Starmer and Macron agree joint action needed on migrant crossings
Following their meeting at Downing Street on Wednesday, the leaders committed to further action and innovative deterrents to disrupt the business model of people-smuggling gangs.
While the UK presses for tougher French enforcement, Mr Macron emphasised the need for Britain to address "pull factors" attracting migrants.
No 10 indicated the leaders would aim for 'concrete progress' on the matter at a summit on Thursday.
The discussions come as the number of people crossing the English Channel in 2025 has already exceeded 21,000, marking a record for this point in the year.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: US resumes military supplies to Ukraine, Zelenskyy announces
The US has resumed military supplies to Ukraine and senior officials in Kyiv will work on military cooperation next week with Washington's special envoy, Keith Kellogg, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Friday. He restated that Ukraine had received high-level signals from Washington and its other western allies that arms supplies, paused for a time last week, had now resumed. 'We are currently working with partners on new supplies, increased weapons production in Ukraine and better support for our army,' he said. 'Next week, we will continue working with the US side on a military level … We are also preparing new European defence packages.' Kellogg, interviewed by the Ukrainian media outlet while attending a conference about Ukraine in Rome, said: 'We'll be in Kyiv Monday. We'll be there all week.' Donald Trump confirmed he had struck a deal with Nato leaders to supply weapons to Ukraine, Andrew Roth writes. During an interview with NBC News, the US president said: 'So what we're doing is the weapons that are going out are going to Nato, and then Nato is going to be giving those weapons [to Ukraine], and Nato is paying for those weapons.' He added: 'I'm disappointed in Russia, but we'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks.' The EU's top diplomat has said the 27-nation bloc was pondering a new raft of sanctions against Moscow. 'Russia has increased its attacks against civilians to really cause as much pain … and that's unacceptable,' the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said. Brussels was considering an 18th round of sanctions against Moscow and 'we are also still in negotiations to put the oil price cap on, that would deprive Russia from the means to fund this war', she told AFP. Kallas said she was assured by Laos's top diplomat that Vientiane had 'no intention or willingness' to send military help to Russia, following claims that Moscow was planning to involve military personnel from Laos to bolster its efforts in Ukraine. 'I also expressed that it has consequences for European aid to Laos if something like this is happening,' Kallas said. 'If you [Laos] contribute to that existential threat, we can't have good cooperation,' she warned. Ukrainian drone and shelling attacks killed three people in Russia on Friday. Russian air defence systems intercepted 155 Ukrainian drones overnight, Moscow said. There was one dead in Russia's Lipetsk region and another was killed in the western Tula region from the drone attacks, local officials said. Ukrainian shelling later killed another civilian in the border region of Belgorod, the governor announced. The Russian defence ministry said out of the 155 downed Ukrainian drones, 11 were bound for Moscow. Ukraine said its drones struck a Russian fighter aircraft plant in the Moscow region and a missile production facility in the Tula region, causing explosions and fires at both. Ukraine's military said on Telegram the aviation facility in the town of Lukhovitsy, about 135km (84 miles) south-east of Moscow, produced MiG fighters. The other site was the Instrument Design Bureau, which specialised in producing anti-aircraft missiles and missile-gun systems, it said. 'Defence forces continue to take all steps to undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian occupiers,' the military said. Russian bombardments on eastern Ukraine overnight on Friday forced the evacuation of a maternity centre in Kharkiv and wounded nine people. Zelenskyy said a medical facility was hit in the attack on the country's second-largest city. 'Among the wounded are women in a maternity hospital – mothers with newborns, women recovering from surgery,' he wrote on social media. 'Fortunately, no children were injured.' He added that several other regions were attacked overnight. Nato will need more long-range missiles in its arsenal to deter Russia from attacking Europe because Moscow is expected to increase production of long-range weapons, a US army general told Reuters. 'The Russian army is bigger today than it was when they started the war in Ukraine,' Maj Gen John Rafferty said at a US military base in Wiesbaden, Germany. 'And we know that they're going to continue to invest in long-range rockets and missiles and sophisticated air defences. So more alliance capability is really, really important.' The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that wartime censorship in Russia is justified amid the conflict with Ukraine and the closure of opposition-minded media. Speaking to Russian magazine Expert, Peskov said that many media outlets have been closed, while some reporters have left the country in the past three years. 'But don't forget the situation we are in. Now is the time of military censorship, unprecedented for our country. After all, the war is going on in the information space too,' Peskov told the magazine. Russian authorities also blocked X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. 'It would be wrong to turn a blind eye to the media that are deliberately engaged in discrediting Russia,' he said.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: US resumes military supplies to Ukraine, Zelenskyy announces
