LONDON: The embassy of Palestine was officially inaugurated in London in a short ceremony on Monday, hailed by its ambassador as a &quot;profound milestone&quot; in British-Palestinian relations.&nbsp;&quot;We gather today to mark a historic moment - the inauguration of the embassy of the State of Palestine to the United Kingdom, with full diplomatic status and privileges,&quot; said ambassador Husam Zomlot in a speech outside what was previously known as the Palestinian Mission to the UK in west London.&nbsp;The official upgrading of the mission to embassy status came after the UK announced it would recognise the State of Palestine in September 2025, along with several other countries, including Australia and Canada, at a time of major international concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.&nbsp;Sporting a traditional black and white keffiyeh scarf, Zomlot told the ceremony this is &quot;not merely a change of name&quot;, but a &quot;change of direction&quot; towards Palestinian statehood.&nbsp;&quot;What a way to begin a new year together, marking a profound milestone in the British-Palestinian relations, and in the Palestinian people&#39;s long journey to freedom and self-determination,&quot; Zomlot said, before unveiling the embassy&#39;s new plaque.&nbsp;&quot;This is a day of hope, a day of steadfastness, and a day that reminds the world that peace is not only possible, it is inevitable... when rooted in justice, dignity, equality and mutual recognition.&quot;&nbsp;The UK&#39;s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to an AFP query on whether the UK planned to follow suit by opening a British embassy in the Palestinian territories.&nbsp;Speaking just after Zomlot at a lectern flanked by Palestinian and British national flags, UK diplomatic representative Alistair Harrison said the occasion represented a &quot;moment of hope&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;This is the beginning of a step change in our bilateral relationship,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;I wish you ambassador, and your team, a very happy stay in what is now your embassy, and congratulations.&quot;&nbsp;A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October in Gaza, following a devastating war waged by Israel in response to Hamas&#39;s unprecedented deadly October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

United Kingdom

Middle East

Palestine opens its embassy in London, a landmark in British-Palestinian relations, signaling progress toward statehood and highlighting hope and justice amid humanitarian challenges in Gaza.

Palestinian embassy in UK officially inaugurated

LONDON: Britain has imposed visa restrictions on DR Congo nationals over the country&#39;s &quot;poor co-operation&quot; on returning illegal migrants, the UK government said.&nbsp;Further measures, up to a complete halt on visas, will follow unless cooperation &quot;rapidly improves&quot;, the interior ministry said in a statement late Saturday.&nbsp;The curbs mean that DR Congo VIPs and decision makers will lose preferential treatment on visas, while fast-track visa processing has been revoked for all DR Congo nationals.&nbsp;They come after Britain&#39;s Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, in November threatened DR Congo, Angola and Namibia with visa bans unless they accepted the return of irregular migrants.&nbsp;The interior ministry said the three African countries had &quot;continually frustrated&quot; efforts to remove thousands of illegal migrants and criminals.&nbsp;It said they had &quot;unacceptably poor and obstructive returns processes&quot; and accused the countries of refusing to process paperwork and requiring individuals to sign their own documents &ndash; effectively allowing them to block their own deportations.&nbsp;Angola and Namibia had, however, agreed &quot;to improve their processes&quot; and accept the return of &quot;illegal migrants and criminals&quot;, and so will not face such restrictions, the interior ministry said.&nbsp;There had been some recent engagement by the DR Congo, but Mahmood warned the Central African nation needed &quot;to play by the rules&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;If one of their citizens has no right to be here, they must take them back,&quot; she said.&nbsp;&quot;I thank Angola and Namibia and welcome their co-operation. Now is the time for the Democratic Republic of Congo to do the right thing. Take your citizens back or lose the privilege of entering our country.&quot;&nbsp;These visa measures came as part of a package of reforms Mahmood announced in November seeking to tighten up Britain&#39;s asylum rules.&nbsp;Immigration has become a bitterly divisive issue in Britain in recent years, fuelling support for the hard-right Reform UK party, which is currently well in front in opinion polls ahead of next May&#39;s local elections.

Britain has imposed visa restrictions on DR Congo nationals over poor cooperation on returning illegal migrants, while Angola and Namibia avoided sanctions. The UK warned DR Congo to comply or face further measures amid tightened asylum rules.

