Rishi Sunak says UK-US relationship is in ‘great shape’ – after White House denies Biden is ‘anti-British’
Rishi Sunak says the relationship between the UK and US is “in great shape” after he held talks with Joe Biden, despite strong criticism of the president from one of Northern Ireland’s main parties.
Mr Biden arrived in the region late last night for his trip to the island of Ireland to mark 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement, and was greeted by the prime minister on the tarmac at Belfast International.
But the president, who often refers to his Irish roots, faced a swathe of criticism from senior figures in the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), who claimed he was “anti-British” and “hates the UK”.
The White House was forced to deny the accusations, calling them “simply untrue”, and insisting Mr Biden was “a strong supporter” of relations between the countries.
Commentators have also questioned the lack of time Mr Sunak and his US counterpart were spending together on the four-day trip, with only the greeting on Tuesday night and a 45-minute coffee at the Belfast Grand Central Hotel on Wednesday – dubbed a “bi-latte” by one US newspaper – in the diary.
Biden visit latest:
‘Enemies of peace will not prevail’ – updates
However, the PM pointed to the fact it was the president’s fourth visit to the UK since taking office, and the pair already had two further meetings set for May and June.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Sunak said: “[Mr Biden] and I had a very good discussion today about a range of issues, [like] economic investment in Northern Ireland, but also a range of foreign policy issues, [like] the importance of economic security, and that comes on the back of a meeting I had with him last month in the US.
“We are very close partners and allies, we cooperate and talk on a range of things – whether that is supporting Ukraine or as I said economic security.
“I think, actually, the relationship is in great shape and the president and I have lots we are working on together.”
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Bilat or bi-latte? Sunak meets Biden
Mr Biden’s visit comes amid ongoing paralysis in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, with the DUP refusing to re-join the power sharing agreement over the UK government’s post-Brexit arrangements on trade.
Mr Sunak stuck a new deal with the EU back in February, known as the Windsor Framework, in an attempt to solve ongoing issues in the region under the Norther Ireland Protocol.
But despite it getting the overall approval of the Commons, the DUP voted against it, saying Northern Ireland would still be subject to some EU laws, threatening its place in the UK’s internal market.
President Biden met the leaders of the region’s five main political parties – including the DUP’s Sir Jeffrey Donaldson – after his talk with Mr Sunak and before delivering an address at Ulster University this afternoon to commemorate the Good Friday Agreement – the deal that largely ended 30 years of bloodshed between republicans and loyalists.
During his carefully worded speech, Mr Biden said Brexit had created “complex challenges” for Northern Ireland, but said gave his backing to the Windsor Framework, saying it addressed “the practical realities” of Brexit.
The president then urged a return to power sharing at Stormont, saying: “As a friend, I hope it’s not too presumptuous for me to say that I believe democratic institutions established through the Good Friday Agreement remain critical to the future of Northern Ireland.
“It’s a decision for you to make, not me.”
Read more:
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Biden and Sunak hold talks in Belfast
Sir Jeffrey said his party “want to see the political institutions back up and running”, but any post-Brexit deal needed to ensure Northern Ireland “continues to have access to the whole of the United Kingdom and its internal market and that the arrangements to facilitate trade with the EU don’t get in the way with our ability to trade with our own country”.
Speaking to Sky News after the speech, he added: “I think there is further work that needs to be done [on the framework] and we will engage with the government to see what further can be delivered in terms of respecting and protecting Northern Ireland’s ability to trade within the United Kingdom and its internal market.
“I want to see a solution that works for everyone in Northern Ireland.”
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson
He also revealed Mr Biden “didn’t seek to apply any pressure” on him about a return to Stormont during their one-on-one meeting, saying the president “recognises it is the political leadership here that needs to take the decisions to move forward”.
However, the leader of Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, said Mr Biden had sent “a clear message to the DUP”.
She added: “I think the message here from this visit is going to be one about peace, prosperity and about stability, and that means we need the political leg of things to work as well. I’m committed to making it work.”
