Tag: United Kingdom

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Canada to recognise Palestinian state at UN General Assembly

Canada plans to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday, a major policy shift that drew an angry response from US President Donald Trump and was rejected by Israel.

Carney said the move was necessary to preserve hopes of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a long-standing Canadian goal that was “being eroded before our eyes.”

“Canada intends to recognise the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025,” the prime minister said.

This makes Canada — a G7 nation — the third country, following recent announcements by France and the United Kingdom, to signal plans to recognise a Palestinian state in September.

Carney said the worsening suffering of civilians in Gaza left “no room for delay in coordinated international action to support peace.”

Israel blasted Canada’s announcement as part of a “distorted campaign of international pressure,” while Trump warned that trade negotiations with Ottawa may not proceed smoothly.

“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine,” the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them.”

Asked by reporters if there was a scenario where Canada could change its position before the UN meeting, Carney said: “There’s a scenario (but) possibly one that I can’t imagine.”

Canada’s intention “is predicated on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to much-needed reforms,” Carney said, referring to the body led by President Mahmoud Abbas, which has civil authority in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Carney said his plans were further predicated on Abbas’s pledge to “hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarise the Palestinian state.”

With Wednesday’s announcement, Carney positioned Canada alongside France, after President Emmanuel Macron said his country would formally recognise a Palestinian state during the UN meeting, the most powerful European nation to announce such a move.

The Israeli embassy in Ottawa said, “Recognising a Palestinian state in the absence of accountable government, functioning institutions, or benevolent leadership, rewards and legitimises the monstrous barbarity of Hamas on October 7, 2023.”

The PA’s Abbas welcomed the announcement as a “historic” decision, while France said the countries would work together “to revive the prospect of peace in the region.”

Canada’s plan goes a step further than this week’s announcement by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Starmer said the UK will formally recognise the State of Palestine in September unless Israel takes various “substantive steps,” including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza.

Carney stressed that Canada has been an unwavering member of the group of nations that hoped a two-state solution “would be achieved as part of a peace process built around a negotiated settlement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.”

“Regrettably, this approach is no longer tenable,” he said, citing “Hamas terrorism” and the group’s “longstanding violent rejection of Israel’s right to exist.”

The peace process has also been eroded by the expansion of Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, Carney said.

The prime minister said a two-state solution was growing increasingly remote, with a vote in Israel’s parliament “calling for the annexation of the West Bank,” as well as Israel’s “ongoing failure” to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

He framed his decision as one aimed at safeguarding Israel’s future.

“Any path to lasting peace for Israel also requires a viable and stable Palestinian state, and one that recognises Israel’s inalienable right to security and peace,” Carney said. (Punch)

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Your children are Nigerians, Falana corrects Badenoch on citizenship claim

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has faulted United Kingdom Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, over her claim that she cannot pass Nigerian citizenship to her children because of her gender.

During an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, Badenoch asserted that she cannot pass on her Nigerian citizenship to her children because of her gender. She suggested that it is easier for Nigerians to acquire British citizenship than for foreigners to become Nigerians.

She said, “It’s virtually impossible, for example, to get Nigerian citizenship. I have that citizenship by virtue of my parents. I can’t give it to my children because I’m a woman.

“Yet loads of Nigerians come to the UK and stay for a relatively free period of time, acquire British citizenship. We need to stop being naive.”

Reacting in a statement issued on Monday, Falana described Badenoch’s statement as “a display of utter ignorance” and accused her of misinforming the British public to score political points.

Falana said, “In her desperate attempt to impress the British electorate, Kemi Badenoch keeps running down Nigeria.

“Contrary to her misleading claim, her children are Nigerians because she is a Nigerian. Her assertion that she cannot give Nigerian citizenship to her children because she is a woman is not in consonance with Section 25(b) and (c) of the Nigerian Constitution which provides that every person born in Nigeria after independence, either of whose parents or grandparents is a citizen of Nigeria, or any person born outside Nigeria to a Nigerian parent, is a citizen.

