Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine should direct its resources toward defense.Photo: anatolii stepanov/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ruled out holding elections next year, calling for political unity as his government seeks to
Britain's government set out its plans to tackle crime, boost growth and water down climate change measures on Tuesday, an unashamedly political agenda that could offer clues to how Conservatives plan to campaign ahead of elections next year.
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In an agenda written by the government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak but delivered by King Charles III to lawmakers at parliament's ornate House of Lords, Sunak signalled his intent to create a dividing line with the opposition Labour Party before elections that must be called by the end of 2024.
The speech, which lasted just over 10 minutes, set out the government's modest slate of 21 bills, ranging from changes to the way soccer teams are run to a clampdown on unlicensed pedicabs.
The government also announced plans to continue watering down environmental measures, a trend begun by Sunak when he lifted a moratorium on North Sea oil and gas extraction in July. A planned law will require new oil and gas drilling licenses in the North Sea to be awarded every year. The government argues that will protect jobs, cut Britain’s reliance on foreign fuel and increase energy security while environmentalists and opposition parties say it will just make it harder for the UK to make the switch to renewable energy.
With Labour running way ahead in the opinion polls, the prime minister's team is hoping that his agenda will close the gap by reducing the "burden" of Britain's climate targets on households and by toughening sentences for violent offenders.
There was little new in the King's Speech, more a collection of what Sunak has worked on since becoming prime minister last year on a pledge to bring stability after two fellow Conservative leaders were forced from power in a matter of weeks.
Reading some of the government's climate policies might have jarred on Charles, who has campaigned on environmental issues for more than 50 years. But government officials have repeatedly said ministers were not giving up on the overall targets, just being more "pragmatic" in how they get there.
"My government will, in all respects, seek to make long-term decisions in the interests of future generations," Charles, wearing the Imperial State Crown and royal robes, told a hushed audience of lawmakers in the upper house of parliament.
"By taking these long-term decisions, my government will change this country and build a better future," he added.
It was the first time Charles had made the speech as king – though he stood in for his mother Queen Elizabeth II months before her death last year – in a ceremony marked by pomp and pageantry.
Arriving at parliament from Buckingham Palace in a grand carriage procession, he then led a ceremony, with some of its traditions traced back to the 16th century, that delivers the government's agenda in line with Britain's unusual constitutional division of executive powers.
Election campaign
What Charles read out suggested Britain has already entered campaign season.
The government signalled it would move ahead with the Sentencing Bill that will bring forward tougher jail sentences for the most serious offenders, and repeated its pledge to boost economic growth and reduce inflation.
But, in a possible sign that calls from some Conservative lawmakers to offer voters tax cuts will go unheeded, the King said: "My ministers will address inflation and the drivers of low growth over demands for greater spending or borrowing."
Sunak also confirmed he would phase out tobacco sales to young people in England and press on with attempts to tackle illegal migration.
In an attempt to win over younger voters, the government also said it would press ahead with reforms to the housing market, outlawing no-fault evictions for renters and amending a system described by a minister as "feudal" which forces the owners of some properties to pay rent to a freeholder.
But Sunak faces an uphill struggle to win back voters, with Labour holding an around 20-point lead in the polls. His party is mired in allegations of sex scandals, under scrutiny over its actions during the Covid-19 pandemic and is deeply divided over its strategy before the next election.
He is hopeful his agenda can turn things around.
"We have turned the corner over the last year and put the country on a better path," he said in his introduction.
"But these immediate priorities are not the limit of our ambition. They are just the foundations of our plan to build a better future for our children and grandchildren, and deliver the change the country needs."
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed efforts to expand aid to Gaza with his Turkish counterpart. Blinken has been on a regional tour of the Middle East as the U.S. faces pressure to secure a pause in fighting amid the Israel-Hamas conflict. Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Pool/AFP/Getty
The U.S. is dialing up pressure on Israel to ease its
President Biden, in a phone call Monday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urged the Israeli leader to declare a humanitarian pause, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
KYIV — Russia bombed the Odesa region on Sunday, damaging an art museum and warehouses, a day after Ukrainian forces struck a Russian missile carrier at a Kerch shipyard.
A Russian Kalibr missile carrier was destroyed in the Ukrainian attack on Saturday, Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Forces, said in a statement Sunday. The ship was in the Russian Zaliv shipyard in the city of Kerch in Russian-occupied Crimea.
“Well done, the attack went through like a SCALPel,” Oleshchuk said, hinting that the Ukrainian pilot used French SCALP cruise missiles for the attack.
Oleshchuk did not name the vessel. But the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty claimed it was the Askold — one of the newest Russian missile carriers. Russia’s defense ministry confirmed only that the ship had been damaged.
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Ukrainian forces also targeted a Russian ammo depot in Sedove on the coast of the Azov Sea in the Donetsk region Sunday evening.
“It will keep detonating until morning for sure. People on the spot say that only a part of the warehouse is now destroyed, but nothing can be saved there,” Petro Andriyushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol in exile, said in a Telegram statement, posting videos of the ammo detonation after the attack. The videos could not be verified by POLITICO.