The sentiment was echoed by the deputy leader of the Alliance Party, Stephen Farry, who told Sky News: “There was a very clear message today. The US has been very heavily invested in our peace process, it is clear they want to remain very closely invested, but we also have to help ourselves in Northern Ireland.
“There was a very clear steer the Assembly and the Executive [in Stormont] need to be restored and restored quickly so we can ensure we can do the basics to attract investment. It is out there for us but unless we get our act together it is not going to happen.”
Also speaking to Sky News, leader of the SDLP Colum Eastwood said Mr Biden was “very clear” in his meetings with party leaders that there were “big opportunities” for American investment in the region and that the US wanted to support the peace process.
“But we need political stability,” he added. “We need an assembly. We need the DUP to go back into government. It is pretty obvious and there for the taking. I don’t know how anyone could look this gift horse in the mouth.
“The DUP need to get on with it. The deal between [the UK] and Europe is done and it is actually a good deal. It allows us to trade in both markets. The Americans want to help us. Let’s get on with it.”
Earlier on Wednesday, other members of the DUP launched scathing attacks on the president ahead of his speech in Northern Ireland.
One of the party’s MPs Sammy Wilson claimed Mr Biden had “a record of being pro-Republican, anti-Unionist, anti-British”.
And former first minister of Northern Ireland, Baroness Foster, said the president “hates the UK”.
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Joe Biden on Stormont stalemate
Senior director for Europe at the US National Security Council, Amanda Sloat, called the claims “simply untrue”, adding: “The fact that the president is going to be engaging for the third time in three months, and then again next month and then again in June with the prime minister of the UK, shows how close our co-operation is with the UK.
“President Biden obviously is a very proud Irish-American, he is proud of those Irish roots, but he is also a strong supporter of our bilateral partnership with the UK, and not only on a bilateral basis within NATO, the G7, on the UN Security Council, and we truly are working in lockstep with the British government on all of the pressing global challenges that our countries are facing.”
Some have suggested the US president’s time in the region would have been longer had Stormont been sitting – but instead he will cross the border to Ireland this afternoon for a number of engagements, including meeting the Irish president and prime minister in Dublin and a tour of Carlingford Castle in Co Louth, where he traces his roots to.
Downing Street played down claims yesterday that the engagement between Mr Biden and Mr Sunak was “low-key” and scaled back, even though the PM did not stay to watch the president’s speech – with the UK government instead being represented by Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.
Mr Heaton-Harris rejected claims Mr Sunak had “snubbed” the president, instead saying the PM had “other private engagements that he has gone to” and it was “a perfectly legitimate thing to do”.
World
Israel says first hostages handed to Red Cross as Palestinian prisoners also expected to be released
Israel says Hamas has handed over the first seven hostages to the Red Cross to be released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
The remaining Israeli hostages are being released by Hamas after being held in Gaza for more than two years, in exchange for over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The Red Cross will drive the hostages to Israeli security forces, who will take them into Israel, where they will be reunited with family and flown by helicopter to hospitals.
Follow the latest updates here
Red Cross vehicles and buses in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Pic: AP
Tens of thousands of Israelis watched the transfers at public screenings across the country.
The families and friends of hostages broke out into cheers as Israeli TV channels announced the hostages were in the hands of the Red Cross.
Israel previously said that of the 251 initially taken captive in Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, 20 of the hostages that remained in Gaza were thought to be alive, 26 were presumed dead, and the fate of two was unknown.
The 20 hostages are all men aged between 20 and 48, who have spent more than two years in captivity.
As part of the first phase of US President Donald Trump‘s ceasefire agreement, Hamas was given 72 hours to release all the Israeli hostages, alive and dead.
The agreed ceasefire started at midday local time (10am UK time) on Friday, with tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians moving back towards northern Gaza, which was mostly destroyed by Israel.
Read more:
Inside rooms where hostages will spend first nights of freedom
Britain has been playing a role behind scenes of Trump’s deal
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Who are the hostages to be freed?