The US has resumed military supplies to Ukraine and senior officials in Kyiv will work on military cooperation next week with Washington's special envoy, Keith Kellogg, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Friday. He restated that Ukraine had received high-level signals from Washington and its other western allies that arms supplies, paused for a time last week, had now resumed. 'We are currently working with partners on new supplies, increased weapons production in Ukraine and better support for our army,' he said. 'Next week, we will continue working with the US side on a military level … We are also preparing new European defence packages.' Kellogg, interviewed by the Ukrainian media outlet while attending a conference about Ukraine in Rome, said: 'We'll be in Kyiv Monday. We'll be there all week.' Donald Trump confirmed he had struck a deal with Nato leaders to supply weapons to Ukraine, Andrew Roth writes. During an interview with NBC News, the US president said: 'So what we're doing is the weapons that are going out are going to Nato, and then Nato is going to be giving those weapons [to Ukraine], and Nato is paying for those weapons.' He added: 'I'm disappointed in Russia, but we'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks.' The EU's top diplomat has said the 27-nation bloc was pondering a new raft of sanctions against Moscow. 'Russia has increased its attacks against civilians to really cause as much pain … and that's unacceptable,' the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said. Brussels was considering an 18th round of sanctions against Moscow and 'we are also still in negotiations to put the oil price cap on, that would deprive Russia from the means to fund this war', she told AFP. Kallas said she was assured by Laos's top diplomat that Vientiane had 'no intention or willingness' to send military help to Russia, following claims that Moscow was planning to involve military personnel from Laos to bolster its efforts in Ukraine. 'I also expressed that it has consequences for European aid to Laos if something like this is happening,' Kallas said. 'If you [Laos] contribute to that existential threat, we can't have good cooperation,' she warned. Ukrainian drone and shelling attacks killed three people in Russia on Friday. Russian air defence systems intercepted 155 Ukrainian drones overnight, Moscow said. There was one dead in Russia's Lipetsk region and another was killed in the western Tula region from the drone attacks, local officials said. Ukrainian shelling later killed another civilian in the border region of Belgorod, the governor announced. The Russian defence ministry said out of the 155 downed Ukrainian drones, 11 were bound for Moscow. Ukraine said its drones struck a Russian fighter aircraft plant in the Moscow region and a missile production facility in the Tula region, causing explosions and fires at both. Ukraine's military said on Telegram the aviation facility in the town of Lukhovitsy, about 135km (84 miles) south-east of Moscow, produced MiG fighters. The other site was the Instrument Design Bureau, which specialised in producing anti-aircraft missiles and missile-gun systems, it said. 'Defence forces continue to take all steps to undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian occupiers,' the military said. Russian bombardments on eastern Ukraine overnight on Friday forced the evacuation of a maternity centre in Kharkiv and wounded nine people. Zelenskyy said a medical facility was hit in the attack on the country's second-largest city. 'Among the wounded are women in a maternity hospital – mothers with newborns, women recovering from surgery,' he wrote on social media. 'Fortunately, no children were injured.' He added that several other regions were attacked overnight. Nato will need more long-range missiles in its arsenal to deter Russia from attacking Europe because Moscow is expected to increase production of long-range weapons, a US army general told Reuters. 'The Russian army is bigger today than it was when they started the war in Ukraine,' Maj Gen John Rafferty said at a US military base in Wiesbaden, Germany. 'And we know that they're going to continue to invest in long-range rockets and missiles and sophisticated air defences. So more alliance capability is really, really important.' The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that wartime censorship in Russia is justified amid the conflict with Ukraine and the closure of opposition-minded media. Speaking to Russian magazine Expert, Peskov said that many media outlets have been closed, while some reporters have left the country in the past three years. 'But don't forget the situation we are in. Now is the time of military censorship, unprecedented for our country. After all, the war is going on in the information space too,' Peskov told the magazine. Russian authorities also blocked X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. 'It would be wrong to turn a blind eye to the media that are deliberately engaged in discrediting Russia,' he said.
