It’s time for Keir Starmer to make his move.

Britain’s prime minister has spent months carefully crafting a chummy relationship with Donald Trump. He has showered the US president with flattery since even before his November election win; he has been, in Trump’s words, “very nice.”

On Thursday, Starmer could finally extract something tangible in return. His visit to Washington is the biggest foreign policy challenge yet for a leader who, at a critical time for Ukraine’s future, has emerged as a potential bridge-builder: someone who can sway Trump from his confrontational tendencies and communicate to him the anxieties of the West.

The other scenario is less rosy: Starmer might discover that he’s been building a bridge to nowhere. He and Trump are not natural political bedfellows; there is baggage in their past, and a glaring chasm in their worldviews. Starmer talks up the “special relationship” between Britain and the US at every opportunity, but that relationship is getting bumpy. They want different things.

Urgency on Ukraine

Trump’s stance on Ukraine has tipped this centuries-old transatlantic alliance into uncertainty, as it has done to so many others – including the American relationship with NATO. The president has purred at the advances of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, attacked Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, and has barely returned Europe’s calls, cutting the continent out of negotiations over the end of the conflict.

Starmer follows French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Washington on Monday, in attempting to straighten those jumbled ties, and he will set the table for Zelensky’s trip to Washington on Friday. All three want to secure a version of peace that Ukraine and Europe can stomach: one that doesn’t sell out occupied Ukrainian territory, and that America will work to maintain.

Britain and France are leading diplomatic efforts on putting together a potential European peacekeeping force, which could enter Ukraine if a ceasefire deal were agreed, but the plan hinges on an American security presence: a “backstop” likely centered on air power, based in a nearby NATO country like Poland or Romania.

On Monday, Trump told reporters that “Europe is going to make sure nothing happens” after a deal is agreed. But Starmer has insisted Europe can’t carry that burden alone, and that American support is the only way to prevent Putin from attacking again.

More urgently, Starmer will seek to persuade Trump to include Zelensky in talks over his country’s future. That is Europe’s most fundamental demand of Trump; the continent is intensely anxious about a pro-Moscow deal being forced on Zelensky.

But he is stepping onto an uneven playing field. Starmer’s problem is obvious: This visit matters far more to him than it does to Trump. The president has little time for European powers; he has threatened to impose major tariffs, and turned his back on decades of American foreign policy, which had placed Europe’s security at the top of Washington’s own priorities.

Starmer presented Trump with a significant gift ahead of his trip, announcing on Tuesday that Britain would hike its defense spending to 2.5% by 2027, and to 3% by the middle of the next decade. That is an unexpected acceleration of his government’s goal, and represents massive expenditure. It is also desperately needed; the British military is much depleted, experts say. A massive review of Britain’s army is due to conclude soon, and nobody expects its findings to be complimentary.

“We must change our national security posture, because a generational challenge requires a generational response,” Starmer said as he unveiled the new policy. “Courage is what our own era now demands of us.” Speaking to journalists later, he admitted the obvious: that events of recent weeks have hastened the move.

A complicated relationship

Thursday’s conversations will test more broadly the twin-track approach that Europe is taking towards Trump.

One camp wants to disengage. Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz said after his election win on Sunday that Europe should “achieve independence” from the US, and slammed “outrageous” American interventions in his country’s politics.

Starmer, like Macron and Italy’s leader Giorgia Meloni, is firmly in the other group; he believes that Trump, if properly convinced, can be retrieved from the clutches of Putin’s embrace.

And there are few other leaders who can do it. “We’re not going to have an election for the foreseeable future. We’ve got a stable, center-left government. Therefore we can play an integral part in these conversations, in a way that other leaders may find difficult,” Ainsley, the former policy chief, said.

But there may be awkward questions for Starmer to answer when he and Trump face the media. Several members of his center-left government have historically condemned Trump. When he was an opposition MP, Starmer himself said Trump’s endorsement of Boris Johnson showed that Johnson “isn’t fit to be prime minister.”

Last October, then-candidate Trump returned fire, accusing Starmer’s Labour Party of election interference after it emerged that dozens of activists had campaigned for Kamala Harris.

Since then, Starmer has kept a tight lid on any criticism of the president from within his ranks. But privately, Trump’s recent interventions on Gaza and Ukraine have appalled most within Labour.

An ‘insane’ deal

Starmer has several obstacles to clear at the White House, and they go beyond Ukraine. The visit is more broadly a challenge of his people-pleasing approach to global affairs.

The prime minister wants to keep everyone happy. He has been loath to criticize Trump, has warmed up Britain’s post-Brexit partnership with the European Union, avowedly backed Kyiv and thawed ties with China. At a time of geopolitical upheaval, he is attempting to squeeze Britain into an impossibly tight Venn diagram.

A case in point: Starmer’s intensely controversial plan to hand the Chagos Islands, Britain’s last African colony, to Mauritius, ending a years-long legal and ethical quandary.

