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Here’s a provocative question. Has the much-vaunted phrase ‘the special relationship’ become hackneyed?

The Anglo-American phrase is deeply protected, especially by the British side.

And as Prime Minister Sunak traverses a busy few days in Washington, expect to hear it repeated lots and with photo opportunities to match.

Only former prime minister Liz Truss is said to have found it to have a somewhat desperate tone to it.

But that view lasted only as long as her premiership.

Rishi Sunak talks with Joe Biden before a session on the first day of the G7 Leaders Summit in Hiroshima Japan 
Pic:No 10 Downing Street
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Rishi Sunak with Joe Biden at G7 Leaders Summit in Japan. Pic: No 10 Downing Street

All other British prime ministers value it deeply – the phrase as well as the actual relationship.

Roots of the ‘special relationship’

It is a relationship which has its roots in the genuinely special rapport between the late Queen Elizabeth II and President Dwight D Eisenhower.

She and Eisenhower fostered a relationship in the run-up to D-Day 79 years ago this week.

Eisenhower was the wartime general. Elizabeth was the wartime princess. D-Day was an acute early example of the special relationship in action.

President Dwight Eisenhower with Queen Elizabeth in Washington in 1957
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President Dwight Eisenhower with Queen Elizabeth in Washington in 1957

The Queen would go on to anchor the relationship through numerous political leaders on both sides.

The status now of the special relationship is less clear.

There is no question that the US values the UK leadership on Ukraine (Britain is second only to America on finance and weapons and has arguably led the way in terms of rallying others), but beyond that, UK relevance just isn’t what it was.

This is not just a vibe you feel among Americans in Washington, but a sentiment you feel talking to diplomats of other countries here too.

People in this town point to Brexit and the subsequent political turmoil as the cause.

Rishi Sunak
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Rishi Sunak arrived in the US on 6 June. Pic: AP

Where once, the UK was America’s bridge to Brussels and the EU, now a new bridge has been built straight to Europe.

President Joe Biden counts EU Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen among his closest allies.

Yes – Mr Sunak and President Biden have established a smooth and warm relationship but America now has other obvious special relationships too.

The numerous different British PMs of late certainly hasn’t helped to maintain the relationship.

British officials are making much of the fact that this Sunak visit has been designated by the president as an ‘Official Working Visit’ rather than just a ‘Working Visit’.

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Why is the PM going to Washington?

There is a distinction and in Downing Street it matters and it’s appreciated.

David Cameron was the last prime minister to bag ‘official’ in the trip’s title.

The zeitgeist issue – AI

Expect Mr Sunak to focus heavily on artificial intelligence (AI) – the zeitgeist issue.

He wants Britain, with its innovation and tech credentials, to lead the way in terms of navigating the challenges of AI. But is the UK sidelined by the US-EU machines?

Absolutely not, Mr Sunak’s officials insist.

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Expect emphasis on a new level of partnership on economic security and on competition (not conflict) with China.

On China, maybe Britain could have an edge on the EU in terms of healing and fostering relations?

Expect Mr Sunak to trumpet Britain’s relevance.

Ukraine will be Mr Sunak’s example of how UK leadership is making a difference.

Rishi Sunak
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Rishi Sunak attends a laying of a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington. Pic: AP

He is expected to lobby President Biden to back the UK’s desire to push Defence Secretary Ben Wallace as the next secretary-general of NATO.

The prime minister’s time on Capitol Hill is also critical. Meeting lawmakers on ‘the Hill’ is vital for continuity in the topsy-turvy world of American politics.

Connections with politicians on the right (including the Trumpian cohort) must be fostered because who knows what will happen in November next year.

This visit is a chance to make the special relationship mean something again.

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Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney apologises to Donald Trump over anti-tariff advert featuring Ronald Reagan

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Canada's prime minister Mark Carney apologises to Donald Trump over anti-tariff advert featuring Ronald Reagan

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has apologised to Donald Trump over an anti-tariff advert featuring a clip of Ronald Reagan.

Speaking at the Asia-Pacific summit in South Korea, he also said he had reviewed the commercial and told Ontario Premier Doug Ford not to air it.

“I did apologise to the president,” Mr Carney said on Saturday, confirming earlier comments made by the US president on Friday.

“I told [Doug] Ford I did not want to go forward with the ad,” he added.

The private conversation with Mr Trump happened at a dinner hosted by South Korea’s president on Wednesday.

The commercial, commissioned by Mr Ford, included a quote from Republican former president Ronald Reagan saying that tariffs cause trade wars and economic disaster.

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Mr Trump said the advert was misleading and, in response, announced that he was increasing tariffs on goods from Canada and halting trade talks with Canada.

In a post on Truth Social, he wrote: “Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now.”

It prompted the Ontario premier to pull the ad.

On Friday, the US president expressed his irritation at the advert but also told reporters he had accepted Mr Carney’s apology.

“I like him [Carney] a lot but what they did was wrong,” he said.

“He apologised for what they did with the commercial because it was a false commercial.”

