Category: 2. World

Britain’s Yvette Cooper was named foreign minister on Friday, replacing David Lammy who will become deputy prime minister and justice minister, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said in a statement.

The appointment is the most significant of a cabinet reshuffle carried out by Starmer following the resignation of deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, after she admitted underpaying property tax on a new home.

Shabana Mahmood, currently the justice minister, will replace Cooper at the home office – or interior ministry – taking on the brief which includes tackling illegal migration.

The government also appointed new ministers in departments including the environment, business, housing, and work and pensions.

US Navy Seals shot and killed a number of North Korean civilians during a botched covert mission to plant a listening device in the nuclear-armed country during high-stakes diplomatic negotiations in 2019, the New York Times reported on Friday.

Citing unidentified sources, including current and former military officials with knowledge of the still-classified details, the newspaper said Donald Trump approved the operation during his first administration, as he was involved in historic talks with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.

The plan was designed to fix a “blind spot” in US intelligence that would allow the US to intercept the North Korean leader’s communications, potentially giving Trump an advantage ahead of the summit between the two leaders in 2019.

But it unraveled when the detachment of Navy Seals came across North Korean civilians who appeared to be diving for shellfish, the Times reported. The American forces opened fire, killing all those on the small fishing vessel, the report said, without specifying the number of casualties.

Neither the US nor the North Korean government has made the botched operation public. Before approving the plan, the White House had been concerned that even a small military action against North Korea could provoke a “catastrophic retaliation”.

A classified Pentagon review later concluded the killings were justified under the rules of engagement, the report said.

In 2019, the Seals were dispatched to North Korean waters in a nuclear-powered submarine, and then deployed in two mini-subs in frigid waters to reach the shore. A group of eight Seals were then supposed to sneak past North Korean border forces, install the device, and then escape undetected. However, the operation was disrupted by the attack on the civilians, and the Seals left without installing the device.

The newspaper also revealed that the plan was based on a similar 2005 operation approved by George W Bush.

The White House, the Pentagon and the US embassy in Seoul did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Since Trump’s last summit with Kim in 2019, talks have fallen apart and North Korea has forged ahead with its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program.

Trump this week said that US forces had killed 11 people in a strike on a boat in international waters that he claimed was carrying drugs to the United States. The White House has released few details about the operation, which it claimed targeted members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.

A potential UN-endorsed reconstruction plan for Gaza, including a one-year technocratic government, an international stabilisation force, disarmament of Hamas and a rejection of mass deportation of Palestinians, is being discussed with the US to prevent the UN general assembly descending into a bitter row about the symbolic recognition of Palestine as a state.

It is almost certain that the UK, France, Canada, Belgium and Malta will recognise the state of Palestine at a UN conference on 22 September to be held on the sidelines of the general assembly, in the week when world leaders deliver major speeches.

Britain had suggested it may not recognise Palestine if Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire, but the Israeli government has adamantly rejected a ceasefire and announced an intention to capture Gaza City.

However, Britain is eager for the two-state conference not to be dominated by a row about whether recognition is premature or a reward for Hamas, which is the charge mounted by the Israeli government.

In a weekend visit to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, said he was focusing on the need “to turn any ceasefire into a durable peace, through a monitoring mechanism, the disarmament of Hamas and a new governance framework for Gaza”.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, who faces internal divisions within his coalition, has not spelled out a full vision for a postwar Gaza, but has increasingly spoken of a permanent Israeli presence in Gaza and annexation of the West Bank.

The plans for a UN-endorsed Gaza reconstruction are being discussed in detail with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, who has warned that the Israeli threat to annex the West Bank is a wholly predictable reciprocal response to Europe taking the step of recognising Palestine.

It is expected that the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, will visit London before the UN conference. The US has announced it will not give visas to Abbas and the authority’s delegation for the general assembly, a decision Europeans are protesting against on the grounds that a reformed Palestinian Authority is essential to a ceasefire and the future governance of Palestine.

Plans reportedly floated in the White House that in effect endorse Israeli annexation of Gaza and the West Bank are anathema to the European and Gulf leaders. “Displacement is not an option and it is a red line for Egypt, and we will not allow it to happen,” the Egyptian foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, said on Friday.

Tony Blair, close to many Gulf leaders as well as Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has been in discussion with the UK Foreign Office and met Trump last week in the White House.

The two most controversial issues remain the disarmament of Hamas, a requirement of all European leaders, and whether candidates linked in the past to Hamas or terrorism will be able to stand in any elections for the Palestinian presidency and parliament.

Speaking this week at the Chatham House thinktank, Dr Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian representative in the UK, said the Palestinian Authority was committed to staging elections in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, within a year of a ceasefire. A technocratic government would govern Palestine in the meantime.

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On the issue of Hamas figures standing in the later elections, Zomlot said: “It will be up to internal revisions within Hamas. I assure you the Palestinian people are very clever; they will elect the people that will actually serve them best.”

He added: “There had to be one law, one government, one police force. We will do that because the main requirement right now is to keep our unity of territorial system, but in the end Hamas is part of the Palestinian political, national and social fabric, and they will not just disappear in a second. What we are discussing is not erasure, but reform, change in direction and internal dialogue, so we avert Israel’s complete annihilation project.”

At a preliminary two-state solution conference in New York in June, Arab and Muslim states, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, for the first time issued a joint call for Hamas to disarm and relinquish power in the Gaza Strip as part of efforts to end the war in the territory.

The 22-member Arab League, the entire EU and another 17 countries backed the declaration that read: “The governance, law enforcement and security across all Palestinian territory must lie solely with the Palestinian Authority, with appropriate international support,” adding that “in the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state”.