UK restricts DR Congo visas over migrant returns

LONDON: Police on Tuesday arrested Swedish activist Greta Thunberg at a demonstration in support of pro-Palestinian hunger strikers, Palestinian activist groups said.&nbsp;Thunberg&#39;s arrest makes her the highest profile person to be detained by police since the government banned the Palestine Action group under anti-terror laws.&nbsp;&quot;Greta Thunberg was arrested under the Terrorism Act at the Prisoners for Palestine lock-on protest,&quot; Prisoners for Palestine said in a statement.&nbsp;Thunberg was holding a sign reading &quot;I support the Palestine Action prisoners. I oppose genocide&quot;, it added.&nbsp;The 22-year-old was among hundreds of people who boarded a flotilla in October that tried to break through the Israeli blockade of Gaza.&nbsp;City of London Police said officers had arrested three people on suspicion of criminal damage at a building in London&#39;s financial quarter.&nbsp;It said the arrests came after &quot;hammers and red paint were used to damage a building&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;A man and a woman have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage. They glued themselves nearby and specialist officers are working to release them, and bring them into police custody,&quot; a statement said.&nbsp;&quot;A little while later, a 22-year-old woman also attended the scene. She has been arrested for displaying an item (in this case a placard) in support of a proscribed organisation (in this case Palestine Action) contrary to Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000,&quot; it added.&nbsp;The government outlawed Palestine Action in July after activists broke into an air force base and caused an estimated &pound;7 million ($9.3 million) of damage.&nbsp;Some of the eight detainees who have been on hunger strike have been charged over that incident.&nbsp;The group, aged between 20 and 31, are facing trials relating to break-ins or criminal damage by Palestine Action.&nbsp;They are on hunger strike to protest at their treatment and call for their release on bail.&nbsp;Asked about it in parliament last week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said &quot;rules and procedures&quot; were being followed.&nbsp;Two of the protesters began their hunger strikes in early November, according to their supporters, with others joining in the following weeks.&nbsp;The government&#39;s Palestine Action ban -- which makes being a member of the group or supporting it a serious criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison -- has resulted in at least 2,300 arrests of demonstrators, according to protest organisers Defend Our Juries.&nbsp;According to London&#39;s Met Police in late November, so far 254 out of the more than 2,000 arrested have been charged with a lesser offence which carries a sentence of up to six months.

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was arrested in London at a protest backing pro-Palestinian hunger strikers, becoming the highest-profile detainee since Britain banned Palestine Action, as police cited terrorism laws and criminal damage allegations against protesters.

Greta Thunberg arrested at pro-Palestinian protest in London

LONDON: Britain&rsquo;s economy unexpectedly contracted again in October, official data showed Friday, dealing a blow to the Labour government&rsquo;s hopes of reviving economic growth. Gross domestic product fell 0.1% in October following a contraction of 0.1% in September, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. Analysts had forecast growth of 0.1%. Manufacturing rebounded in the month as carmaker Jaguar Land Rover resumed operations after a cyberattack that had weighed on the UK economy in September. But analysts noted that businesses and consumers reined in spending ahead of Britain&rsquo;s highly expected annual budget.<figure id="isPasted"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/3167df24-30e1-4fce-a0a3-99f4aefa2b35-Untitled.jpg" alt="Untitled.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii"><figcaption>LONDON: Pedestrians walk past the Bank of England (L) and the Royal Exchange building (back R) at Bank in central London on December 12, 2025. -- Photo by AFP/Henry Nicholls</figcaption></figure>&ldquo;Business and consumers were braced for tax hikes and the endless speculation, and leaks have once again put the brake on the UK economy,&rdquo; said Lindsay James, investment manager at Quilter. Prime Minister Keir Starmer&rsquo;s Labour Party raised taxes in last month&rsquo;s budget to slash state debt and fund public services. At the same time, Britain&rsquo;s economic growth was downgraded from next year until the end of 2029, according to data released alongside the budget. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves raised taxes on businesses in her inaugural budget last year -- a decision widely blamed for causing weak UK economic growth and rising unemployment. She returned in November with fresh hikes, this time hitting workers. Analysts said that Friday&rsquo;s data strengthened expectations that the Bank of England would cut interest rates next week.