But, critically, he added that the US and Canada will not restart trade talks.

Mr Ford has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s tariffs and trade policies, which are hurting Ontario’s carmakers and steel industry.

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The ad by the Ontario government has a voiceover of Ronald Reagan criticising tariffs on foreign goods while saying they cause job losses and trade wars.

The video uses five complete sentences from a five-minute weekly address recorded in 1987, but edited together out of order.

The ad does not mention that the former US president was explaining that tariffs imposed on Japan by his administration should be seen as a sadly unavoidable exception to his basic belief in free trade as the key to prosperity.

Meanwhile, Mr Carney said his talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday were a turning point in relations after years of tensions.

He also met Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on the sidelines of the summit.

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Donald Trump calls Nigeria ‘country of particular concern’ due to ‘slaughter’ of Christians

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Donald Trump calls Nigeria 'country of particular concern' due to 'slaughter' of Christians

Donald Trump has said he is designating Nigeria a “country of particular concern” as “thousands of Christians” are being killed there.

Posting on Truth Social, he said radical Islamists are committing “mass slaughter” and Christianity is “facing an existential threat” in the West African nation.

The US president said he was asking officials to “immediately look into this matter, and report back to me”.

Mr Trump quoted figures suggesting 3,100 Christians had been killed in Nigeria, but did not state any source for the numbers or timeframe.

He stated: “We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”

Nigeria now joins North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and China on a list of countries “of particular concern” due to violations of religious freedom.

The move is one step before possible sanctions – which could mean a ban on all non-humanitarian aid.

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The Nigerian government has vehemently rejected the claims. Analysts have said that, while Christians are among those targeted, the majority of victims of armed groups are Muslims in the country’s Muslim-majority north, where the most attacks take place.

Mr Trump’s move follows efforts by Republican senator Ted Cruz to get fellow evangelical Christians to lobby Congress over claims of “Christian mass murder” in Nigeria.

Boko Haram – which kidnapped more than 270 schoolgirls in 2014 – is the main group cited in previous warnings by US and international governments.

The group has committed “egregious violations of religious freedom”, according to a 2021 report by the bipartisan US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

It said more than 37,000 people had been killed by Islamist groups in Nigeria since 2011.

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Churches and Christian neighbourhoods have been targeted in the past, but experts say Muslims are the most common victims of Boko Haram attacks, which routinely target the police, military and government.

Other groups operating said to be operating in the country include Boko Haram offshoot Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP).

About half of Nigeria’s population is estimated to be Muslim, who mostly live in the north, with roughly the other half following Christianity.

US travellers are currently urged to “reconsider” travel to Nigeria due to a threat of terrorism, crime, kidnapping and armed gangs. The UK advises its citizens along similar lines.

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Donald Trump announces dramatic drop in US refugee intake, with most of them white South Africans

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Donald Trump announces dramatic drop in US refugee intake, with most of them white South Africans

The US is drastically cutting the number of refugees it will allow into the country to 7,500, and giving priority to white South Africans.

The new figure, announced on Thursday in a memo in the Federal Registry, the official journal of the US administration, is a dramatic reduction from last year’s 125,000, set by former president Joe Biden.

No reason was given for the decrease, but the note said the admission of the 7,500 refugees during the 2026 fiscal year was “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest”.

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The notice posted to the register’s website said the 7,500 admissions would “primarily” be allocated to Afrikaner South Africans and “other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands”.

It is half the 15,000 total set for 2021 during Donald Trump’s first term in office at the height of the COVID pandemic, which reports said was the previous lowest refugee admissions cap.

Refugee rights groups were quick to condemn the proposal, with International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) president Sharif Aly, saying that by “privileging Afrikaners while continuing to ban thousands of refugees who have already been vetted and approved, the administration is once again politicising a humanitarian programme”.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, CEO of Global Refuge, said: “Concentrating the vast majority of admissions on one group undermines the programme’s purpose as well as its credibility.”

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Human Rights First president, Uzra Zeya, called it a “new low point” in US foreign policy, which will “further destabilise front-line states that host over two-thirds of the world’s nearly 43 million refugees, undermining US national security in tandem”.

US President Donald Trump showed South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa printed-out articles in the Oval Office. Pic: AP
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US President Donald Trump showed South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa printed-out articles in the Oval Office. Pic: AP

In May, Mr Trump confronted South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House, claiming white farmers in his nation were being killed and “persecuted”.

A video purporting to show burial sites for murdered white farmers was played but was later shown to be scenes from a 2020 protest in which the crosses represented farmers killed over multiple years.

The South African government has vehemently denied that Afrikaners and other white South Africans are being persecuted.

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In January, the US president suspended the US Refugee Admissions Programme (USRAP) to, in his words, allow US authorities to prioritise national security and public safety.

During the Oval Office meeting, Mr Ramaphosa said only that he hoped that Trump officials would listen to South Africans about the issue, and later said he believed there is “doubt and disbelief about all this in [Mr Trump’s] head”.

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