Sky News
3 hours ago
- Sky News
Starmer aims to break cabinet away day curse
Sir Keir Starmer was hoping to break the curse of the cabinet away day as he summoned his ministers to Chequers for the launch of a summer "refresh" of his troubled government. The aim: to plot a course for a recovery during Labour's second year in power after a first 12 months blighted by economic woes, rows over freebies, humiliating U-turns and rebellions. In the past, the away day rules from the No 10 high command have included no woolly jumpers and no sandwiches. This time, the rule to ministers was: "Don't call it a reset." The curse of this away day could turn out to be the threat of a looming ministerial reshuffle, which some MPs predict could come as early as next week. Could some of those present face the axe? According to the official readout of Sir Keir's away day, the prime minister chaired a session on how the government will use AI "to turbocharge its Plan for Change". But that was just a small part of the discussions. Top of the agenda for a "political cabinet", without civil servants, were the storm clouds over the economy and the options for Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her make-or-break autumn budget. And based on the experience of previous cabinet away days, from Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, the omens were not good. Away days may seem like a good idea at the time, but most end badly. The idea of Chequers away days has been to hold a brainstorming session in the privacy of the Buckinghamshire countryside without distractions or prying photographers, reporters or TV crews. But over the years, like most family get-togethers, there have been personality clashes, squabbles about what to eat and what to wear, disputes about who takes centre stage, and even backstabbing and walkouts. The last Chequers cabinet away day, held by Mr Sunak in January 2023, took place with two senior figures facing official investigations. Tory chair Nadhim Zahawi was engulfed in a tax scandal and deputy prime minister Dominic Raab was facing bullying allegations. Mr Zahawi was out within a week after this away day and Mr Rabb within three months. Without doubt, the most disastrous cabinet awayday at Chequers was in July 2018, when Ms May thought she'd persuaded her cabinet to back her Brexit deal. Then, as now, the heat was sweltering. But two days later, David Davis quit as Brexit secretary and Mr Johnson - who was said to have proposed a champagne toast to the prime minister at Chequers - resigned as foreign secretary the following day. Ms May thought she had a deal that would keep the UK closely tied to the EU's customs union and single market. But it was doomed even during that away day. It was reported that ministers were warned that anyone who resigned would have to walk a mile down the drive and get a lift home with the local taxi firm, whose cards had been left in the foyer. When he resigned, Mr Davis was said to have been livid about hostile briefing from senior figures in Downing Street about how the Brexiters would be treated at Chequers, including the taxi threat. And Mr Johnson not only launched a "Chuck Chequers" campaign opposing Ms May's deal, but also a campaign to chuck her out of Downing Street and seize her job for himself. As prime minister, he also held a cabinet awayday, not at Chequers, but at a pottery in the heart of the "red wall" in Stoke-on-Trent, in 2022. The venue might have been different, but that was cursed too. Just weeks later Mr Johnson's cabinet shattered like broken Wedgwood china following the resignations of Mr Sunak and Sajid Javid. The modern trend for cabinet away days was started by Sir Tony - who else? - in 1998. The rules for ministers were laid down by his chief of staff Jonathan Powell, now Sir Keir's national security adviser. In a memo to cabinet ministers attending, he wrote: "TV will film people arriving and going, so there can be no woolly jumpers." Mr Powell was rebuffed by Sir Tony, however, when he suggested in a memo to the prime minister that Mr Brown should start the meeting with a discussion on the economy. "No," Sir Tony replied bluntly in a handwritten note. Peter Mandelson, now Britain's ambassador in Washington, demanded "something nicer than sandwiches" for lunch and got his wish when a buffet was laid on. Sir Keir's Chequers away day also began with lunch, then the short formal cabinet meeting with the discussion about AI, then the political cabinet, which was the real reason for the away day. No need for woolly jumpers in the 32C heat. Just don't call it a "refresh".