Business

Gross domestic product fell 0.1% in October following a contraction of 0.1% in September, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement; analysts had forecast growth of 0.1%.

UK economy unexpectedly shrinks in October

LONDON: Britain&#39;s interior minister on Sunday defended plans to drastically reduce protections for refugees and end automatic benefits for asylum seekers, insisting that irregular migration was &quot;tearing our country apart.&quot; The measures, modelled on Denmark&#39;s strict asylum system, aim to stop thousands of migrants from arriving in England from northern France on small boats &mdash; crossings that are fueling support for the anti-immigrant Reform UK party. But the proposals are widely seen as an attempt to counter a hard-right surge in popularity.&nbsp; They are likely to be opposed by left-wing lawmakers within Prime Minister Keir Starmer&#39;s embattled Labor government and the Refugee Council charity has already branded them &quot;harsh and unnecessary.&quot; The center-right opposition Conservatives also criticized the measures, their home affairs spokesman Chris Philp saying the government was just &quot;tinkering with the edges.&quot; Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood hit back, telling BBC television she rejected the idea that the proposals meant Labor was &quot;engaging in far-right talking points. &quot;This is a moral mission for me, because I can see illegal migration is tearing our country apart, it is dividing communities,&quot; she said. &#39;Block endless appeals&#39;Presently, those given refugee status have it for five years, after which they can apply for indefinite leave to remain and eventually citizenship. Mahmood&#39;s ministry, the Home Office, said it would cut the length of refugee status to 30 months. That protection will be &quot;regularly reviewed,&quot; and refugees will be forced to return to their home countries once they are deemed safe, it added. The ministry said it now intended to make people granted asylum wait 20 years before applying to be allowed to live in the United Kingdom indefinitely. It said the reforms would make it less attractive for irregular migrants to come to Britain, and make it easier to remove those already in the country. Mahmood&#39;s reforms will also include new legislation to make it harder for irregular migrants and foreign criminals to use the European Convention on Human Rights to stop deportation, the Home Office announced late Sunday. In a statement, Starmer said the reforms would &quot;block endless appeals, stop last-minute claims and scale up removals of those with no right to be here.&quot; Asylum claims in Britain are at a record high, with around 111,000 applications made in the year to June 2025, according to official figures. Benefits crackdown A statutory legal duty to provide support to asylum seekers, introduced in a 2005 law, will also be revoked, the Home Office said. That means housing and weekly financial allowances will no longer be guaranteed for asylum seekers. It will become &quot;discretionary,&quot; meaning the government could deny assistance to any asylum seeker who could work or support themselves but did not, or those who committed crimes. More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived on small boats this year &mdash; more than for the whole of 2024 but lower than the record set in 2022, when the Conservatives were in power. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot welcomed the proposals, saying asylum seekers risked their lives crossing the Channel because the conditions they get in Britain &quot;are more permissive.&quot; &quot;We told the UK it was necessary to align certain conditions they give arriving immigrants with European standards,&quot; he said. However, Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, urged the government to reconsider, warning that the plans &quot;will not deter&quot; crossings. &quot;They should ensure that refugees who work hard and contribute to Britain can build secure, settled lives and give back to their communities,&quot; he said. The Danish model Labor is taking inspiration from Denmark&#39;s coalition government &mdash; led by the center-left Social Democrats &mdash; which has implemented some of the strictest migration policies in Europe. Senior British officials recently visited the Scandinavian country, where successful asylum claims are at a 40-year-low. Refugees in Denmark are entitled to a one-year renewable residency permit, and are encouraged to return as soon as authorities deem their countries are safe. Family reunions are also subject to strict requirements, including a minimum age for both parents, language tests and guarantees of funds. Labor has trailed Reform, led by firebrand Nigel Farage, in opinion polls for most of this year but it&rsquo;s tougher stance on immigration risks losing voters to progressive alternatives such as the Greens.

Europe

Measures, modelled on Denmark's strict asylum system, aim to stop thousands of migrants from arriving in England from northern France on small boats; proposals widely seen as an attempt to counter a hard-right surge in popularity. 