“Furthermore, by virtue of Section 42(2) of the Constitution, no citizen shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by reason of circumstances of birth, gender, or class. Therefore, her two children are Nigerian citizens. The fact that she may not want them to claim it is irrelevant. For now, they are dual citizens of Britain and Nigeria.”

Falana also faulted her assertion that Nigerian citizenship is impossible for foreigners to obtain, noting that “Sections 26 and 27 of the Constitution clearly state that foreigners can acquire Nigerian citizenship through naturalisation or registration once they meet the legal conditions.”

He, however, acknowledged gaps in the law, saying that “A woman married to a Nigerian man can be registered as a citizen, but the same privilege is not extended to a man married to a Nigerian woman, which reflects the patriarchal nature of the law. This should be urgently amended.” (Punch)

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Ellen DeGeneres says she moved to Britain because of Trump

US TV star Ellen DeGeneres has made her first public appearance since moving to the UK, saying she decided to settle in England the day after Donald Trump was re-elected US president.

The comedian and host told a crowd in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, that life “is just better” in the UK.

Ellen said she and wife Portia de Rossi were considering getting married again in England after some moves in the US to reverse the right to gay marriage, and that America can still be “scary for people to be who they are”.

She also addressed allegations of a toxic workplace that led to the end of her long-running chat show in 2022, admitting she could be “very blunt”, but dismissed the stories as “clickbait”.

Ellen was one of the biggest names on US TV for 30 years, thanks to her daytime chat show, as well as for her self-titled 1990s sitcom, for hosting the Oscars, Grammys and Emmys, and for voicing Dory in Finding Nemo.

After her talk show was cancelled, she went on a “final stand-up tour” in the US in 2024 then bought a house in the Cotswolds, a historic and picturesque area mainly spanning parts of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.

On Sunday at the Everyman theatre in nearby Cheltenham, she was in conversation with broadcaster Richard Bacon, who asked whether reports that she moved because of Donald Trump were correct. “Yes,” she replied.

The 67-year-old said she and De Rossi had initially planned to spend three or four months a year in the UK and bought what they thought would be “a part-time house”.

“We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, ‘He got in’,” she said. “And we’re like, ‘We’re staying here’.”

Ellen has been giving glimpses of her new rural life on social media, in videos showing her farm animals including sheep – although they have now been sold after they kept escaping.

“It’s absolutely beautiful,” she said. “We’re just not used to seeing this kind of beauty. The villages and the towns and the architecture – everything you see is charming and it’s just a simpler way of life.

“It’s clean. Everything here is just better – the way animals are treated, people are polite. I just love it here.

“We moved here in November, which was not the ideal time, but I saw snow for the first time in my life. We love it here. Portia flew her horses here, and I have chickens, and we had sheep for about two weeks.”

On her last tour, she joked that she had been “kicked out of show business twice” – the first time being when she came out as gay in 1997.

That effectively led to the end of her sitcom after advertisers pulled out and the network stopped promoting it, she told the Cheltenham crowd on Sunday.

Bacon asked whether her visibility had encouraged other people to come out. “I would say no,” she replied. “I imagined a lot of people coming out like meerkats poking out of a hole and going back in again. ‘How’s she doing? OK, no, no.'”

But it is “a really hard decision” that doesn’t suit everyone, she continued, and said things are better today “in some ways” but not others.

“If it was [better], all these other people that are actors and actresses that I know they’re gay, they’d be out, but they’re not, because it’s still a problem. People are still scared.”

Ellen also referenced a recent move by the Southern Baptist Convention to endorse the reversal of a Supreme Court case allowing same-sex marriage. At least nine state legislatures have introduced bills to do the same.

“The Baptist Church in America is trying to reverse gay marriage,” she said. “They’re trying to literally stop it from happening in the future and possibly reverse it. Portia and I are already looking into it, and if they do that, we’re going to get married here.”

Later, in response to an audience question, she added: “I wish we were at a place where it was not scary for people to be who they are. I wish that we lived in a society where everybody could accept other people and their differences.

“So until we’re there, I think there’s a hard place to say we have huge progress.”

However, the younger generation are “more comfortable with it” and are “just kind of fluid”, she added. “So I think the younger generation is going to show us the way.”

