British citizens should be 'trained and equipped' to fight in a potential war with Russia, military chief says

British citizens should be "trained and equipped" to fight in a potential war with Russia - as Moscow plans on "defeating our system and way of life", the head of the British Army has said.

from Political News - International and UK Politics | Sky News https://ift.tt/jGRDYk6

Biden gaffe mocked on social media after President slurs words and issues bizarre phrase

Joe Biden’s latest gaffe has been mocked on social media after the 81-year-old slurred his words.

The 46th President, who visited Virginia to discuss abortion rights, struggled through a section of his speech in Manassas.

Slurring his words, Biden said: “We’ll teach Donald Trump a valuable lesson.

“Don’t mess with the women of America unless you want to get the benefit.”

It is not quite clear what the Commander-in-Chief’s phrase at the end meant.

The mumbling President was blasted on social media, with conservative commentators raising questions about his competency.

A user asked: “Why did people cheer at the end?”

Another wrote: “Word salad aside, has Trump ever gave a speech where he yelled.”

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• Nikki Haley warned of 'damaging her reputation' as Trump secures second victory
• Trump warned of 'vulnerable' position as Republican Party split deepens
• Trump served with headache as Republican ‘split’ leaves him ‘vulnerable’

A third added: “I think he said 'Don’t meswipwitawimmenerica unless you wannagettabenfit'.”

Biden’s speech was interrupted by pro-Palestine protesters in the Old Dominion.

However, the President was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss women’s reproductive rights on the 50th anniversary of the landmark Roe v Wade case.

The Supreme Court case, which legalised abortion, was overturned in the summer of 2022.

Despite Biden’s comments on Trump’s position on abortion rights, the 45th President appears to have held some contradictory positions.

Trump took credit for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade but voiced concern about the extremely conservative policies enacted in Alabama and Florida.

Biden pinned the blame for overturning Roe v Wade on his predecessor, saying: “The person most responsible for taking away this freedom in America is Donald Trump.”

Biden’s comments about Trump came as the 45th President was waiting for polls to close in the Republican Party’s New Hampshire primary.

Trump gained 12 delegates in the Granite State after winning 54.4 per cent of the vote.

Nikki Haley, Trump’s only remaining Republican rival, ended up with nine delegates on just 43.3 per cent of the vote.

from GB News https://ift.tt/NdSGaUo

Lib Dem Lords to ignore convention and vote against Safety of Rwanda bill

Liberal Democrat peers are poised to ignore a convention dating back to Gladstone's day to stage a protest against the Rwanda bill in the House of Lords.

from Political News - International and UK Politics | Sky News https://ift.tt/rPmitgu

Trump wants to be a dictator, says his former spokesman Anthony Scaramucci

DONALD Trump wants to be “dictator for a day” and will persecute his enemies if he wins the US presidential election, according to his former director of communications Anthony Scaramucci.

Scaramucci said he has undergone a “divorce” from Trump and is now backing Joe Biden for president.

He told GB News: “Unfortunately, the United States has decided to put up Joe Biden and Donald Trump and so you have two choices on choosing the person that's going to reform the American institutions of the democracy and the American system.

“Mr Trump has already said he doesn't want to do that, he wants to be dictator for a day. He wants to expand the executive powers, he wants to persecute. He wants to use what has typically been an agnostic Justice Department, but he wants to use that to persecute his political adversaries.”

“This is not stuff that the UK, the rest of the world, our European allies or global allies, will think highly of once he's in office and so I'm speaking out against it. He's not going to win by the way…”

In a discussion with Ben Leo and Emily Carver, he continued: “There are 20 cabinet members that worked for Mr Trump, closely, indirectly alongside of myself. Now granted, I was there for 11 days but I did work for him for close to a year on the campaign.

“And we all saw the same thing and we're all speaking out against his temperament to be the President of the United States. So things do change.”

He blamed Trump for the war in Ukraine: “He can't solve the Ukraine problem in a day. You also know that he slowed down the arms and material to the Ukraine.