Downing Street says the deal will secure the future of Diego Garcia, a US-UK military base on one of the islands, for 99 years. But Starmer needs Trump’s approval to finish the paperwork, and Westminster does not expect the self-stylized dealmaker-in-chief to be impressed by the terms: London is expected to pay billions of pounds to close the deal, and Mauritius is heavily reliant on imports from China, which has raised national security concerns on both sides of the Atlantic.

The deal is “insane,” according to a former Conservative minister, Grant Shapps, who as UK defense secretary halted the negotiations that Labour later revived.

Mauritius has pushed for control of the islands for decades, and bodies including the International Court of Justice have backed its claims. But Shapps said: “You sometimes, as Trump is proving to the world, just have to say ‘no.’ You have to think about your own national interest.”

Ukraine, Chagos, China and a colorful history of remarks about Trump are all awkward conversation topics that must be broached on Thursday. Starmer will do so delicately; unlike Macron, he is unlikely to fact-check Trump in front of the cameras. But he has run out of room for flattery; there is little time left to start some difficult discussions.

Starmer did not necessarily choose to be a statesman. His foremost stated objective is to grow Britain’s economy; he doesn’t want enemies, he wants investment and trade. But the world has had other ideas, and willingly or not, Starmer has found himself a key cog in a global structure on the verge of collapse.

On Monday, Starmer admitted Trump has “changed the global conversation” on Ukraine. Now it is Britain’s opportunity to do the talking.

The US and Ukraine have agreed terms on a deal over natural resources and reconstruction, according to a Ukrainian official.

The source said the deal was agreed after “everything unacceptable was taken out of the text and it is now more clearly spelt out how this agreement will contribute to Ukraine’s security and peace.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky now plans to travel to Washington, the source added, saying the White House had proposed Friday for a meeting.

A White House official said that they are “aware” that Zelensky is expected to be in Washington potentially at the end of this week.

The official said there is no word on if a meeting will happen between Trump and Zelensky.

This is a developing story. More to come

More than 250,000 Canadian citizens and residents have signed a parliamentary petition urging Canada to revoke Elon Musk’s citizenship and passport.

Musk’s association with US President Donald Trump, who plans to levy a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports next month and who has proposed annexing the country as the 51st state, is “against the national interest of Canada,” the petitioners claim.

The tech billionaire, a citizen of South African, Canada, and the US, has become one of Trump’s most visible allies since the 47th president began his second term last month.

“He has used his wealth and power to influence our elections,” the petition claims. “He has now become a member of a foreign government that is attempting to erase Canadian sovereignty.”

The petition, addressed to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, demands that he “revoke Elon Musk’s dual citizenship status, and revoke his Canadian passport effective immediately.”

Musk, who was born in Pretoria, South Africa, has previously said that he obtained a Canadian passport as a teenager through his mother, Maye Musk, who was born in Canada. The billionaire later obtained US citizenship a decade after arriving in the US on a student visa.

An electronic parliamentary petition requires the initial support of at least five Canadians, the authorization of a member of parliament, and an initial review before it can start to gather signatures, according to Canada’s House of Commons.

The petition to revoke Musk’s citizenship is open until June 20, 2025, after which the clerk of petitions will have to certify that at least 500 of its signatures are legitimate. From there, the petition must wait until a new session of parliament opens before it can be presented to the House of Commons for debate.

Reed, a sci fi author from British Columbia, wrote Monday on social networking site Bluesky that they “never expected this petition to spread so far and so fast.” Reed also underlined to the petition’s growing number of supporters that it was not meant to be a personal attack.

“To (be) clear, this action I started, and all of you are spreading and growing, isn’t about personal attacks,” Reed wrote, “It’s about ensuring that those who influence global policies and industries know that the people are not okay with their lack of ethical responsibility.”

Trump’s frequent voicing of his desire to make Canada the “51st state,” has gone as far as mocking Trudeau on social media as the “Governor” of Canada. In early February, Trudeau warned a gathering of private sector executives that Trump’s threat to annex Canada “is a real thing,” according to two business leaders who heard the prime minister’s remarks.

There are few precedents for citizenship revocation in Canada. Thousands of Japanese Canadians, including citizens, were “effectively denationalized” during World War II and deported back to Japan, according to University of Toronto law professor Audrey Macklin in a 2021 article for the Manitoba Law Review.

A 2014 law called the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act previously included provisions to revoke citizenship if a dual-national Canadian was convicted of “national security offenses.”

Trudeau promised to repeal the law when he ran for prime minister. By 2017, the denaturalization provisions were removed, and a new law re-nationalized any Canadian stripped of their citizenship on national security grounds.

A growing number of Latin American migrants who have given up hope of reaching the United States are returning to their home countries in South America through a sea route in Panama, which poses new risks, according to authorities.

Instead of trekking through the treacherous Darien Jungle between North and South America – as thousands had done on their way to the United States – many migrants are now boarding small boats on Panama’s Caribbean coast, making their way toward Colombia by sea.

