Keir Starmer accepts invitation to meet Donald Trump in Scotland
Police Scotland has previously said that it expects the visit to require a 'significant policing operation' and confirmed that preparations were underway.
READ MORE: Dates of Donald Trump's state visit to UK confirmed by Buckingham Palace
Reports have suggested that as many as 5000 officers will be drafted in to support the operation which is expected at the end of July.
It is understood that there will be no private meeting with King Charles, however a date has now been set for Trump's second visit to the UK this year, which will see him hosted by the Palace.
(Image: Carl Court/PA Wire)
On the state visit, due to take place from September 17 to 19, he will be hosted at Windsor Castle.
It will be the second state visit for the US president, who was previously hosted by Queen Elizabeth in 2017.
READ MORE: Labour politicians fail to declare all-expenses-paid trip to Israel
His appearance in Scotland is almost certain to draw protests, and a demonstration has already been called to greet Trump in London later in the year.
Trump's mother was from Lewis and his last visit came in 2023.
His golf resort at Turnberry in Ayrshire was recently targeted by pro-Palestine activists who daubed its clubhouse with red paint and wrote 'Gaza is not for sale' on the walls, in reference to his plans to ethnically cleanse the territory and develop it as a holiday destination.
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The Guardian
19 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Republicans move to block Democratic effort to force release of Epstein files
Republican lawmakers have moved to block a Democratic effort to force the release of the so-called Epstein files, a near-mythological trove of undisclosed information about the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at the center of an internal political war among US conservatives. Democrats had been pressing for an amendment to cryptocurrency legislation that would have forced the release of information and exhibits itemized in a list of evidence held by the justice department from the 2019 child sex-trafficking case against the disgraced financier Epstein. Donald Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, teased a full accounting of the Epstein evidence, including a purported client list earlier this year. But 10 days ago, she changed course when she announced that the Trump administration had reviewed the evidence, concluded that Epstein had indeed killed himself in jail, and decided not to release the contents that the justice department said included a thousand hours of video depicting child sexual abuse. That set off a firestorm within Trump's conspiracy-minded 'Make America great again' (Maga) movement that the president has since tried to calm. Democrats had weighed in on the issue, hoping to force a release of the documents. 'The question with Epstein is: Whose side are you on?' California Democratic US House member Ro Khanna, the author of the Epstein measure, told Axios. 'Are you on the side of the rich and powerful, or are you on the side of the people?' Khanna promised to introduce the amendment 'again and again and again'. But Republicans on the US House rules committee voted down the amendment that would have allowed Congress to vote on whether the evidence – which includes micro cassettes, DVDs, CDs including one labelled 'girl pics nude book 4', computer hard drives and three massage tables in green, beige and brown – should be released. Yet the federal case against Epstein, which dates back to 2005 and involves a mysterious plea deal that allowed to the financier to plead guilty to Florida state charges of solicitation of a minor, continues to challenge what political hardliners on the right and left believe is evidence of a nefarious nexus of international power. The debacle has pitted Bondi and Trump – who was friends with Epstein, his Florida neighbor for many years, before disowning him – against the deputy FBI director, Dan Bongino. Bongino reportedly clashed with Bondi over the Epstein case and considered resigning as Maga megaphones including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Megyn Kelly have called for the release of the Epstein files. In 2023, Bongino said on his rightwing podcast: 'That Jeffrey Epstein story is a big deal. Please do not let that story go. Keep your eye on it.' The Daily Beast reported that Trump is furious at Bongino, who has not shown up for work since 9 July after a shouting match erupted between him and Bondi. Trump has sided with Bondi, leaving Bongino's future at the FBI open to question, and the vice-president, JD Vance, was evidently called in to mediate, according to CNN. Those developments unfolded as a recent CNN poll found that half of Americans are dissatisfied with the amount of information the government has released on Epstein's case. The poll found that Democrats and independents were relatively equal in the sense of dissatisfaction (at 56% and 52%, respectively) – but Republicans polled at 40% dissatisfaction. Just 3% of those polled said they were satisfied with the amount of Epstein-related information released by the government. On Monday, the drama turned to the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's convicted co-conspirator in the sex-trafficking case, who has appealed to the US supreme court to uphold a non-prosecution agreement contained in Epstein's Florida plea deal. The US justice department petitioned the court to deny Maxwell, 63, who is serving a 20-year sentence, the request. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion 'I'd be surprised if President Trump knew his lawyers were asking the supreme court to let the government break a deal,' Maxwell's attorney, David Oscar Markus, said in a statement emailed to the Guardian. 'He's the ultimate dealmaker – and I'm sure he'd agree that when the United States gives its word, it should keep it. With all the talk about who's being prosecuted and who isn't, it's especially unfair that Ghislaine Maxwell remains in prison based on a promise the government made and broke.' But Congress could now call on Maxwell to testify. Citing anonymous sources, the Daily Mail reported on Monday that Maxwell is interested in doing that. In some circumstances, under federal rule 35, a convicted felon can negotiate a reduction in sentence in exchange for cooperation. Nonetheless, the government has shown little interest in doing that, especially when Maxwell was maintaining her innocence and appealing her conviction. Prosecutors made clear at the time that they considered the case closed and would not go after lesser alleged figures in the sex-trafficking conspiracy. 'It all depends on who she would be cooperating against, and what she has to offer,' defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman told the Guardian after Maxwell's conviction in 2021. 'I would not be surprised if she had already tried to cooperate and it had failed. 'Of all the people supposedly involved with Epstein, 99% of them never made it into the government's evidence,' Lichtman added, venturing that the government may have been trying 'to avoid any frolic by the jury – that they'd get distracted by the bold-face names – but many people didn't get prosecuted here when it seems like they could have'.