“Since 1994, the United States, in exchange for the Ukraine giving up their nuclear weapons, developed something called Operation Porcupine, where they fortified the Ukrainians with anti-tank, anti-ballistic missiles to protect the Ukrainian people from the Russian Federation.

“Mr Trump slowed all that stuff down. So, when you say he's not the war president, in many ways, if you ask people in the Pentagon, if you get him to come on your show, they'll tell you the actions that he took during his presidency contributed to Vladimir Putin thinking it was an easy way to strike the Ukrainians.”

from GB News https://ift.tt/MyFAlf0

Drakeford 'genuinely baffled' Sunak did not call him to discuss Tata job losses

Wales's first minister Mark Drakeford has said he was "genuinely baffled" Rishi Sunak did not call him to discuss plans to support people affected by job losses in Port Talbot.

from Political News - International and UK Politics | Sky News https://ift.tt/Prd9KDg

Keir Starmer blasts Tories over 'politics of self-preservation' amid National Trust 'war'

Keir Starmer has accused the Conservatives of looking to clamp down on opposition voices by trying to find “woke agendas” in British civic institutions.

In his speech at the Civil Society Summit in central London, the Labour leader was critical of Tory attitudes to the likes of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the National Trust.

Sir Keir said Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives were “waging a war on the proud spirit of service in this country”.

Promising a “reset” on relations with the charitable sector if he becomes prime minister, he said the governing party seemed set on “sabotaging civil society to save their own skin”.

from GB News https://ift.tt/TuSZFIQ

Sunak wants to talk about tax, not small boats and it's little wonder why - analysis by Christopher Hope

That screeching you can hear in Westminster is the sound of the Number 10 desperately trying to change the subject from the Government's plans to stop the boat crossings in the Channel to somewhere where it feels it can beat Labour: tax cuts.

Rishi Sunak and his team might have emerged battered and bruised, but ultimately successful by pushing their Rwanda plan through the House of Commons.

But more problems are just around the corner with peers expected to do all they can to water down the legislation and force ministers to restore the plan to the one passed in the Commons with a 44-seat majority.

The Rwanda Bill is expected to start to be debated in the Lords next month and in the meantime peers have today been debating whether they stop the Treaty enabling the plan from being ratified until Rwanda is a 'safe' country.

Number 10 was dismissive of this attempt to frustrate plan with officials saying that it won't have any bearing on the first planes taking off (still in the "spring" according to 10 Downing Street).

But anger over small boat crossing is unlikely to dissipate with hundreds of migrant crossings last week and fresh concern that allowing them to work when they get here will encourage more to make the crossing.

Little wonder then that the Government wants to talk about is tax - and accordingly both the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have been doing their bit to start the debate.

Sunak dropped hints about tax cuts yesterday's Sun on Sunday, saying: “Where we can, we will always prioritise tax cuts to put more of people’s money back in their pockets.”

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• Sunak claims Starmer would take the UK back to square one - but what exactly does that mean?
• Jeremy Hunt pledges to cut taxes as UK economy ‘turning a corner’
• Sunak defends Tata Steel decision – ‘other option was closing down whole site’

Elsewhere, Hunt wrote for both the Mail on Sunday and today's Conservative Home website promising cuts, writing in ConHome: "Election year is the time when the choice between the two parties crystalises into its sharpest form.

"If I were forced now to predict where that will end up, I would submit this: Conservatives proposing a path to lower taxes, and Labour pretending they wouldn’t raise them."

This all builds to Friday which is pay day for millions of Britons when many will benefit from the Government's on average £450 a head cut in National Insurance.

A confidence that the party can go into the next election promising more tax cuts is why the Conservatives are repeatedly asking how Labour will fund its £28billion a year commitment for green energy (Labour says that it will not break its fiscal rules to fund the commitment).

That's why - for now - the Government wants to talk about tax and not small boats. It will only be a short respite though as small boats starts to rise up the political agenda again as the peers start their work.

from GB News https://ift.tt/HRs9ScO