Sir Keir Starmer set for Donald Trump trade talks as PM walks diplomatic line between EU allies and US on Gaza
Gaza and transatlantic trade are set to dominate talks between Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer when the pair meet in Scotland on Monday.
Downing Street said the prime minister would discuss “what more can be done to secure the ceasefire [in the Middle East] urgently”, during the meeting at the president’s Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire.
Talks in Qatar over a ceasefire ended on Thursday after the US and Israel withdrew their negotiating teams.
Mr Trump blamed Hamas for the collapse of negotiations as he left the US for Scotland, saying the militant group “didn’t want to make a deal… they want to die”.
Sir Keir has tried to forge close personal ties with the president, frequently praising his actions on the world stage despite clear foreign policy differences between the US and UK.
The approach seemed to pay off in May when Mr Trump announced the agreement of a trade deal with the UK that would see several tariffs lowered.
The two leaders are expected to discuss this agreement when they meet, with the prime minister likely to press the president for a lowering of outstanding tariffs on imports such as steel.
Prior to the visit, the White House said the talks would allow them to “refine the historic US-UK trade deal”.
Extracting promises from the president on the Middle East may be harder though.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Should aid be dropped into Gaza?
Despite some reports that Mr Trump is growing frustrated with Israel, there is a clear difference in tone between the US and its Western allies.
As he did over the Ukraine war, Sir Keir will have to walk a diplomatic line between the UK’s European allies and the White House.
On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country would formally recognise a Palestinian state in September, the first member of the G7 to do so.
That move was dismissed by Mr Trump, who said it “doesn’t carry any weight”.
Read more from Sky News:
US and EU agree trade deal – with bloc facing 15% tariffs
Geldof accuses Israel of ‘lying’ about Gaza starvation
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Trump: ‘It doesn’t matter what Macron says’
The UK, French and German leaders spoke over the weekend and agreed to work together on the “next phase” in Gaza that would see transitional governance and security arrangements put in place, alongside the large-scale delivery of aid.
Under pressure from members of his own party and cabinet to follow France and signal formal recognition of Palestine, Sir Keir has gradually become more critical of Israel in recent months.
On Friday, the prime minister said “the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel’s disproportionate military escalation in Gaza are all indefensible”.
Government sources say UK recognition is a matter of “when, not if”, however, it’s thought Downing Street wants to ensure any announcement is made at a time when it can have the greatest diplomatic impact.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Baby Zainab starved to death in Gaza
Cabinet ministers will be convened in the coming days, during the summer recess, to discuss the situation in Gaza.
The UK has also been working with Jordan to air drop supplies, after Israel said it would allow foreign countries to provide aid to the territory.
President Trump’s trip to Scotland comes ahead of his second state visit to the UK in September.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Downing Street says Ukraine will also likely be discussed in the meeting with both men reflecting on what can be done to force Russia back to the negotiating table.
After the meeting at Turnberry, the prime minister will travel with the president to Aberdeen for a private engagement.
Mr Trump is also expected to meet Scottish First Minister John Swinney while in the country.
When FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022, it sent shockwaves throughout the crypto world, erasing billions in market liquidity and shattering confidence in centralized exchanges.
The dramatic collapse became a turning point for the digital asset industry, triggering calls for stronger transparency and reactions from regulators.
Three years after the exchange’s collapse, transparency initiatives across the crypto industry have proliferated. Proof-of-reserves attestations, audits and onchain analytics represented progress. Still, many of those reforms remain works in progress, and some of FTX’s creditors have yet to be made whole.
CEXs forced to adjust post FTX
Centralized exchanges bore the full impact of the post-FTX crisis of confidence. In the weeks following the bankruptcy, users withdrew more than $20 billion from major trading platforms, according to CoinGecko data.
In response, exchanges began publishing proof-of-reserves (PoR) attestations to demonstrate solvency. Binance released its first report on Nov. 10, 2022, followed by a Merkle Tree-based report a few days later that allowed users to verify its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings.
Around that time, OKX, Deribit and Crypto.com all published proofs-of-reserve amid fears of contagion and uncertainty surrounding crypto exchanges.
While these efforts offered some visibility into reserves, most relied on snapshots rather than continuous audits and often drew criticism from the crypto community.
One X user, David Gokhshtein, said at the time that publishing proof-of-reserves wasn’t enough. “When you aren’t showing the company’s liabilities, it means nothing,” he wrote.
