| British News |
| Sir Keir Starmer says Auschwitz visit ‘utterly harrowing’ as he vows to fight ‘poison of antisemitism’ |
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Sir Keir Starmer has called his visit to Auschwitz “utterly harrowing” and said he was determined to fight the “poison of antisemitism”. The prime minister visited the former Nazi concentration camp where he laid a wreath ahead of the 80th anniversary of its liberation, during a trip to Poland to meet its political leaders. After he and his wife Victoria, who is Jewish, visited the site, Sir Keir said: “Nothing could prepare me for the sheer horror of what I have seen in this place. It is utterly harrowing. The mounds of hair, the shoes, the suitcases, the names and details, everything that was so meticulously kept, except for human life. “As I stood by the train tracks at Birkenau, looking across that cold, vast expanse, I felt a sickness, an air of desolation, as I tried to comprehend the enormity of this barbarous, planned, industrialised murder: a million people killed here for one reason, simply because they were Jewish.” |
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| PM will meet Trump within weeks, Lammy suggests |
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Sir Keir Starmer will visit Washington for talks with Donald Trump within weeks, the foreign secretary has suggested. Speaking ahead of Trump’s inauguration as president on Monday, David Lammy said the “strength” of the UK-US relationship meant he was “very confident” the PM would secure an early meeting. There are several diplomatic challenges looming for the Labour government in its engagement with the new administration, including proposed trade tariffs and growing tensions over the UK’s proposed Chagos Islands deal. The prime minister has said he believes the “special relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States will continue to flourish” under Trump. Speaking to reporters, Lammy said: “I think that when you look at past prime ministers, it’s taken between a week or up to a month to come to Washington. The importance is the strength of the relationship and the serious discussions that we have. “In the end, we have war in Europe, we have a ceasefire in the Middle East, but it’s incredibly fragile, and there are important malign actors like Iran that we’ve got to discuss with the United States and, of course, our growing trade relations with the United States. “So, lots to discuss, and I’m very confident that Keir Starmer will be discussing this with Donald Trump within the next few weeks.” |
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| World News |
| Trump said preparing to pardon people charged in Jan. 6 assault on US Capitol |
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| Rioters supporting then-US president Donald Trump try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington, on January 6, 2021. (Julio Cortez/AP) |
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US President Donald Trump is preparing to issue sweeping pardons to defendants charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and intends to cut short sentences for some people who attacked police, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. The source did not give details about when Trump planned to do so. The plan, first reported by ABC News, calls for pardoning those who did not commit violence during the riot at the Capitol, effectively wiping away legal consequences from their convictions. Trump is also seeking to commute the sentences of some of those convicted of assaults on law enforcement, a move that would not absolve them of guilt but could lead to the release of some rioters currently in prison. More than 1,580 people have been criminally charged with participating in the riot, a failed attempt by Trump supporters to block the congressional certification of the 2020 election. |
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| Families of Israeli hostages invited on stage during Trump inauguration celebration |
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During Donald Trump’s inauguration celebration, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff took the stage as the sole speaker, delivering a message that underscored the high stakes of international diplomacy and personal sacrifice. Witkoff began his remarks by crediting Trump’s leadership for the recent Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal, emphasizing that such a breakthrough would have been impossible without the former president’s efforts. Then, in an unexpected and poignant gesture, he invited families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza to join him on stage. The audience fell silent as Trump himself approached, shaking hands with each family member. The interaction brought their plight to the forefront of the event. Trump then proceeded to speak at the event – completely unrelated to Israel – but continued to have the families of hostages stand behind him for the duration of the address. |
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| Israel News |
| ‘I thought I’d die in Gaza’: First testimonies from freed hostages released |
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After 471 days in captivity at the hands of Hamas terrorists in Gaza, three Israeli women who were released on the first day of a hostage release-ceasefire deal with the terror group have begun to share details of their ordeal, according to reports in Hebrew media on Monday. Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, were handed over to the Red Cross by masked Hamas gunmen in Gaza City on Sunday afternoon, surrounded by what appeared to be a chaotic crowd of mainly young men, many of them in Hamas uniforms and masked. “We were scared to death at the transfer point, from the combination of the armed terrorists and the Gazan crowd,” one of the women was quoted as saying by Channel 12 news, in comments approved for publication by the Israeli military censor. The former hostages said that they were only told they were set to be released from Gaza hours before they were handed over. The three were the first hostages to be released in the initial stage of the three-phase accord, which provides for a total of 33 captives to be freed over 42 days in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Gonen was kidnapped from the Supernova rave near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into Israel, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians. Damari and Steinbrecher were both kidnapped from their homes at nearby Kibbutz Kfar Aza, during the terror rampage. Channel 12 reported that the women said they were not held alone during their time in captivity, and that they were moved to various places in Gaza, including the designated “humanitarian zone” in the south of the Strip. Some of the hostages said that they hardly saw the light of day over the past 15 months, spending most of their time in captivity underground. They said that from time to time, they were exposed to television and radio news, including protests calling for the government to secure the release of the hostages held in Gaza. “We saw your struggle,” the former hostages were quoted as saying. “We heard our families fighting for us.” They were also said to have pieced together the details of the brutal Hamas attack that sparked the war, and they knew that their families had survived, though many of their friends were killed during the assault. “I didn’t think I would come back. I thought I’d die in Gaza,” one of the hostages was quoted by Channel 12 as saying. The report added that while the women sometimes received medicines they required, one of them underwent a medical procedure without anesthesia during her captivity. Both Damari and Gonen were shot during the terror attack in which they were kidnapped. Damari lost two fingers as a result of her injury. |
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