The UK prime minister Keir Starmer has accused Donald Trump of “diminishing” the sacrifice of fallen British soldiers, as the US president faced a fierce backlash from UK political leaders and families of veterans over his comments about Nato troops.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump said: “[Nato will] say they sent some troops to Afghanistan … and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines.”
That prompted widespread condemnation across the political spectrum and resurfaced questions about Trump’s own avoidance of military service in Vietnam.
Starmer said on Friday: “I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling, and I’m not surprised they caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured.”
He also suggested Trump should apologise – not something the US president is known to do.
A total of 3,486 Nato troops died in the 20-year Afghanistan conflict, of whom 2,461 were US service personnel. Four-hundred and fifty-seven British troops died. Canada recorded 165 deaths, including civilians.
The PM’s remarks represented an escalation of tensions with Trump’s administration after the president had earlier in the week criticised the UK for giving up the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. On Friday night, the government was forced to delay its bill on the Chagos Islands in the House of Lords.
Starmer accuses Trump of diminishing sacrifice of Nato troops in Afghanistan
Starmer’s decision to call the president’s Afghanistan remarks “appalling” risks a further diplomatic rupture with the White House, but No 10 made the decision to speak out amid fury among veterans’ groups and the families of soldiers who lost their lives.
Trump supporters back bid to annex Greenland: ‘Our president is a negotiator’
Trump’s call to annex Greenland has roiled markets and flabbergasted half the world. But the president’s supporters in conservative communities – to the degree that this issue has their attention at all – are apt to accept his political argument as genuine.
Trump says US ‘armada’ heading to Middle East as Iran death toll put above 5,000
Trump has said an American “armada” is heading towards the Middle East and that the US is monitoring Iran closely, as activists put the death toll from Tehran’s crackdown on protesters at 5,002.
US immigration agents detain two-year-old Minnesota girl
Federal immigration agents detained a two-year-old girl and her father in Minneapolis on Thursday afternoon. By the evening, a federal judge had ordered the girl be released by 9.30pm. But federal officials instead put both of them on a plane heading to a Texas detention center.
Death of Cuban migrant in Texas facility officially classified as homicide
The death of a Cuban migrant inside a Texas immigration detention facility has been officially classified as a homicide, according to an El Paso county autopsy report.
Trump’s ‘pay-to-play’ politics fuel a ‘new gilded age’, experts say
Donald Trump’s “pay-to-play” governing and fundraising style is helping forge a new gilded age where many super rich donors to Trump’s Maga Inc Pac and other top Trump causes are reaping big political and financial gains, including lax regulations, federal contracts and other benefits, say scholars and analysts.
What else happened today:
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A “no work, no school, no shopping” blackout day of protest was kicked off by community leaders, faith leaders and labor unions on Friday in protest against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surge in Minnesota.
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The dangerous monster storm threatening half of the US was bearing down on Friday with 13 states already declaring emergencies and areas typically unused to prolonged Arctic temperatures bracing for power failures and supply shortages.
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A federal judge ordered the release of Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen, who were arrested and charged for their role in an anti-ICE demonstration that disrupted Sunday church services in St Paul, Minnesota.
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A greatcoat worn by the senior US border patrol official Gregory Bovino, who has spearheaded aggressive immigration operations across the country, has raised eyebrows in German media with some commentators saying it resembled a fascist aesthetic.
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The US military said on Friday that it carried out a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two people. It marked the first known attack since Trump ordered the US military to capture the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.
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A federal grand jury in Maryland has indicted a Pentagon contractor whose alleged leaking of classified documents sparked an “outrageous” FBI raid on a Washington Post reporter’s home.
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Three days into its immigration crackdown in Maine, the Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had arrested “more than 100 illegal aliens”.
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Senator Elizabeth Warren and fellow Democrats have accused Donald Trump of letting white-collar criminals “off the hook” by diverting crucial resources to his sweeping immigration crackdown.
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Ryan Wedding, the Canadian Olympic snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin, has been arrested, US law enforcement officials announced on Friday.
Catching up? Here’s what happened Thursday 22 January.
