Sir Ed Davey has written to King Charles to explain why he believes he has to refuse his invite to a state banquet for Donald Trump.

The Lib Dem leader said on Wednesday he will be boycotting the dinner next month during the US president’s second state visit to the UK because of the situation in Gaza.

He told Sky News on Thursday: “I’ve written to him [the King] personally explaining my thinking.

“And it’s with deep regret that I’ve had to take the decision, but I feel with what is going on in Gaza, it’s the best way I can get my voice heard.”

Politics latest: Asylum hotel injunction appeal decision coming soon

Sir Ed said the “sad truth” is Mr Trump is the “one man” who has the power to stop the “horrible famine in Gaza, could get the hostages released, could bring an end to this horrendous humanitarian crisis”.

He said the US president could do that by phoning up Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and telling him to stop.

The Lib Dem leader said Mr Trump could also call up the Qatari government and other Gulf states to get them to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining 50 Israeli hostages (20 living, 30 dead) they took on 7 October 2023.

He emphasised that he has “huge respect” for the King and it was a very difficult decision he “really wrestled with” and involved him talking to his wife and praying about it.

Sir Ed denied it was political posturing and instead is one of the only ways he could get Mr Trump to listen.

“I didn’t want him to come to the UK without being reminded, as best I can, that he has that moral responsibility, frankly,” he added.

“And from what I’m picking up from many people, there are people across the political spectrum who agree with me and the Democrats that it is Donald Trump, it is the United States who has this power over Netanyahu, over Hamas, albeit indirectly, to stop this horrendous situation.”

Publicly refusing the King’s invite is “the best way I can get my voice heard,” Sir Ed said.

Read more:
British journalists demand action from PM over war in Gaza
Has Trump ended seven wars as he claims?

Tony Blair at White House Gaza meeting

While Sir Ed is choosing to snub Mr Trump to get his voice heard, former Labour prime minister Sir Tony Blair has been asked by the US president for help on Gaza.

Sir Tony joined a White House meeting on Wednesday, chaired by Mr Trump, to discuss the war in Gaza and post-war plans for the Palestinian territory, a senior White House official confirmed.

They were joined by Mr Trump’s former Middle East envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to also discuss the hostage crisis and plans to escalate food aid deliveries.

The official described it as “simply a policy meeting”.

In July, the Financial Times reported the Tony Blair Institute had participated in a project to develop a post-war Gaza plan, with the think tank having “had many calls with different groups on post-war reconstruction of Gaza but none included the idea of forcible relocation of people from Gaza”.

Sir Ed called on Sir Tony to be quizzed in parliament about his discussions with the Trump administration.

“If he has special insight into Trump’s intentions, it’s only right that parliament and the government are made privy to this,” he said.

“We must leverage all the information and resources at our disposal to make Trump do the right thing.”

Police have released new details about the killer in the US Catholic school shooting – including that they “idolised” mass murderers and they wanted to “watch children suffer”.

Two children, aged eight and 10, were killed during mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday.

Eighteen other people were injured, including children aged between six and 15 and three adults in their 80s.

Police said Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman, opened fire with a rifle through the windows of the school’s church as children sat in pews.

Almost 120 rifle rounds fired, police chief says

In a news conference on Thursday, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the attacker fired 116 rifle rounds into the church.

“It is very clear that this shooter had the intention to terrorise those innocent children,” he added.

The police chief said the killer “fantasised” about the plans of other mass shooting attackers and wanted to “obtain notoriety”.

When asked about the attacker obtaining the firearms used legally, Mr O’Hara said that they did not have a criminal history or any diagnosed mental health disorders.

While they had potentially concerning social media posts, the police chief added that there was no evidence to suggest that Westman was legally barred from purchasing a firearm.

Suspect ‘wanted to watch children suffer’

Joe Thompson, acting US attorney for Minnesota, also said evidence recovered of the killer’s plans showed “pure indiscriminate hate” and that they “idolised some of the most notorious school shooters and mass murderers in our country’s history”.

“I won’t dignify the shooter’s words by repeating them,” Mr Thompson added. “They are horrific and vile, but in short, the shooter wanted to watch children suffer.”

Earlier, the mayor of Minneapolis called for a statewide and federal ban on assault weapons after the deadly attack, saying “thoughts and prayers are not going to cut it”.

“There is no reason that someone should be able to reel off 30 shots before they even have to reload,” he said.

“We’re not talking about your father’s hunting rifle gear. We’re talking about guns that are built to pierce armour and kill people.”

Thomas Klemond, interim CEO of Minneapolis’s main trauma hospital Hennepin Healthcare, said at a news conference earlier that the hospital was treating nine patients injured in the shooting.

One child at the hospital was in a critical condition, he added.

Children’s Minnesota Hospital also said that three children remain in its care as of Thursday morning.

Read more from Sky News:
Cost of weight-loss drug to be discounted in UK pharmacies
What could happen next at Man Utd after Grimsby humiliation
UN staff pressure human rights chief to call Gaza a genocide

Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

In a post on Facebook, the hospital said “there are no words to describe the overwhelming pain many are feeling”, adding: “We feel that pain with you.

“To the entire Annunciation community, you have our deepest condolences. During this time of unimaginable grief and loss, we want you to know that we at Children’s Minnesota are with you.

“We will always be here to care for you. And in this moment, we hurt alongside you.”

After all those raised hopes of peace, Ukraine has been hit by the second-worst night of Russian air attacks since the war began.

So much for diplomacy, despite the Alaska summit, then the Washington DC meeting.

The Kremlin says it was aiming at military targets, but yet again, the pictures tell a very different story.

Follow latest: UK summons Putin’s ambassador

One civilian building after another was hit, more than a dozen people were killed and British Council and EU buildings were also damaged.

So what’s going on? Why is Vladimir Putin doing it?

Because he can.

The Russian president thinks he’s winning this war, and it’s hard to escape the conclusion that he’s using diplomacy to play for time while he carries on beating down the Ukrainians will to win.

And at the moment, no one is stopping him

Ukraine is hitting back, particularly at Russia‘s oil installations, more of them going up in thick black smoke, after being hit by long-range Ukrainian drones.

It is taking a heavy toll on Putin’s ‘Achilles heel’, but on its own, analysts don’t expect it will be enough to persuade him to end this war.

The West can wring its hands in condemnation.

But it’s divided between Europe that wants a ceasefire and much more severe sanctions, and President Trump, who, it seems, does not – strangely always willing to sympathise with the Russians more than Ukraine.

He’s back to blaming Ukraine for starting the war, saying earlier in the week that Kyiv should not have got into a war it had no chance of winning.

It is a grotesque perversion of history. Ukraine, of course, had no choice but to fight to defend itself when it was invaded in an act of unprovoked aggression.

Every time the US president has condemned Russia for these kinds of attacks, he has never followed through and done nothing to punish them.

More worryingly for the Ukrainians, the Russians are getting the upper hand in the drones war, taking Iranian technology and souping it up into faster-moving drones that the Ukrainians are having increasing difficulty bringing down.

They expect as many as a thousand drones a night coming their way by the winter, and many, many more innocents to die.

Next week, Putin will join Chinese and North Korean leaders in a summit in Beijing, both supporting his war in Ukraine.

Read more from Dominic Waghorn:
Ukrainians warn they’re in danger of losing drone arms race
We are further away from peace now than we were two weeks ago

Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

A war that began as one man’s mad idea has, in three and a half years, metastasised into a titanic struggle between east and west, fought increasingly with machines in a dystopian evolution of war.

If President Trump is not prepared to use his power to bring this war to an end, what will another three and a half years of his presidency bring?

It is a chilling question.