After some former workers on her talk show made allegations of a toxic workplace culture, the star – who ended every episode by telling viewers to “be kind to one another” – was dubbed as “mean” in the media.

Following the scandal three producers were sacked amid allegations of misconduct and sexual harassment, and the final season of the show opened with Ellen giving an on-air apology.

She addressed that in her 2024 tour and the accompanying Netflix stand-up special.

“No matter what, any article that came up, it was like, ‘She’s mean’, and it’s like, how do I deal with this without sounding like a victim or ‘poor me’ or complaining? But I wanted to address it.

“It’s as simple as, I’m a direct person, and I’m very blunt, and I guess sometimes that means that… I’m mean?” (BBC)

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British spies and SAS named in Afghan data breach

The identities of more than 100 British officials, including members of the special forces and MI6, were compromised in a data breach that also put thousands of Afghans at risk of reprisal, it can be reported.

The latest fallout from the breach was kept secret by an injunction until Thursday, when the order was lifted in part by a High Court judge.

That allowed media organisations to reveal that detailed case notes in the database contained secret personal data of special forces and spies.

The government had already admitted on Tuesday the data of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had worked with the British during the 20-year war in Afghanistan and had applied to resettle in the UK had been inadvertently leaked.

Many were judged to be at risk of serious harm or even death as the Taliban sought retribution against those who had worked with the British government during the conflict.

This was part of the reason the information was protected by a so-called “super-injunction” – a kind of gagging order that prevents the reporting of even the existence of the injunction.

The data breach occurred in February 2022 but was not discovered by the government until August 2023, when someone in Afghanistan who had obtained the data posted part of it on Facebook and indicated he could release the rest.

The BBC revealed on Wednesday that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had offered to expedite a review of the individual’s application and brought him to the country after he posted the data – a sequence of events that government sources said was “essentially blackmail”.

The MoD declined to comment on the actions of the individual but said that “anyone who comes to the UK under any Afghan relocation schemes” must go through “robust security checks in order to gain entry”.

The discovery of the breach in 2023 forced the government to covertly set up the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) – a resettlement scheme for those affected, who were not told about the breach despite the risk to their security.

The scheme has already allowed 4,500 Afghans and family members to move to the UK and a further 2,400 people are expected, at an estimated cost of £850m.

The accidental leak was the result of someone working at UK Special Forces headquarters in London inadvertently emailing more than 30,000 resettlement applications to an individual outside of government, thinking that he was sending data on just 150 people.

After the lifting of the super-injunction on Tuesday, a secondary injunction had prevented the revelations about special forces and security services personal being compromised.

But that was also lifted on Thursday that barristers representing both the MoD and a group of media organisations reached a compromise that meant journalists could report the additional facts.

Defence Secretary John Healey told Parliament on Tuesday that the breach was a “serious departmental error” and acknowledged that it was “just one of many data losses” relating to the Afghan relocation schemes.

The shadow defence secretary, James Cartlidge, apologised on behalf of the former Conservative government, which was in power when the leak was discovered.

The MoD has refused to say how many people in Afghanistan may have been harmed as a result of the data breach. The Taliban government said on Thursday that it had not arrested or monitored Afghans affected by the leak.

But relatives of Afghans named in the leak told the BBC that they fear for their family still in the country, with one saying efforts by the Taliban to find their named relative intensified following the leak.

An MoD spokesperson said: “It’s longstanding policy of successive governments to not comment on special forces.

“We take the security of our personnel very seriously, particularly of those in sensitive positions, and always have appropriate measures in place to protect their security.” (BBC)

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Tinubu mourns, sends Shettima to accompany Buhari’s remains from UK

President Bola Tinubu has announced the passing of former President Muhammadu Buhari, describing the development as a national loss.

This was contained in a statement issued on Sunday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has announced the passing of his predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari.

“President Buhari died today in London at about 4.30 pm, following a prolonged illness”, the statement partly read.

Onanuga added that Tinubu has since reached out to the bereaved family.

“President Tinubu has spoken with Mrs Aishat Buhari, the former President’s widow and offered his deep condolences”, he stated.