Hamas has released a list of the 20 living hostages it will free. Tap on their pictures to read more about them:
Once all the hostages are released, Israel is expected to free 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and 1,700 Gazans detained after the 7 October attacks.
A second phase of the plan, which all sides have yet to agree on, could see Israeli troops further withdrawing from Gaza.
Trump says ‘war is over’
Mr Trump boarded Air Force One in Washington on Sunday to fly to Israel.
“The war is over,” he said. Asked about prospects for the region, he added: “I think it’s going to normalise.”
The US president will receive a hero’s welcome when he addresses Israel’s parliament on Monday. He will be awarded Israel’s highest civilian honour later this year, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation, with airstrikes and ground assaults devastating much of the enclave, killing more than 67,000, according to its Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half of those killed were women and children.
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A teddy sits on a bed in a bright hospital room. Beside it is a small fridge stocked with bottled water and Coca-Cola.
While the bear might make you think a child is about to arrive, this room will soon be welcoming one of the 20 Israeli hostages believed to be alive in Gaza.
With phase one of Donald Trump’s peace plan now under way, an entire nation is holding its breath for the return of the hostages, not least the medical teams preparing to receive them.
Gaza latest: Israel prepares for hostages’ release
Sky News was given special access to one of the teams in the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, a city north-east of Tel Aviv.
It was sobering and emotional, but also inspiring, talking to its doctors and nurses as they showed us around what one calls the “homecoming unit”.
A welcome sign and Israeli flag greet the returning hostages
Director of Nursing Dr Michal Steinman took us into the light airy rooms where hostages will be allowed to recover at their own speed in private, choosing when and for how long they emerge, slowly reengaging with a world they’ve not known for two years.
She explained that each of the hostages – who are all men – will be given their own private room, where a gift basket filled with thoughtful items such as a teddy, a blanket, slippers and a phone charger awaits them.
The teddy is there to help bring comfort to the freed captives.
“Our research says each one of us has a child inside,” Dr Steinman told me. “We need something to pet and feel soft, and reassure them after the lack of senses for such a long time.”
Phones, she said, will be provided by the army.
Read more:
The hostages believed to be alive
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The bear is one of many small touches added to bring the hostages comfort in the coming days
The families will also bring items from home to make the area feel more familiar to their loved ones as they slowly adjust to freedom.
The men will also have access to other areas, including a private living space where they can spend time with loved ones or greet any visiting dignitaries. Their families will also be provided with rooms to stay in, as well as an area for the children of the hostages when they visit.
Medical equipment is kept in dedicated treatment rooms as part of an effort to make the rooms feel more like accommodation than a hospital.
One of the areas where family members can wait for their loved ones who have been in captivity to arrive
While the unit is pristine and ready for the new arrivals, it has previously been used to house other hostages released by Hamas.
Staff shared anecdotes revealing what may lie ahead. Dr Steinman told us of one released hostage who had had trouble not with sleeping, but with waking up.
“When I opened my eyes,” they had told her, “I was thinking that I’m still in a dream because there’s no way that I opened my eyes and I’m not in the tunnel. I thought, ‘it’s a dream inside a dream’.”
The hostages, she said, “can’t believe for the first moments they’re not in other place.”
A living space for the men and their families to relax in
Dr Steinman found another freed captive “stuck” and standing still after opening the refrigerator.
“I told him, ‘It’s hard for you to choose?’,” she explained. “And he said, ‘I’m just amazed at the colours. All I’ve seen for 100 days is black, white and brown’.”
The professor reinventing ‘hostage medicine’
For the head of the centre, Professor Noa Eliakim-Raz, and her team, the return of the hostages will be the culmination of two years of painstaking work.
They have effectively reinvented what they call ‘hostage medicine’, learning from the treatment of groups of hostages received during this war.
Professor Noa Eliakim-Raz tells me she has been ready for this moment for a long time
She is a serious and dedicated clinician. With professional precision, she told me of the challenges ahead, including the life-threatening risks of mistreating malnourished hostages held for so long underground.
Then she gave us a glimpse into the human side of their work.