UK govt defends plan to limit refugee status

LONDON: Britain will reduce protections for refugees under plans to overhaul its asylum system, the government announced on Saturday. The measures, which will include forcing refugees to return to their home countries once they are deemed safe, were announced as the government faces mounting pressure over irregular migration. &quot;I&#39;ll end the UK&#39;s &lsquo;golden ticket&rsquo; for asylum seekers,&quot; Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood declared in a statement. Presently, those given refugee status have it for five years, after which they can apply for indefinite leave to remain and eventually citizenship. But Mahmood&#39;s ministry, known as the Home Office, said it would cut the length of refugee status to 30 months. That protection will be &quot;regularly reviewed,&quot; and refugees will be forced to return to their home countries once they are deemed safe, it added. The ministry also said that it intended to make those refugees who are granted asylum wait 20 years before applying to be allowed to live in the UK long-term, instead of the current five. The Home Office called the proposals the &quot;largest overhaul of asylum policy in modern times.&quot; Starmer, elected last summer, is under pressure to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats from France, something that also troubled his Conservative predecessors. More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived this year following such dangerous journeys &mdash; more than for the whole of 2024 but lower than the record set in 2022. The crossings are helping fuel the popularity of Reform, led by firebrand Nigel Farage, which has led Labour by double-digit margins in opinion polls for most of this year. Asylum claims in Britain are at a record high, with some 111,000 applications made in the year to June 2025, according to official figures. Benefits not guaranteedThe Home Office called the new proposals, which Mahmood is due to lay out in Parliament on Monday, the &ldquo;largest overhaul of asylum policy in modern times.&rdquo; It said the reforms would make it less attractive for irregular migrants to come to Britain and make it easier to remove those already in the country. A statutory legal duty to provide support to asylum seekers, introduced in a 2005 law, would also be revoked, the ministry said. That means housing and weekly financial allowances would no longer be guaranteed for asylum seekers. It would be &ldquo;discretionary,&rdquo; meaning the government could deny assistance to any asylum seeker who could work or support themselves but did not, or to those who committed crimes. Starmer, elected last summer, is under pressure to stop migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats from France, something that also troubled his Conservative predecessors. Danish crackdownMore than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived this year following such dangerous journeys &mdash; more than for the whole of 2024 but lower than the record set in 2022. The crossings are helping fuel the popularity of Reform, led by firebrand Nigel Farage, which has trailed Labour in double-digit margins in opinion polls for most of this year. Labour is taking inspiration from Denmark&rsquo;s coalition government &mdash; led by the centre-left Social Democrats &mdash; which has implemented some of the strictest migration policies in Europe. Senior British officials recently visited the Scandinavian country, where successful asylum claims are at a 40-year low. Refugees in Denmark are entitled to a one-year renewable residency permit and are encouraged to return home as soon as authorities deem there is no longer a need for a safe haven. Family reunions are also subject to strict requirements, including minimum age requirements for both parents, language tests, and financial guarantees. Britain&rsquo;s Mahmood is also expected to announce a tightening of rules around family reunions. Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, urged the government to rethink its plans, saying they &ldquo;will not deter&rdquo; the crossings. &ldquo;They should ensure that refugees who work hard and contribute to Britain can build secure, settled lives and give back to their communities,&rdquo; he said. Labor&rsquo;s more left-wing lawmakers will probably oppose the plans, fearing that the party is losing voters to progressive alternatives such as the Greens.

FILE PHOTO - UK-funded food vouchers are distributed to Syrian refugees in Amman, Jordan, through the World Food Programme (Wikimedia Commons)

Britain will reduce protections for refugees under plans to overhaul its asylum system, the government announced.

UK to cut protections for refugees under asylum 'overhaul'