To facilitate preparations and arrangements for the return of the late president’s remains, Onanuga revealed that the President has directed Vice President Kashim Shettima to travel immediately.

“President Tinubu has also ordered Vice President Kashim Shettima to proceed to the United Kingdom to accompany President Muhammadu Buhari’s body back to Nigeria,” he added.

The statement concluded that as part of the nation’s mourning, Tinubu ordered a symbolic tribute, stating, “President Tinubu has ordered flags at half-staff as a mark of respect for the departed leader.” (Punch)

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Gregg Wallace ‘sacked’ from MasterChef amid reports of 50 fresh allegations

Gregg Wallace has been “sacked” as Masterchef presenter following an inquiry into alleged misconduct allegations by production company Banijay, BBC News has reported.

It comes as 50 more people have come forward and made new claims about Wallace to the corporation, according to BBC News, including allegations he dropped his trousers in front of a junior female Masterchef worker while he was not wearing any underwear and groped another.

BBC News said it has not seen the final Banijay report, but it is understood the presenter has been sacked.

Banijay UK previously said Wallace “committed to fully cooperating” with the external review while his lawyers strongly denied “he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature”, according to BBC News.

Earlier on Tuesday, the TV presenter claimed he had been cleared of the “most serious and sensational accusations” made against him ahead of the report.

Wallace stepped away from hosting the BBC cooking show after a number of historical complaints came to light last year.

This triggered an external investigation by Banijay UK, the production company behind Masterchef.

An investigation by BBC News reported that 13 people had alleged that Wallace had made inappropriate sexual comments across a number of shows over 17 years.

In a statement on his Instagram account earlier on Tuesday, ahead of the report being published, Wallace said: “After 21 years of loyal service to the BBC, I cannot sit in silence while my reputation is further damaged to protect others.

“I have now been cleared by the Silkins (sic) report of the most serious and sensational accusations made against me.

“The most damaging claims (including allegations from public figures which have not been upheld) were found to be baseless after a full and forensic six-month investigation.”

He continued: “I recognise that some of my humour and language, at times, was inappropriate. For that, I apologise without reservation. But I was never the caricature now being sold for clicks.”

“I will not go quietly. I will not be cancelled for convenience. I was tried by media and hung out to dry well before the facts were established. The full story of this incredible injustice must be told and it is very much a matter of public interest, ” he added.

BBC spokesperson said: “Banijay UK instructed the law firm Lewis Silkin to run an investigation into allegations against Gregg Wallace. We are not going to comment until the investigation is complete and the findings are published.”

Banijay UK has declined to comment on Wallace’s comments.

ITV News has approached Wallace for comment. (ITV)

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MI6 appoints first female chief in 116-year history

MI6 will be led by a woman for the first time in the foreign intelligence service’s 116-year history.

Blaise Metreweli, who joined the Secret Intelligence Service in 1999, will become the 18th chief of the organisation and take over from Sir Richard Moore later this year.

She is currently responsible for technology and innovation at the service and said she was “proud and honoured” to have been asked to lead.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called the appointment “historic” at a time “when the work of our intelligence services has never been more vital”.

MI6 is tasked with gathering intelligence overseas to improve the UK’s security, with its core aims being to stop terrorism, disrupt the activities of hostile states and bolster cyber-security.

Its chief, commonly referred to as “C”, is the only publicly named member of the service.

Ms Metreweli, 47, is currently Director General “Q” – head of the crucial technology and innovation division that aims to keep the identities of secret agents secret, and come up with new ways to evade adversaries like China’s biometric surveillance.

“MI6 plays a vital role – with MI5 and GCHQ – in keeping the British people safe and promoting UK interests overseas,” she said.

“I look forward to continuing that work alongside the brave officers and agents of MI6 and our many international partners.”

Ms Metreweli, who studied anthropology at the University of Cambridge, has previously held director level roles in MI5 – MI6’s sister, domestic security agency – and spent most of her career working in the Middle East and Europe.

On the King’s overseas and international birthday honours list in 2024, she received the Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for her services to British foreign policy.

Speaking to the Telegraph in December 2021 when she was at MI5, under the pseudonym of “Director K”, Ms Metreweli said threats to UK national security “really are diverse”.