Also Sunday night, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with six cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as 22 “Shahed-136/131” kamikaze drones, Ukrainian Army General Staff reported Monday morning. Ukrainian air forces managed to destroy only two missiles and 15 drones. Most of them were aimed at the Odesa and Kherson regions.
“Rockets hit the city center and an industrial building that was no longer in use,” the Ukrainian staff said.
The blast wave damaged several high-rise residential buildings and a museum in the historic part of the city — a UNESCO World Heritage Site. While drones attacked port infrastructure, damaging warehouses, special unloading equipment and grain trucks,” Oleh Kiper, head of the Odesa regional military administration, said in a statement Monday. Eight people were injured.
The prominent Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi has been arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
Ms Tamimi, 22, was detained overnight in the village of Nabi Saleh, the Palestinian Prisoners' Society said.
Israel's military told AFP news agency she was suspected of "inciting violence and terrorist activities".
Israeli media reported that Ms Tamimi was arrested in connection with a post on Instagram that threatened to "slaughter" Jewish settlers.
"[By comparison] you will say that what Hitler did to you was a joke," she is purported to have written, referring to the mass murder of six million Jews in the Holocaust by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, according to the newspaper Haaretz.
The post is no longer visible online, nor is the account carrying Ms Tamimi's name and photo where it was published last week.
Israel's far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, posted a photograph on X, formerly known as Twitter, that appeared to show an Israeli soldier restraining Ahed Tamimi in a bedroom.
He accused her of expressing "sympathy and support for the Nazi human beings on social media" and vowed: "Zero tolerance with terrorists and supporters of terrorism!"
However, Ms Tamimi's mother, Nariman, denied that she wrote the post.
"There are dozens of [online] pages in Ahed's name with her photo, with which she has no connection," she told AFP.
Ahed Tamimi became an international symbol of resistance to Israel's occupation as a teenager.
In 2015, the then-14-year-old was photographed biting an Israeli soldier who was trying to detain her younger brother.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Society said Ms Tamimi was one of at least 70 Palestinians arrested in Israeli raids across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday night.
That raised to 2,150 the total reportedly detained there since 7 October, when Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage.
Israel has bombarded Gaza continuously since then and sent in ground forces more than a week ago with the aim of destroying Hamas. More than 9,700 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The West Bank has seen an alarming surge in violence at the same time.
Russia said Sunday it had successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads from one of its submarines.
The launch of the "Bulava" missile, the first in just over a year, comes as Russia ramps up nuclear rhetoric since revoking its ratification of a key nuclear test ban treaty.
"The new nuclear-powered strategic missile submarine cruiser Emperor Alexander the Third has successfully launched the Bulava sea-based intercontinental ballistic missile," the Defense Ministry said.
It said it fired the under-sea missile from an undisclosed location in the White Sea on its northwest coast, to a target thousands of kilometers away on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula.
"The missile firing took place in the normal mode from an underwater position," it said, adding: "The missile heads arrived at the designated area at the appointed time."
The 12-metre-long Bulava missile was designed to be the backbone of Moscow's nuclear triad and has a range of over 8,000 kilometers (close to 5,000 miles).
The West has accused Moscow of using reckless nuclear rhetoric since it launched its offensive against Ukraine last February.
President Vladimir Putin earlier this week signed a law revoking Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, a move strongly criticized by the United States.
The 1996 treaty outlaws all nuclear explosions, including live tests of nuclear weapons, though it never came into force because some key countries — including the United States and China — never ratified it.
The Israeli military exchanged fire with Hezbollah militants on Saturday as skirmishes with the group continue at the Lebanon-Israel border.
Israel launched airstrikes on multiple Hezbollah positions near the Lebanese border as the Iran-backed militant group launched rockets towards Israeli targets, the Associated Press reported.
“What the Israelis do to Lebanon will also determine how we will act,” leader Hassan Nasrallah said Friday. “All options are on the table on the Lebanese front.”
Hezbollah said in a statement that its fighters attacked at least six Israeli posts along the border, saying that “direct hits were scored and technical equipment was destroyed.”
The organization’s Al-Manar TV also reported that fighters shot down a spy balloon that Israel’s military posted over the northern town of Misgaf Am, according to The AP.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the strikes and Israel’s response early Saturday. Avichay Adraee said that airstrikes, artillery and tanks assaulted Hezbollah positions and targeted “terrorist infrastructure, weapons depots, and compounds.”
The U.S. embassy in Beirut issued a security alert on Saturday following the strikes, urging all U.S. citizens to leave the country while flights are available.
The recent skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israel have been the most frequent and deadliest in years. The two sides last fought in a full conflict in 2006, which ended in stalemate.
“Israel is weaker than a spider web,” Nasrallah said in Friday’s remarks.
Nasrallah’s threats come as the Israeli military escalates its ground invasion of Gaza, entering Gaza City for the first time Friday.
The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,448, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting. Over 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.
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