LONDON:&nbsp;US President Donald Trump threatened the BBC with a billion-dollar lawsuit on Monday as the broadcaster apologized for editing a speech that gave the impression he urged &quot;violent action&quot; ahead of the 2021 assault on the US Capitol. In a letter seen by AFP, Trump&#39;s lawyers gave the British broadcaster until Friday to fully retract the documentary containing the edit, apologize, and &quot;appropriately compensate&quot; the president &quot;for the harm caused.&quot; If the BBC does not comply, &quot;President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights ... including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages,&quot; it said. &quot;The BBC is on notice. PLEASE GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.&quot; The BBC director general and the organization&#39;s top news executive resigned on Sunday over the row, after accusations that a documentary by the Panorama program last year featured extracts from a speech by Trump that were edited in a misleading way. The BBC said that it would &quot;review&quot; the letter from Trump&#39;s legal team. It also issued a public apology for the editing. &#39;Financial and reputational harm&#39;Trump&#39;s supporters rioted at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a bid to overturn the certification of his 2020 US presidential election defeat by Democrat Joe Biden. But the letter from Trump&#39;s legal team said the BBC edit gave a &quot;false, defamatory, malicious, disparaging, and inflammatory&quot; impression of what he said in his speech outside the White House. It appeared he had told supporters he was going to walk there with them and &quot;fight like hell&quot;. The president also told the audience in the intervening period: &quot;We&#39;re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.&quot; &quot;Due to their salacious nature, the fabricated statements that were aired by the BBC have been widely disseminated throughout various digital mediums, which have reached tens of millions of people worldwide,&quot; the letter said. &quot;Consequently, the BBC has caused President Trump to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm.&quot; A spokesperson for Trump&#39;s legal team confirmed a letter had been sent to the BBC and said: &quot;President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news.&quot; Trump has been accused of launching a number of previous lawsuits to stifle US media, including against broadcasters ABC and CBS, and the New York Times. The latest controversy has reignited a debate over the British broadcaster, which is cherished by many but has faced long-standing accusations of bias from both ends of the political spectrum. BBC promises oversight reform&nbsp;In a letter sent to MPs, BBC chairman Samir Shah said the broadcaster accepted that the editing of Trump&#39;s speech for the documentary &quot;did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.&quot; &quot;The BBC would like to apologize for that error of judgment,&quot; he added, vowing to reform oversight within the broadcaster. Director General Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness stepped down over the escalating backlash on Sunday. Trump promptly celebrated, accusing BBC journalists of being &quot;corrupt&quot; and &quot;dishonest.&quot; His press secretary called the broadcaster &quot;100% fake news.&quot; However, Prime Minister Keir Starmer&#39;s spokesperson told reporters the organization &quot;has a vital role in an age of disinformation.&quot; &quot;It&#39;s important that the BBC acts swiftly to maintain trust and correct mistakes quickly when they occur,&quot; he added. The government is preparing a review of the BBC&#39;s charter, which outlines the corporation&#39;s governance and funding. The current charter ends in 2027. The cash-strapped broadcaster, which has cut hundreds of jobs, is funded by a license fee paid by anyone who watches live TV in Britain. The BBC&#39;s latest crisis intensified after the right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper reported last week that a former external standards adviser&#39;s warnings of serious and widespread failings of impartiality and systemic bias had been ignored. Earlier this year, the BBC apologized for &quot;serious flaws&quot; in the making of another documentary, about the Gaza war, which the UK&#39;s media watchdog deemed &quot;materially misleading.&quot; It also faced criticism for failing to pull a livestream of punk-rap duo Bob Vylan during this year&#39;s Glastonbury pop festival after its frontman made anti-Israel comments.

The BBC apologizes for editing a speech that suggested US President Donald Trump had directly instigated an attack on the US Capitol, resulting in the dramatic resignations of the broadcaster's top brass.

