All posts tagged "Keir Starmer"

The British government published fresh messages and emails connected to Peter Mandelson's appointment as U.S. ambassador under Prime Minister Keir Starmer amid knowledge of the now former envoy's connection to late financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to Politico.

Starmer, who has faced multiple political crises in his administration, had promised to release the files related to Mandelson and his appointment to the ambassador role after documents revealed that Mandelson had corresponded with Epstein years after he was convicted, Politico reported.

"The second tranche of documents includes extensive caches of emails, text messages, and WhatsApp logs passing between government officials, ministers, and special advisers concerning Mandelson's time in the role — and direct correspondence with the Labour grandee himself," according to Politico....

President Donald Trump's impersonations of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have led to a damaged relationship "beyond repair" between the two countries amid the ongoing Iran war, according to reports on Friday.

Trump had mocked Starmer and ridiculed him during an Easter lunch speech at the White House, saying the UK was "not our best" ally after Starmer had reportedly consulted his team about military actions, according to The Guardian. He was apparently angry over the prime minister's decision to deny the U.S. military use of British military bases during the launch of its air strikes on Iran.

"Following the latest attack on Starmer, diplomatic and political figures said he was right to brush off the criticism but added that the relationship was very damaged and he would need to redouble efforts to built international relations elsewhere," The Guardian reported....

World leaders who are speaking out against U.S. President Donald Trump and his bullying ways are garnering massive support in their home countries, according to a new piece in "The Morning" newsletter from The New York Times.

"It’s a phenomenon known in political science as the "rally ’round the flag effect," according to the article. "When a country faces a crisis, public support for the leader or the current governing party often rises."

That's because, according to Editor Lauren Jackson, "People don’t like to ditch their leaders in a crisis, research shows. The rallying phenomenon can shift the balance of power both within and between countries."...

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is meeting with Donald Trump at the White House Friday where the U.S. president is expected to claim victory for a rare minerals deal that will serve as "payback" for U.S. assistance to the war-torn nation. Trump has long sought to be reimbursed for providing Ukraine with weapons needed to push back the Russians, even thought the heads of state for Great Britain and France tried to explain this week that that's not how it's done.

In the Oval Office Thursday Trump asserted that European nations will "get their money back" from what they put into Ukraine's war effort, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted that wasn't true: "Quite a bit of ours was gifted. It was given," Starmer said.

Earlier in the week, French President Emanuel Macron also corrected Trump's claims of payback: "To be frank," Macron said, "we paid 60% of the total effort...through guaranteed grants."...

A second head of state has set President Donald Trump straight for claiming Europe "gets their money back" from Ukraine.

First, it was French President Emanuel Macron who interrupted Trump earlier this week.

"Just so you understand, Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They get their money back," Trump said with Macron in the Oval Office....

Elon Musk is creating headaches for foreign leaders who are upset with his far-right politics yet don't want to anger his "patron," President-elect Donald Trump, according to a new analysis by CNN Politics reporter Stephen Collinson.

In a piece for CNN.com Tuesday, Collinson wrote, "Musk could easily be dismissed as a mischievous antagonist who simply loves to shock and is pursuing his own obsessions one X post at a time."

"But he’s not just some troll. He’s the world’s richest man, owns some of the globe’s most strategic and influential businesses, and is wielding a mighty social media network. Musk is highlighting his enormous influence as a populist force galvanizing political provocateurs as a kind of one-man supranational non-state power." ...