The uptick in boat journeys comes as the Trump administration has been enforcing strict policies to remove migrants from the US or limit their entry.

But these boat rides to Colombia, which cover more than 100 nautical miles in a single day, can be dangerous. Last week, an eight-year-old girl from Venezuela died after the boat she was traveling on sank near the community of Mansucum, Panama, according to the country’s National Border Service, known as SENAFRONT.

The boat was one of three that had taken off from the Port of Llano Carti toward La Miel, Panama, near the border with Colombia. The other two boats suspended their journeys due to “adverse conditions” at sea, but the third continued despite the warnings and ultimately sank, authorities said.

Twenty migrants – mostly from Venezuela and Colombia – were rescued after Friday’s shipwreck, according to SENAFRONT.

The Panamanian foreign ministry said it regretted what happened and added that the country “reaffirms its commitment to international cooperation and respect for human rights, particularly in situations involving people in vulnerable conditions.”

Indigenous community overwhelmed

These boat rides are happening in the Guna Yala indigenous territory of northeastern Panama.

On Sunday alone, at least 110 migrants sought boat rides from the ports of the Guna Yala region to the Colombian port town of Necoclí, Merry said.

The Guna community worry the reverse migration could strain their resources because they lack services and infrastructure to adequately provide care for migrants. In a statement shared Sunday, the community called on the Panama and US governments, “and international organizations to suspend the massive arrival of migrants to our territory.”

Panamanian Security Minister Frank Ábrego said Tuesday that the boat rides are happening “with the full knowledge” of authorities in the Guna Yala region. He said SENAFRONT has established departure points in non-populated parts of Guna Yala so migrants can make their way south.

“For example, the old airport in Ustupu, where no one lives, was used so that from there, the boats can go to La Miel, because we understand that traveling 111 nautical miles is not easy for any boat that does cabotage services between islands,” he said.

Six babies have died from hypothermia in Gaza since Sunday, according to health care officials in the strip, who warn there will be more such deaths unless more aid enters the enclave.

Dr. Saeed Salah, the medical director of the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital (PFBS), northern Gaza, warned of a “disaster” in the rising number of babies suffering from hypothermia, as they try to survive winter conditions in the strip.

In the past two weeks, eight babies with hypothermia were admitted to the medical facility in Gaza City, said Dr. Salah. Of those, three were admitted to the intensive care unit, and three others died “within hours” of arrival.

Then on Tuesday, a fourth baby who was just 69 days old died overnight, Dr. Salah added. Further south, two other babies died with hypothermia symptoms in Nasser Hospital, Khan Younis, health workers there told journalists.

Dr. Salah said more caravans, tents and fuel were needed to “bring warmth to the people.” He added that such provisions would stop this kind of “catastrophe from repeating itself” and “prevent the death of neonatal babies from hypothermia and frostbite.”

A fragile ceasefire has offered a moment of reprieve for people in Gaza from Israel’s months-long military campaign that it launched in response to the October 7 Hamas terror attacks that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and saw more than 250 taken hostage.

At least 48,348 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and another 111,761 people injured, the Ministry of Health there reported on Tuesday.

Survivors say they are struggling to rebuild communities and reconcile the destruction wrought – which gutted the medical system, and spawned a crisis of starvation, displacement and disease. Just 20 out of 35 hospitals are partially functional, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of preventing the entry of humanitarian aid into the strip in violation of the ceasefire agreement – accusations that Israel has denied.

On February 14, COGAT said that 4,200 humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip that week, carrying food, fuel, medical supplies, tents and shelter equipment, in compliance with the ceasefire and hostage deal. Since the start of the ceasefire on January 19, 16,800 trucks of aid had entered Gaza, COGAT added.

‘Man-made crisis’

In Nasser Hospital, a Palestinian mother gently stroked her tiny, pale baby, who was swaddled in blankets. Two-month-old Yousaf Al-Najjar is one of many neonatal patients being treated for hypothermia there.

“We don’t have covers or anything,” she added. “I see death in my son.”

“Every day we are dealing with children (suffering) hypothermia, many of them die,” she said on Tuesday. “The problem is not the hospital; it’s the conditions where the children are living, either in tents or destroyed homes.”

Israel’s war in Gaza has pushed many Palestinians into tent camps. At least 1.9 million people have been displaced, according to the UN. Many have sought refuge in sprawling outdoor areas, living for months in makeshift tents made of cloth and nylon – with little access to warmth, electricity or heating. In cold weather conditions, newborns and children up to three months are among those most at risk of respiratory infections, lack of blood supply, and infections, Dr Munir Al-Bursh, the director general of the health ministry in the enclave, said on February 19.

Fikr Shalltoot, the Gaza director for the UK-based NGO, Medical Aid for Palestinians, said the deaths of those six Palestinian babies “is the direct result of Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid.”