Trump threatens $1 billion action as BBC apologizes for edit error

LONDON: As Israelis and Palestinians wait anxiously to see what comes after a ceasefire in the two-year war in Gaza, the experience of the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s may offer lessons in the thorny process of moving from seemingly intractable conflict to enduring peace. Two key figures who helped steer the Northern Ireland peace process &mdash; former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his former chief of staff, Jonathan Powell &mdash; have returned to the international spotlight due to their involvement in talks with the US and other countries about the future of Gaza.&nbsp;&lsquo;We stand ready&rsquo;: Starmer &nbsp;Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that &ldquo;drawing on our experience in Northern Ireland, we stand ready to play a key role in the decommissioning of Hamas&rsquo; weapons and capability.&rdquo; Around 3,600 people were killed and 50,000 wounded during &ldquo;the Troubles,&rdquo; three decades of violence involving Irish republican militants determined to wrest Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom. After years of false starts and setbacks, a peace accord was struck in 1998 that largely ended the conflict and led to the disarming of the Irish Republican Army and other militant groups. Trump-backed plan&nbsp;The Trump-backed plan for Gaza is far narrower and does not address the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which began decades before the latest war. It also provides no clear path to Palestinian statehood, something Israel rejects but that is seen internationally as the only way to resolve the conflict. The plan calls for Hamas to disarm, something the group insists it will not do &mdash; although it has expressed a willingness to hand over some weapons to a Palestinian or Arab body. In Northern Ireland, the IRA&rsquo;s reluctance to give up its weapons was a main sticking point that threatened to derail the peace process. Major differences&nbsp;Experts say there are parallels &mdash; but also major differences &mdash; between the Northern Ireland conflict and the devastating war in Gaza. Israel&#39;s war has reduced much of Gaza to rubble, led to famine in some areas and killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza&rsquo;s Health Ministry, that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. &ldquo;The level of challenge in the Middle East now is monumental,&rdquo; said Kristian Brown, a politics lecturer at Ulster University in Belfast. &ldquo;The level of bitterness, the sense of immediate threat and the levels of destruction (in Northern Ireland) were not as cataclysmic as Gaza.&rdquo; &#39;Counsel patience and pragmatism&#39;The Irish Republican Army eventually agreed to put its arsenal &ldquo;beyond use&rdquo; by way of a secret process supervised by an international commission. Disarmament ran in parallel to efforts to resolve political disputes at the heart of the conflict, something that more than three decades of US-led peace efforts in the Middle East have failed to accomplish. It was slow going: The first batch of IRA weapons was decommissioned in 2001 and the last in 2005, seven years after the Good Friday Agreement.&nbsp; Several other British loyalist and Irish republican militant groups also disarmed as part of the process. &ldquo;The British might be able to counsel patience and pragmatism,&rdquo; said Niall &Oacute; Dochartaigh, a professor of political science at the University of Galway. &ldquo;The IRA leadership had to be helped in various ways to make that argument (for disarmament) within the organization. &ldquo;Ultimately, decommissioning only happened in the Irish case once the IRA was satisfied that there was a political settlement bedded down,&rdquo; he added.&nbsp; And while &ldquo;the contours of a compromise settlement emerged quite early in Northern Ireland,&rdquo; a similar consensus in the Middle East appears far off. Big gaps&nbsp;The 20-point plan for Gaza sets out a sweeping vision, from ceasefire to peacemaking &ndash; but leaves big gaps about how it will all be achieved.&nbsp; And it says nothing about the thorniest issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians, including the status of Jerusalem, the return of Palestinian refugees, security arrangements, future borders and the scores of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The Good Friday Agreement was more detailed about the structures that would be established in Northern Ireland to underpin peace, including a legislature and government.&nbsp; It was the product of two years of US-backed negotiations that helped build trust between sworn enemies. But peacemaking was still slow and fragile. Shaky power-sharing political systemFour months after the Good Friday agreement, IRA dissidents set off a car bomb in the town of Omagh, killing 29 people in the deadliest single attack of the conflict. Today, dissidents still attempt occasional small-scale attacks. The power-sharing political system set up under the peace agreement has collapsed several times. Amnesties mean killers have gone free and some victims have not received justice. Yet peace has largely held. Political parties once linked to violent groups, including the IRA-allied Sinn Fein, play a major role, with former gunmen and bombers among those who now sit as lawmakers. &quot;Engaging those involved with violence and bringing them down democratic paths&rdquo; was key to the success of Northern Ireland&#39;s peace process, according to Peter McLoughlin, a senior lecturer in politics and history at Queen&rsquo;s University Belfast. &lsquo;Inclusive process worked&rsquo;He said excluding Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, in the future of the strip, could be a problem. &ldquo;If there was a broad lesson from the success of Northern Ireland, it&rsquo;s that an inclusive process worked &ndash; and I mean inclusive in the full sense, all different parties, even including militants,&quot; McLoughlin said. &ldquo;Hamas is being excluded from the political process and is expected to give up its weapons,&quot; he added. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know how feasible that is.&rdquo; Key players returnStarmer&#39;s reference to the UK&#39;s experience in monitoring ceasefires no doubt refers to the achievements of Blair and Powell. President Donald Trump has said Blair, who was UK prime minister between 1997 and 2007, is a potential member of a &ldquo;Board of Peace&rdquo; to oversee administration and reconstruction in Gaza. Blair has long experience in the Middle East, having served as an envoy to Israel and the Palestinians for the &quot;Quartet&quot; &mdash; the US, European Union, Russia and the United Nations &mdash; for eight years until 2015. He also played a pivotal role &mdash; along with then US President Bill Clinton &mdash; in putting together an international coalition that conducted airstrikes in 1999 to end Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic&rsquo;s crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. But Blair is also a highly controversial figure because of his decision to take Britain into the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.&nbsp; Trump has acknowledged that Blair might not be &ldquo;an acceptable choice to everybody&rdquo; in the region. &lsquo;Small diplomatic part&rsquo;Powell, meanwhile, is now Starmer&rsquo;s national security adviser and attended Trump&rsquo;s summit in Egypt.&nbsp; US Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff praised Powell&rsquo;s &ldquo;incredible input and tireless efforts&rdquo; in reaching the agreement. Bronwen Maddox, the director of Chatham House, the UK-based international affairs institute, was skeptical about drawing parallels between the two processes. She said Britain &ldquo;can play a small diplomatic part&rdquo; in Gaza, but probably not a decisive one. The Northern Ireland peace deal &ldquo;was a successful and really important peace negotiation,&quot; she said. &quot;But it was very much of itself, I think.&rdquo;