Reuters

Lammy appointment follows resignation of left-wing champion Angela Rayner, who stepped down over a tax scandal.

United Kingdom foreign minister David Lammy has been appointed as the country’s new deputy prime minister, replacing Angela Rayner after she resigned amid a tax scandal.

Rayner’s resignation on Friday for breaching ministerial code after underpaying tax on her flat prompted a major cabinet reshuffle, with Lammy’s elevation to deputy prime minister among a raft of new appointments.

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The departure of Rayner – a figure viewed by many as a ballast of the left and a potential successor to Prime Minister Keir Starmer – has created turmoil in the Labour Party, which now trails hard-right firebrand Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party in national polls.

In a letter to Starmer on Friday, Rayner conceded she “did not meet the highest standards” and would resign from her roles as housing minister and deputy leader of Labour.

“I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice,” she said, having last week admitted to underpaying a surcharge on the flat. She said she took “full responsibility for this error”.

Starmer, whose government has endured a series of crises since taking power in July 2024, replied that he was “very sad” to lose her from government, but added: “You will remain a major figure in our party.”

“In losing her, Keir Starmer loses perhaps the closest link the Labour Party has to its working-class roots,” reported Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull from Birmingham in the UK.

Starmer’s reshuffle also saw Yvette Cooper moved from the interior ministry to replace Lammy as foreign secretary, the prime minister’s office said. Shabana Mahmood, who was justice secretary, replaces Cooper as home secretary; while Lammy now takes on the role of justice secretary in addition to his position as deputy prime minister.

House of Commons leader Lucy Powell and Scotland secretary Ian Murray confirmed in statements on Friday that they were leaving government, following earlier reports they had been fired.

In a post on X, Powell said Starmer had told her he intended to replace her with a new Commons leader.

“This has not been an easy time for the government. People want to see change and improvements to their difficult lives,” Powell said.

A Statement from me: pic.twitter.com/5NmhJeKDRV

— Lucy Powell MP (@LucyMPowell) September 5, 2025

‘Complexity’ in Rayner tax scandal

Rayner disclosed on Wednesday that she had underpaid so-called stamp duty on a seaside flat in southern England following days of reports suggesting that she had saved 40,000 pounds ($53,000) by removing her name from the deeds of another property.

After looking into the case, ethics chief Laurie Magnus said the rules “entailed a considerable degree of complexity” and recognised that Rayner had twice been advised that the lower rate of stamp duty was applicable.

That advice, however, was qualified by the admission that it did not constitute expert tax advice.

Rayner’s failure to seek further guidance meant she “cannot be considered to have met the highest possible standards of proper conduct”, said Magnus.

Rayner, who became a single mother at the age of 16 after growing up in poverty, worked her way up from the shop floor as a union representative, forging a lifelong involvement with the Labour Party.

Often tipped to become Labour leader one day, she has been a top target for political attacks by the Conservatives and right-wing media.

Her demise is viewed by many as a major setback for Starmer who has been trying to resurrect his flagging government after a difficult summer marked by economic gloom and anti-immigration protests.

Reporting from London, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands questioned whether he would succeed, with UK voters “disenchanted” with the mainstream Labour and Conservative parties looking to the “flashy right-wing populism” of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that any Western troops deployed to Ukraine would be legitimate targets for Moscow to attack, in a warning to Kyiv’s allies as they discuss measures for its future protection.

Putin was speaking a day after French President Emmanuel Macron said 26 countries had pledged to provide postwar security guarantees to Ukraine, including an international force on land, sea and in the air.

Russia has long argued that one of its reasons for going to war in Ukraine was to prevent NATO from admitting Kyiv as a member and placing its forces in Ukraine.

“Therefore, if some troops appear there, especially now, during military operations, we proceed from the fact that these will be legitimate targets for destruction,” Putin told an economic forum in Vladivostok.

“And if decisions are reached that lead to peace, to long-term peace, then I simply do not see any sense in their presence on the territory of Ukraine, full stop.”

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Putin’s comments highlighted the gulf between Moscow’s position and that of Kyiv and its Western allies on the shape of future security guarantees for Ukraine under any agreement to end the three-and-a-half-year war.

Ukraine seeks robust backing from the West to protect it against any future attack. France and Britain, which co-chair a “coalition of the willing” in support of Ukraine, have signalled they are open to deploying troops to Ukraine after the war ends.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that Washington will not put troops on the ground but may provide other support such as air power.

Putin said security guarantees must be set in place for both Russia and Ukraine.

“I repeat once again, of course, Russia will implement these agreements. But, in any case, no one has discussed this with us at a serious level yet,” he said.

Trump, who took office in January with a pledge to end the war quickly, hosted Putin for a summit in Alaska last month that failed to achieve any breakthrough.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has long been pushing for a direct meeting with Putin in order to make progress towards ending Europe’s deadliest war for 80 years.

Putin said on Friday that he did not see much point in such a meeting because “it will be practically impossible to reach an agreement with the Ukrainian side on key issues”.

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However, he reiterated an offer he made earlier this week to host Zelenskiy for talks in Moscow.

“I said: I’m ready, please, come, we will definitely provide working conditions and security, a 100% guarantee.

“But if they tell us: ‘we want to meet with you, but you have to go somewhere else for this meeting’, it seems to me that these are simply excessive requests on us.”

Zelenskiy, without directly addressing the possibility of Moscow as a venue, said on Friday: “We are ready for any kind of meetings. But we don’t feel that Putin is ready to end this war. He can speak but it’s just words, and nobody trusts his words.”

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on a high-rise building in Gaza City, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, after the Israeli army issued a prior warning.
| Photo Credit: AP