European leaders expected to hold emergency summit on Ukraine with PM to join
The prime minister will join an emergency meeting of European leaders to discuss Ukraine, expected to happen early next week.
Sir Keir Starmer has spoken of a “once in a generation moment” for the UK, US and Europe to work together and warned against NATO “divisions”.
He said the UK will “work to ensure we keep the US and Europe together” amid the threat faced from Russia.
His comments come as two senior American officials head to Saudi Arabia for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine – talks US officials have confirmed Europe will not be part of.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cautioned: “The old days are over when America supported Europe just because it always had.”
Analysis: Peace talks risk short-term win that rewards Putin
The French president is understood to be convening crisis talks between European leaders and NATO, which the prime minister will attend.
Sir Keir will then take messages from the meeting to Washington DC when he meets US President Donald Trump the following week, according to Downing Street sources.
During a talk at a security conference in Munich, Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski said he was “very glad that President Macron has called our leaders to Paris” to discuss “in a very serious fashion” the challenges posed by Mr Trump.
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Speaking to Sky News, Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns against the ‘danger’ of the Russian army
Washington also sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.
“It’s clear Europe must take on a greater role in NATO,” said Sir Keir on Saturday night.
“We cannot allow any divisions in the alliance to distract from the external enemies we face.”
Meanwhile, US national security adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff are thought to be going to Saudi Arabia for peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, according to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Sky News’ US partner network NBC News.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio arrives in Tel Aviv to start his Middle East visit. Pic: Reuters
It comes as US secretary of state Marco Rubio landed in Israel on Saturday evening to begin a diplomatic tour of the Middle East.
He will discuss Gaza and the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel during the trip, after a widely condemned proposal by President Donald Trump to displace Palestinians in Gaza.
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‘We need a European army’
On Wednesday, Mr Trump said there had been an agreement to begin negotiations about ending the war in Ukraine, after holding phone calls with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian president alluded to the conversations at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, suggesting Europe should be playing a role in the negotiations as well.
“Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement, and the same rule should apply to all of Europe,” Mr Zelenskyy said.
“The old days are over when America supported Europe just because it always had.”
He told world leaders it is time for the creation of an “armed forces of Europe”, adding his army was “not enough”.
Following his call with President Putin, Mr Trump posted on Truth Social saying: “We both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine.”
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‘Unlikely’ Ukraine gets old borders back
Mr Trump had told White House reporters he did not see any way “that a country in Russia’s position” could allow Ukraine to join NATO and that it was unlikely Ukraine would get all of its occupied land back.
It comes after Sir Keir told Mr Zelenskyy in recent days that Ukraine was still on an “irreversible path” to joining NATO.
However, on Saturday, the US special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said peace talks could focus on territorial concessions from Russia and targeting Mr Putin’s oil revenues.
“Russia is really a petrostate,” he said as he suggested Western powers needed to do more to enforce sanctions on Russia.
Mr Zelenskyy said the main issue in peace talks was to “not allow everything to go according to Putin’s plan”.
Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel will be discussing the latest political stories in the UK and around the world on the Trevor Phillips On Sunday show from 8.30am this morning.
Hester Peirce, a commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and head of the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, reaffirmed the right to crypto self-custody and privacy in financial transactions.
“I’m a freedom maximalist,” Peirce told The Rollup podcast on Friday, while saying that self-custody of assets is a fundamental human right. She added:
“Why should I have to be forced to go through someone else to hold my assets? It baffles me that in this country, which is so premised on freedom, that would even be an issue — of course, people can hold their own assets.”
Peirce added that online financial privacy should be the standard. “It has become the presumption that if you want to keep your transactions private, you’re doing something wrong, but it should be exactly the opposite presumption,” she said.
The comments came as the Digital Asset Market Structure Clarity Act, a crypto market structure bill that includes provisions for self-custody, anti-money laundering(AML) regulations, and asset taxonomy, is delayed until 2026, according to Senator Tim Scott.
Related: SEC to hold privacy and financial surveillance roundtable in December
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) challenge Bitcoin’s self-custody ethos
Many large Bitcoin (BTC) whales and long-term holders are pivoting from self-custody to ETFs to reap the tax benefits and hassle-free management of owning crypto in an investment vehicle.
“We are witnessing the first decline in self-custodied Bitcoin in 15 years,” Dr. Martin Hiesboeck, the head of research at crypto exchange Uphold, said.
Hiesboeck attributed the shift to the SEC approving in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETFs in July, which allowed authorized holders to exchange crypto for ETF shares and vice versa without triggering a taxable event, unlike cash-settled ETFs.
“A move away from the self-custody mantra of ‘not your keys, not your coins’ is another nail in the coffin of the original crypto spirit,” Hiesboeck added.
In February, notable Bitcoin analyst and investor PlanB, the developer of the BTC stock-to-flow model, announced that he transferred his Bitcoin to ETFs to alleviate the “hassle” of private key management.
PlanB’s announcement caused an outcry in the Bitcoin community, as many voiced concerns that handing over custody to a third party clashed with Bitcoin’s core values.
Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice
Jeremy Corbyn has declined to say his Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana is a friend as supporters of the new grouping gather in Liverpool.
Speaking to Sky News on the eve of the conference, Mr Corbyn acknowledged “stresses and strains” in the set-up of the party but said it had become “a lot better in the last few days and weeks and we’re going to get through this weekend”.
The former Labour leader has publicly clashed with Ms Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, over the launch and structure of the new party.
Asked if they were friends, Mr Corbyn said they were “colleagues in parliament, and we obviously communicate and so on”.
The pair appeared at separate events on the eve of the party’s inaugural gathering.
Ms Sultana had previously claimed she was being “sidelined” by a “sexist boys’ club” within the fledgling party.
Mr Corbyn said her comments were an “unfortunate choice of words” but added that he had been more involved in the organisation of the conference than she had.
The co-founders have had a strained relationship since setting up the party. Pic: Your Party
The Islington North MP also said that Your Party was still waiting for Ms Sultana to transfer all of the funds she had raised from supporters.
“Obviously having money up front for a conference is a big help,” he said.
Ms Sultana has insisted she is transferring the donations in stages.
The weekend gathering in Liverpool will see supporters choose between four options for a permanent party name: Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance, For the Many.
The preferred choice of Ms Sultana – The Left – did not make the ballot.
Similarly, the Coventry MP had said she favoured a co-leader approach, but members will only be able to pick between single leadership or collective leadership models.
Speaking at her own pre-conference rally, Ms Sultana blamed a “nameless, faceless bureaucrat” for restricting the choices.
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The meeting also risked being disrupted by a series of member expulsions. One of those ejected, Lewis Nielsen, accused a “clique” of trying to “take over”.
Your Party sources said expulsions related to members of the Socialist Workers Party and that holding another national party membership was not allowed.
Ms Sultana blamed a “culture of paranoia at the top” and said she believed the same people who had been briefing against her were now also expelling members.
Mr Corbyn will open the conference on Saturday, while the results of the main decision-making votes will be announced on Sunday.
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