Keir Starmer still hasn’t spoken to Donald Trump since US forces captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela over the weekend. For all the excited talk about how well Starmer has handled his personal relationship with the US President, the Number 10 spokesman confirmed this morning he still hasn’t been able to place a phone call to the White House. Although Trump still found time to dial in to Fox News, and seemingly any other journalist who called the switchboard…
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper did at least speak to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last night, where she told him the UK “respects international law“. Starmer is expected to finally get his call in at some point tomorrow, after he jets off to Paris to meet the Coalition of the Willing. A foreign trip already in the books in the first week of the year…
Migration minister Mike Tapp has refused to say that President Trump should not invade Greenland after the US toppled Venezuelan dictator Maduro over the weekend. Asked by Sky News’ Sophy Ridge if Labour would condemn a move on Greenland, Tapp said:
“We’re not going to give a running commentary. Diplomacy is delicate, which means we’re not here to give a running commentary in the news.”
Meanwhile, Trump reiterated yesterday that the US “needs” the Danish (and NATO) territory. Not that Trump is likely to give Starmer a heads-up if he did take action anyway…
Jeremy Corbyn has called for international solidarity with Latin American leftist movements after US action in Venezuela. Sweat running down a few brows in Havana…
Corbyn, alongside fellow MP Richard Burgon, spoke at tonight’s “emergency online rally” organised by Venezuela Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The demands of which are “an immediate end to this illegal military action, the safe return of President Maduro, and respect for Venezuela’s sovereignty”…
The Your Party leader (for now until its elections) attacked Nobel Peace Prize-winning Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and blamed ‘global corporate interests’ for the arrest of Maduro:
“Trump said he’s going to make Venezuela safe for American global oil companies. The alleged leader of the Venezuelan opposition put out a video, a quite chilling video, saying that she was going to make the country ready for privatisation. I was thinking to myself on an even greater scale than Boris Yeltsin did in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. What we’re really up against here is global corporate interests working through politicians, working through politicians like Trump in order to use the military to create opportunities for themselves. We know which side we’re on. We know which side of history we’re on. We know which side of history are going to be found out for those people that supported this illegal act.”
Corbyn, speaking to those assembled on Zoom and 220 viewers on YouTube, also accused Starmer himself of breaking international law, which “requires that you recognise that, when a genocide takes place, you don’t fuel the fire of that genocide. His government has done exactly that by the provision of arms to Israel.”
Longtime Trotskyist writer/activist Tariq Ali, also present, said Trump argued gunrunning “weapons would have been used against the United States. Well all I can say – I wish they had been. But they weren’t. They captured him before there could be any armed fightback.” Indeed – quite some operation from Delta Force there…
It’s a sour note to end 2025 for Starmer as President Trump has announced he’s suspending the “landmark” Tech Prosperity Deal with the UK. The single tangible trophy Starmer got from Trump’s state visit in September…
The New York Times reports Trump has paused work on the £31 billion investment package while demanding better terms elsewhere in the trade relationship. White House officials are also said to be frustrated with Britain’s Online Safety Act and the digital services tax that Rachel Reeves refused to budge on…
Back when the deal was unveiled, Starmer hailed it as a “generational step-change in our relationship with the US”, while Trump boasted it would allow the two countries to “dominate” the future of AI. Déjà vu from Starmer’s celebrated Oval Office visit earlier this year…
The Trump administration has finally filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC over the spliced Panorama documentary footage. The apology did not work…
The lawsuit has been filed overnight in south Florida, where it argues Americans were likely to have seen the doctored footage of Trump’s 2021 speech:
“The Panorama Documentary’s publicity, coupled with significant increases in VPN usage in Florida since its debut, establishes the immense likelihood that citizens of Florida accessed the Documentary before the BBC had it removed”.
Seeing as the documentary came out a week before the 2024 presidential election Team Trump say it was “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the vote. Trump is seeking $5 billion for defamation and for breaching Florida’s deceptive and unfair trade practices act. The BBC has taken only one of those and has therefore halved the total damage claim to $5 billion for its headline…
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has hit back at President Trump after he said Sadiq Khan is “incompetent, horrible, vicious” and is “doing a terrible job”. It’s not the first time Trump has let rip on the London Mayor…
Nandy told Sky News this morning that both she and Starmer think Trump is wrong:
“I strongly disagree with those comments. I think Sadiq is doing a really good job. So, I strongly disagree. I know the Prime Minister would disagree. I’m sure that if you asked the Prime Minister if he was sitting in this studio today, he would say what I’ve said.”
Yesterday Khan insisted Trump is “obsessed” with him, claiming that Americans are “flocking” to live in London because its liberal values are the “antithesis” of Trump’s. Deteriorating…
Lucy Powell on LBC, asked by Tom Swarbrick for her reaction to Labour MP Samantha Niblett’s call for a ‘summer of sex’ debate in Parliament: “I personally don’t own any sex toys, but each to their own… I’m not really sure that’s the right place for it, no.”