounds.
Lawyers for the government argued that the High Court judge had failed to consider the significant national impact the ruling would have. They suggested that Epping Council, run by the opposition Conservatives, was seeking to exploit nationwide tensions over immigration for political gain.

BACKGROUND

Britain currently houses about 30,000 migrants in more than 200 hotels across the country.

“Epping’s planning concerns appear to be disproportionately targeted toward asylum accommodation, which suggests that its motivation is not solely, or even principally, the integrity of its planning regime,” the lawyers said in a written submission to the Court of Appeal.
“The granting of an interim injunction in the present case runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further protests, some of which may be disorderly, around other asylum accommodation.”
They also argued that any closure of hotels would put pressure on the system to house the thousands of asylum seekers waiting to have their cases determined. Britain currently houses about 30,000 migrants in more than 200 hotels across the country.
Earlier this week, Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s anti-migration Reform UK party, which is leading in opinion polls, announced a plan to repeal human rights laws to allow for mass deportations of asylum seekers, which he said was needed to prevent “major civil disorder.”
Pro-migrant groups say far-right groups and opportunistic politicians are deliberately seeking to exploit and inflame tensions for their own ends.
Critics say that housing asylum seekers in hotels, often young men who are not allowed to work, puts the local community at risk, and point to recent incidents where some migrants have been accused of serious crimes, including the rape and sexual assault of young girls.
This week, an Ethiopian asylum seeker went on trial, accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl and another woman in Epping, accusations he denied.


4 African states ‘running out of special food for starving children’

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4 African states ‘running out of special food for starving children’

  • British-based aid group says supplies are getting dangerously low in Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan

NAIROBI: At least four African countries will run out of specialized lifesaving food for severely malnourished children in the next three months due to shortages caused by aid cuts, Save the Children said.

Supplies were getting dangerously low in Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan of high-energy biscuits, peanut-based Plumpy’Nut paste, and other treatments known as Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food, RUTF, the British-based aid group said.
“At a time when global hunger is skyrocketing, the funding that could save children’s lives has been cut because of recent aid cuts,” Yvonne Arunga, the charity’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, said.
Save the Children did not name specific donors or funding reductions in its statement. The US has slashed humanitarian assistance this year, and other Western powers have also been cutting funding as part of longer-term reductions. 
Some clinics in the four African countries were turning to less-effective treatments for malnourished children, Save the Children said.

FASTFACT

Some clinics in the four African countries are turning to less-effective treatments formalnourished children, Save the Children says.

In Kenya, where an estimated 2.8 million people are estimated to have experienced high levels of acute food insecurity during this year’s March-to-May rainy season, stocks are expected to run out in October, it added.
The statement said RUTF supplies in Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan would run out within three months.
Government officials from the four countries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Globally, funding cuts are expected to cut off nutrition treatment this year to 15.6 million people across 18 countries, including 2.3 million severely malnourished children, Save the Children said. 
Cuts by the US left 60,000 to 66,000 metric tonnes of food, including 1,100 tonnes of fortified biscuits, stranded in warehouses for months earlier this year, Reuters reported in May. The US government later agreed to hand over 600 tonnes of the biscuits to the UN World Food Programme, but stated that it would have to destroy nearly 500 tonnes, which had expired the previous month. 
Earlier this month, the US State Department announced it would provide $93 million for RUTF supplies to treat more than 800,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in 13 countries, including Nigeria, Sudan, Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo.


Russian missiles pound Ukraine, damage EU and British offices

Updated 18 min 21 sec ago
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Russian missiles pound Ukraine, damage EU and British offices

  • White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “was not happy about this news, but he was also not surprised“
  • Zelensky said the strikes also damaged a Turkish enterprise and the Azerbaijan embassy

KYIV: Russia pounded Ukraine with deadly missiles and drone strikes early on Thursday in a sweeping attack that the US special envoy on Ukraine said undermined President Donald Trump’s peace efforts.

At least 21 people were killed in the capital, city officials said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “was not happy about this news, but he was also not surprised,” given that the two countries had been at war for a long time.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike, the second-largest attack since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, was Moscow’s answer to diplomatic efforts to end its war.

US special envoy Keith Kellogg commented on X: “The targets? Not soldiers and weapons but residential areas in Kyiv — blasting civilian trains, the EU & British mission council offices, and innocent civilians.”


The European Union and Britain summoned Russian envoys to protest. There were no reports of casualties at either site.

Zelensky said the strikes also damaged a Turkish enterprise and the Azerbaijan embassy.

Leavitt told a regular briefing that Trump would have more to say about the situation later.

Leavitt said the Russian attacks had been deadly and that Ukrainian attacks had done significant damage in August to Russian oil refineries.

“Perhaps both sides of this war are not ready to end it themselves,” she said. “The president wants it to end but the leaders of these two countries need it to end and want it to end.”

The strikes took place less than two weeks after Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska, a meeting the US president hoped would advance his peace efforts.

“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table,” Zelensky said on X, calling for new sanctions on Russia. “It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war.”

Russia said its attack had hit military industrial facilities and air bases, and that Ukraine had attacked Russian targets. The Kremlin said it was still interested in pursuing peace talks.

Moscow has regularly denied targeting civilians. Ukrainian officials say scores of civilians have died in Russian strikes on densely populated areas in recent months, and thousands since the start of the war.

During the attack on Kyiv, explosions rang out as clouds of smoke rose into the night sky. Drones whirred overhead.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko described it as one of the biggest attacks on the city in recent months. At least 63 people were wounded in the hours-long assault, which damaged buildings in all city districts, officials said.