“The threats we are looking at primarily exist around protecting government, protecting secrets, protecting our people – so counter-assassination – protecting our economy, sensitive technology and critical knowledge,” she said.

She added that “Russian state activity – not Russia itself – remains a threat” and that China was “changing the way the world is and that presents amazing opportunities and threats for the UK”. (BBC)

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UK to spend £1.5bn on six new weapons factories

The government will spend £1.5bn on at least six new munitions and explosives factories to “better deter our adversaries”, Defence Secretary John Healey has said.

The factories will support up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons and create about 1,800 new jobs, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

The announcement is part of the government’s strategic defence review (SDR), which is due to be published on Monday.

The Conservatives said they welcomed investment in new munitions but shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge called for “greater ambition for the pace and scale of rearmament our armed forces require”

The war in Ukraine has highlighted serious deficiencies in the West’s ability to produce weapons and munitions, and senior British military officers have long warned about the UK’s depleted stockpiles.

As part of its review, the government said it would build new factories to make key munitions and explosives as part of its plans to have an “always on” munitions production capacity that could be scaled up quickly.

It also said the UK would purchase more than 7,000 British-built long-range weapons, including drones and missiles, over several years.

According to the MoD, the new funding will see UK munitions spend hit £6bn during this parliament.

Ministers said the extra investment – which came after Healy said that UK defence spending would rise to 3% of GDP by 2034 at the latest – would strengthen the armed forces and boost British jobs.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “A strong economy needs a strong national defence, and investing in weaponry and munitions and backing nearly 2,000 jobs across Britain in doing so is proof the two go hand-in-hand.

“We are delivering both security for working people in an uncertain world and good jobs, putting more money in people’s pockets.”

Healey said the UK’s defence industry would become an “engine for economic growth” and would “boost skilled jobs in every nation and region”.

“The hard-fought lessons from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine show a military is only as strong as the industry that stands behind them,” he added. (BBC)

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Leeds student jailed in Saudi Arabia for 34 years over tweets is released

Campaigners have welcomed the release of a Saudi PhD student at Leeds University who was sentenced to 34 years in prison for posting tweets in support of women’s rights.

Salma al-Shehab, 36, is understood to have left the prison in Saudi Arabia where she was being held and has been reunited with her two young children.

“It is fantastic news,” said Lina al-Hathloul, head of monitoring and advocacy at the Europe-based Saudi rights group ALQST. “She has not seen her children during her whole four years of imprisonment.”

Al-Shehab was arrested while on holiday in Saudi Arabia in January 2021. Campaigners say she was kept in solitary confinement for more than nine months before she was brought before Saudi Arabia’s specialised criminal court.

She was initially sentenced to serve three years in prison for the “crime” of using a website to “cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security”.

An appeals court later handed down the new sentence – 34 years in prison followed by a 34-year travel ban – after a public prosecutor asked the court to consider other alleged crimes.

The additional charges included the allegation that al-Shehab was “assisting those who seek to cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts” and by retweeting their tweets.

Amnesty International said her “crime” was no more than “posting tweets in support of women’s rights”.

Last March an open letter was signed by more than 300 academics, students and employees at Leeds University calling for al-Shehab’s immediate release. It said she had been jailed “on the basis of peaceful tweets”.

Al-Hathloul said al-Shehab had had a hard time in prison. “It has been difficult for her,” she said. “Not seeing her kids, not knowing whether she could complete her PhD. She was originally sentenced to six years, then it was increased to 34 years and then it was reduced to 27 years and then 4 years. It has been a nightmare really not to even be able to trust the judiciary and its decisions

“She is very strong. Salma is a very brave woman. She went on hunger strike to complain about the conditions.”

In June 2023 the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) found her detention to be arbitrary and called for her immediate release.

Al-Hathhoul said al-Shehab was not an exception. “She is symbolic of a pattern. She was released because of this pressure but many more others still remain in prison for the same charges.”

The battle now was to get al-Shehab’s travel ban lifted so she could return to Leeds where she is a dental student, al-Hathhoul said. (Guardian)