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week that “drawing on our experience in Northern Ireland, we stand ready to play a key role in the decommissioning of Hamas’ weapons and capability.”

UK ready to decommission Hamas: Starmer  

Ayesha Mir

How did decades-old child grooming scandals in the UK get weaponized by far-right figures like Tommy Robinson to push an anti-Muslim narrative? What role did Elon Musk play in amplifying this narrative by tweeting about &lsquo;Pakistani grooming gangs&rsquo;? And how does all of this align with Hindu nationalist rhetoric from India&rsquo;s Modi government? Ayesha Mir breaks it down in Dossier with Ayesha.

Dossier with Ayesha

Weaponization of scandals by far-right figures, Elon Musk’s role, and how all of it aligns with Hindu nationalist rhetoric.

Truth about Pakistanis and grooming gangs in the UK

LONDON: Migrants seeking to settle in the UK will have to have a job, not claim benefits, and undertake community work under plans to be unveiled by the interior minister on Monday. Currently, those with family in Britain and who have lived there for five years qualify for &quot;indefinite leave to remain&quot; -- permanent residence -- as do those who have lived legally in the UK for 10 years on any type of visa. Major policy shift&nbsp;Eligible applicants meeting those thresholds also earn the right to live, work and study in the UK and to apply for benefits and British citizenship. But in a major policy shift, Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood was Monday to announce that migrants would have to make social security contributions, claim no benefits, have a clean criminal record and volunteer in their community in order to stay. Mahmood will outline the plans at the annual conference of the ruling Labour party, and the government will consult on the changes later this year, according to a press release from the party. &lsquo;Indefinite leave to remain&rsquo;The announcement comes shortly after the opposition hard-right Reform Party, which is currently leading in national polls, said it would get rid of &quot;indefinite leave to remain&quot; altogether, with migrants instead required to reapply for visas every five years. This would apply to the hundreds of thousands of people who have already attained leave to remain. &quot;These measures draw a clear dividing line between the Labour government and Reform, whose recent announcement... would force workers, who have been contributing to this country for decades, to leave their homes and families,&quot; said the Labour party statement. &lsquo;Racist&rsquo;Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday called Reform&#39;s plan &quot;racist&quot;, adding it would &quot;tear the country apart&quot;. In her first speech to the Labour conference as interior minister, Mahmood will say that migrants should learn English to a high standard and that she will be a &quot;tough&quot; minister. Immigration is a key issue in the UK, and Mahmood will warn party members that a failure to tackle it will mean that &quot;working people will turn away from us... and seek solace in the false promises&quot; of Reform leader Nigel Farage. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves will also address the conference on Monday, when she will &quot;vow to invest in Britain&#39;s renewal&quot; and announce new plans to get young people in work, according to a Labour press release.&nbsp;

The UK plans stricter rules for migrants seeking permanent residence, requiring employment, no benefits, volunteering, English proficiency, and a clean record, contrasting sharply with the Reform Party’s proposal to abolish indefinite leave entirely.

Articles tagged with "UK"