“All the team, we’ve prepared for so long, I mean really, we’ve been in this for two years and all the time, we’re preparing and ready,” she said. “This ward that you saw is ready every day.”
How does she feel as the hostages’ arrival draws near?
“I feel very grateful, and I think that’s the strongest emotion, to be part of this,” she said.
Clearly moved, Professor Noa had to pause and collect her emotions, her eyes welling up when asked what she’d be thankful for most.
“I think being part of a small step,” she began, before pausing again. “A small step of making them feel hugged again and trusting the system.”
It will, she said, be a big relief when it’s over.
Professor Noa is writing a first-of-its-kind multi-disciplinary protocol for treating long-term hostages, literally rewriting the book on how to return them to normality.
Her department did not exist before October 7. In the two years since its inception, it has pioneered a form of treatment involving many different disciplines to maximise the chances of recovery.
The Rabin Medical Center’s staff believe the lessons they’ve learned will benefit doctors around the world in future.
But they hope never to have to use them on Israelis again.
Drones have been a common sight in Gaza for a long time, but they have always been military.
The whine of a drone is enough to trigger fear in many within the enclave.
But now, drones are delivering something different – long, lingering footage of the devastation that has been wreaked on Gaza. And the images are quite staggering.
Gaza latest: Chants of ‘thank you Trump’ in Hostages Square
Whole city blocks reduced to rubble. Streets destroyed. Towns where the landscape has been wholly redesigned.
Whole city blocks reduced to rubble
Decapitated tower blocks and whole areas turned into black and white photographs, where there is no colour but only a palette of greys – from the dark hues of scorched walls to the lightest grey of the dust that floats through the air.
And everywhere, the indistinct dull grey of rubble – the debris of things that are no longer there.
Gaza is full of people returning to their homes
The joy that met the ceasefire has now changed into degrees of anxiety and shock.
Gaza is full of people who are returning to their homes and hoping for good news. For a lucky few, fortune is kind, but for most, the news is bad.
Umm Firas has been displaced from her home in Khan Younis for the past five months. She returned today to the district she knew so well. And what she found was nothing.
Umm Firas returned to find nothing
“This morning we returned to our land, to see our homes, the neighbourhoods where we once lived,” she says.
“But we found no trace of any houses, no streets, no neighbourhoods, no trees. Even the crops, even the trees – all of them had been bulldozed. The entire area has been destroyed.
“There used to be more than 1,750 houses in the block where we lived, but now not a single one remains standing. Every neighbourhood is destroyed, every home is destroyed, every school is destroyed, every tree is destroyed. The area is unliveable.
“There’s no infrastructure, no place where we can even set up a tent to sit in. Our area, in downtown Khan Younis used to be densely populated. Our homes were built right next to each other. Now there is literally nowhere to go.
“Where can we go? We can’t even find an empty spot to pitch our tent over the ruins of our own homes. So we are going to have to stay homeless and displaced.”
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It is a story that comes up again and again. One man says that he cannot even reach his house because it is still too near the Israeli military officers stationed in the area.
Another, an older man whose bright pink glasses obscure weary eyes, says there is “nothing left” of his home “so we are leaving it to God”.
“I’m glad we survived and are in good health,” he says, “and now we can return there even if it means we need to eat sand!”
A man says there is ‘nothing left’
A bulldozer moves rubble
The bulldozers have already started work across the strip, trying to clear roads and allow access. Debris is being piled into huge piles, but this is a tiny sticking plaster on a huge wound.
The more you see of Gaza, the more impossible the task seems of rebuilding this place. The devastation is so utterly overwhelming.
Bodies are being found in the rubble while towns are full of buildings that have been so badly damaged they will have to be pulled down.
Humanitarian aid is needed urgently, but, for the moment, the entry points remain closed. Charities are pleading for access.
It is, of course, better for people to live without war than with it. Peace in Gaza gifts the ability to sleep a little better and worry a little less. But when people do wake up, what they see is an apocalyptic landscape of catastrophic destruction.
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