Across the country, Ukraine’s military said Russian attacks struck 13 locations. National grid operator Ukrenergo said energy facilities were hit, causing power cuts.

A push by Ukraine and its allies to end the invasion has yielded little, despite Trump’s meetings this month with Putin, then Zelensky.

Russia has stepped up air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far behind the front lines and pushed a grinding offensive across much of the east in an effort to pressure Ukraine into giving up territory.

’ANOTHER GRIM REMINDER’

“This is another grim reminder of what is at stake. It shows that the Kremlin will stop at nothing to terrorize Ukraine, blindly killing civilians and even targeting the European Union,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.

She said two missiles had struck near the EU office within 20 seconds of each other.

EU countries would soon come up with a 19th package of sanctions against Russia and were advancing work on how to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, she added.

“We discussed our diplomatic efforts to stop the killings, to end this unprovoked Russian aggression, and to guarantee real security for our people,” Zelensky wrote on X after talks with von der Leyen.

Zelensky also said that he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine with Turkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan and they would be set out on paper next week.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the assault, which he said had damaged the British Council building. “Putin is killing children and civilians and sabotaging hopes of peace,” he wrote on X.

Ukraine’s military said air defenses downed 563 of nearly 600 drones and 26 of 31 missiles launched by Russia across the country.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Russian air defenses destroyed 102 Ukrainian drones overnight in at least seven regions.

Ukraine’s drone force said it had struck the Afipsky and Kuybyshevskyi oil refineries as part of that attack.


Rwanda says 7 deportees arrived from the US in August under agreement with Washington

Updated 28 August 2025
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Rwanda says 7 deportees arrived from the US in August under agreement with Washington

  • Rwanda said earlier in August it would accept up to 250 deportees from the US
  • No information was provided about the identities of the deportees sent to Rwanda this month

KIGALI: Seven migrants were transferred from the United States to Rwanda in August under a deportation agreement with the US, authorities in the East African country said Thursday.

Rwanda said earlier in August it would accept up to 250 deportees from the US

Yolande Makolo, a spokeswoman for the Rwandan government, said in a statement that the “first group of seven vetted migrants arrived in Rwanda in mid-August.”

Rwanda is one of four African countries that have reached deportation agreements with Washington, The others are Uganda, Eswatini and South Sudan.

No information was provided about the identities of the deportees sent to Rwanda this month.

They have been “accommodated by an international organization” with visits by the International Organization for Migration, as well as representatives of Rwandan social services, Makolo said.

“Three of the individuals have expressed a desire to return to their home countries, while four wish to stay and build lives in Rwanda,” Makolo said.

In addition to accommodation, those approved for settlement in Rwanda will receive workforce training and health care, she said.

The Trump administration has come under scrutiny for the African countries it has entered into secretive deals with to take deportees. It sent eight men from South Sudan, Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan in early July after a US Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for their deportations.

The US also deported five men who are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos to the southern African kingdom of Eswatini, where the government said they will be held in solitary confinement in prison for an undetermined period of time.

Uganda has also agreed to a deal with the US to take deported migrants as long as they don’t have criminal records and are not unaccompanied minors. US officials have said they want to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a high-profile detainee, to Uganda.


Muslim World League, Malaysian PM urge religious leaders to rise for Gaza

Updated 28 August 2025
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Muslim World League, Malaysian PM urge religious leaders to rise for Gaza

  • 1,500 participants from 54 countries attend the Kuala Lumpur summit
  • Summit follows MWL’s inaugural forum for Islamic jurisprudence scholars

KUALA LUMPUR: The Muslim World League and the Malaysian prime minister hosted a conference of religious leaders in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday to urge them to rise up and act for peace in the face of the genocide in Gaza.

The Second International Summit of Religious Leaders, which gathered global authorities representing all major religions, was organized by the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Office and the MWL.

Themed “The Role of Religious Leaders in Resolving Conflicts,” it was opened by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and MWL Secretary-General Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa.

During the summit, speakers representing Muslim, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist communities, discussed the role of religious leaders in standing up to violence and conflict, religious diplomacy and a special session on Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.

“This summit comes to place religious leaders before a historic responsibility regarding the values of their respective faiths, values that have been declared and must be actively applied in order to contribute to building global peace and harmony,” Al-Issa said in his opening speech.

“What is happening today in the Gaza Strip — genocide and heartbreaking famine witnessed by the entire international community — is a dangerous precedent in the principles of human rights.

“Since the issuance of the Universal Charter of the UN, our world has never seen anything like it. Sadly, this casts doubt on the credibility of international commitments.”

Israel has killed at least 62,895 Palestinians in its attacks on Gaza since October 2023.

The true death toll is feared to be much higher, as many people have died due to injury and lack of access to health care and food. This has been caused by the Israeli military’s destruction of most of Gaza’s infrastructure, the blocking of medical aid, and deliberate strategy of starvation that has pushed Gaza to famine.

Al-Issa called on the conference’s participants to focus not only on “abstract preaching,” but also to be “active in shaping peace,” and guiding their followers toward a joint commitment to human dignity.

Anwar also appealed to representatives of world religions to “take up the task” and act.

“Every day you see babies being killed, houses and people being bombed ... What on earth is happening in this world?” he said.

“Where is the voice of conscience that stands for our faith and moral values ... We have to rise up and religious leaders have to be more asserting in their views.”

About 1,500 guests attended the conference, including 150 foreign delegates from 54 countries.

The 2025 summit was the second international event held by the MWL in the Malaysian capital this week. It was preceded by the inaugural forum for scholars of Islamic jurisprudence held in the Malaysian capital by the MWL’s Islamic Fiqh Council.