Reuters
21 minutes ago
- Reuters
US auto safety nominee calls for active oversight of self-driving cars
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's nominee to head the nation's auto safety regulator will argue on Wednesday that the agency must actively oversee self-driving vehicle technology, a potential sign of a tougher approach than some critics expected. Jonathan Morrison, chief counsel of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the first Trump administration, will testify to the U.S. Senate that autonomous vehicles offer potential benefits but also unique risks. "NHTSA cannot sit back and wait for problems to arise with such developing technologies, but must demonstrate strong leadership," Morrison said in written testimony seen by Reuters. The comments suggested NHTSA will continue to closely scrutinize self-driving vehicles. Some critics of the technology had expressed alarm over NHTSA staff cuts this year under a cost-cutting campaign led by Elon Musk, who was a close adviser to Trump and is CEO of self-driving automaker Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab. The Musk-Trump alliance prompted some critics to speculate that NHTSA would go easy on self-driving vehicle developers. But the relationship began to unravel in late May over Trump's spending plans, and the two are now locked in a feud. NHTSA said last month it was seeking information from Tesla about social media videos of robotaxis and self-driving cars Tesla was testing in Austin, Texas. The videos were alleged to show one of the vehicles using the wrong lane and another speeding. Since October, NHTSA has been investigating 2.4 million Tesla vehicles with full self-driving technology after four reported collisions, including a 2023 fatal crash. "The technical and policy challenges surrounding these new technologies must be addressed," Morrison's testimony said. "Failure to do so will result in products that the public will not accept and the agency will not tolerate." Other companies in the self-driving sector also were subjects of NHTSA investigations including Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Waymo, which last year faced reports its robotaxis may have broken traffic laws. Waymo in May recalled 1,200 self-driving vehicles, and the probe remains open. Regulatory scrutiny increased after 2023 when a pedestrian was seriously injured by a GM (GM.N), opens new tab Cruise self-driving car. The first recorded death of a pedestrian related to self-driving technology was in 2018 in Tempe, Arizona.
Telegraph
22 minutes ago
- Telegraph
This was too little, too late from the ‘iron' Chancellor
There will be a round of deregulation. Lending rules will be relaxed. And new listings will be accelerated. Rachel Reeves did everything she could in her Mansion House speech this evening to win back the City. From any other Chancellor it might have been greeted with loud applause. From this one, however, it will be dead on arrival. The relationship with finance is irretrievably broken – and is too late to win it back now. The bankers and brokers listening to Reeves this evening will like much of what she had to say. The relaxation of lending rules will be welcomed, even if it is questionable whether the British housing market needs yet more debt instead of more supply. Easing some red tape is always helpful, and something needs to be done to encourage more new listings. In reality, however, Labour's relationship with business is now broken beyond repair. When Reeves took office there was plenty of goodwill. Business was ready for a change of 14 years of a Conservative government that seemed more and more chaotic with every year that passed. She even had one or two ideas that sounded good, even if they were thin on detail. By now, however, the City feels completely betrayed. The assault on non-doms has driven wealthy clients out of the country, and many successful entrepreneurs as well, with nothing to replace them. The steep rise in employers' National Insurance has drained money out of companies, and hit profits and dividends. Her changes to inheritance tax have hammered not just farmers but every privately owned business, and many of those are still crucial to the economy. The extra employment rights might please the unions but they could be ruinous for the City. The list goes on and on. Business was told that Reeves was a pro-growth, pro-enterprise Chancellor. Instead she has led an assault on the private sector with no parallel in recent British history. It looks as if it will only get worse over the next year. We all know that there will be another huge round of tax rises in the autumn, and business may well bear the brunt of that. It could be higher business rates, a windfall tax on the banks or utilities, or even a 'temporary' surcharge on corporation tax, similar to the levy imposed in France earlier this year. Likewise, the plutocrats of the Square Mile are likely to be squeezed for extra tax revenue. We may well see a return of the 50 per cent top rate of tax. Or, even worse, a wealth tax, catastrophic for the City where £10 million is regarded as a respectable annual bonus, and not an obscene fortune to be taxed away. Sure, a few reforms are worth having. And it is good that Reeves recognises how crucial the City and financial services are to the British economy, even if many of the Left-wingers on her backbenchers won't agree with her. Finance has always been one of the key drivers of growth, as well as generating huge tax revenues. But the blunt truth is this. Reeves has lost the trust of the City. And no matter how hard she tries, it's surely gone forever.