Thomas Perfumo, Kraken’s global economist, told Cointelegraph that the “hard lessons of the past were never an indictment of crypto,” adding that the FTX debacle reinforced the “governance and integrity matter.”
Decentralized finance protocols also adapted following the collapse, pushing calls not only for transparency but also for self-custody as an essential safeguard for crypto users.
“We’ve seen a notable shift,” Eddie Zhang, president of dYdX Labs, told Cointelegraph. According to Zhang, DeFi now operates under stronger risk frameworks while “governance is becoming more sophisticated,” with systems that “withstand market shocks.”
Related: FTX’s 2-year repayment delay is a ‘win,’ claims trader who predicted FTX’s collapse
Creditors still waiting for closure
Despite the industry’s transparency campaigns and recent regulations, such as the GENIUS Act in the United States and the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, some FTX creditors have yet to recover their losses.
According to a Nov. 9 update by Sunil Kavuri, a FTX creditor representative, the exchange has distributed $7.1 billion to creditors across three rounds so far.
In January, FTX announced the distribution of more than $1.2 billion in repayments to creditors who fulfilled certain requirements before Jan. 20. However, according to Sunil, only $454 million was effectively paid in the first round, going to small claimants with balances under $50,000.
A larger $5 billion payout followed on May 30, while the latest round took place on Sept. 30 and distributed another $1.6 billion to creditors. The next distribution is expected in January 2026, though it has not been confirmed by the FTX estate.
FTX’s total recovered assets were estimated at about $16.5 billion in October 2024.
According to Kavuri, because repayments are being made in US dollars rather than in-kind crypto assets, creditors are missing out on the market’s rebound since 2022.
Bitcoin, valued at $16,797 the day after FTX filed for bankruptcy, was trading around $103,000 on Tuesday.
Even with cash repayments exceeding the original claim amounts, real recovery rates could range from 9% to 46% when adjusted for current crypto prices, Kavuri said.
Related: FTX drops ‘restricted countries’ motion but warns it may refile
SBF looks for a lifeline
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy but has appealed his conviction, arguing that he was denied the presumption of innocence and barred from presenting evidence that FTX was, in fact, solvent in November 2022. His legal team appeared before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Nov. 4.
Prediction market Polymarket currently assigns only a 4% probability that Bankman-Fried will receive a presidential pardon in 2025. Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, who cooperated with prosecutors, began serving her sentence in late 2024 and is projected to be released in mid-2026.
Magazine: Good luck suing crypto exchanges, market makers over the flash crash
John Deaton, a lawyer who advocates for XRP holders and ran against Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in the 2024 US election, is making another bid for Congress.
At a Monday event in Worcester, Massachusetts, Deaton announced that he would run for US Senate again in 2026, this time attempting to unseat Democratic Senator Ed Markey. The lawyer ran as the Republican candidate in 2024, losing to Warren, a Democrat, by about 700,000 votes.
“I’m winning this time,” Deaton said in a campaign video aired at the Worcester event.
Deaton, who said he will run as a Republican to unseat Markey, will likely face competition on both sides of the aisle in 2026. His campaign announcement did not specifically focus on digital asset policy, but he and Warren had previously clashed over their respective views on crypto.
Related: XRP Army made a difference in Ripple’s SEC lawsuit: Crypto lawyer
Deaton gained widespread recognition in the crypto industry by advocating on behalf of XRP (XRP) holders in Ripple Labs’ legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Seth Moulton, who represents Massachusetts’s 6th Congressional District in the US House of Representatives, is a Democratic contender in the 2026 race. Markey, who will be 80 next year, voted against the passage of the GENIUS stablecoin bill and has called out crypto mining for its “extravagant electricity use.”
Looking at a repeat of 2024?
“We’re never going to not be excited about someone advocating for [crypto] policy,” Mason Lynaugh, community director of Stand With Crypto, told Cointelegraph. “He’s going to have his own voters he’s going to cultivate that are very excited to see someone like him saying these types of things publicly.”
It’s unclear what Deaton’s chances would be in a US state that typically swings to the Democrats.
During his previous Senate campaign, cryptocurrency executives from Ripple, Gemini and Kraken supported Deaton’s run, contributing more than $360,000 in the first quarter of 2024.
Magazine: If the crypto bull run is ending… it’s time to buy a Ferrari: Crypto Kid
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024