Greens demand US military flights be barred from Prestwick

 

The Scottish Greens have called on the Scottish Government to evict US military forces from Glasgow Prestwick Airport.

Scottish Greens co-leader Gillian Mackay MSP said the party will use a parliamentary debate on Wednesday to push for the US military to be barred from using Prestwick and other publicly-owned airports in Scotland, arguing that the scale of activity represents sustained routine use rather than occasional stop-offs. The Greens said their figures were compiled using Flightradar24 data and show activity on most days since 1 April 2025.

Mackay linked the issue directly to wider criticism of US President Donald Trump, accusing his administration of disregard for Scottish legal authority and international norms. “Donald Trump is no friend of Scotland. He has shown total contempt for our courts and for human rights around the world,” she said. She also referenced reports that the United States ignored a decision of the Court of Session and removed two individuals from Scottish waters in January, describing the incident as a breach of Scottish jurisdiction.

“We’ve now uncovered that the US military has landed at the Scottish Government’s Prestwick Airport more than 550 times, almost every single day, since the 1st April 2025,” Mackay added. “That is not just the occasional stop-off, that is sustained and routine military use of publicly-owned Scottish infrastructure.”

The Greens warned that continued access for US forces risks drawing Scotland into controversial foreign policy actions, with Mackay pointing to events including the reported US operation against Venezuela and heightened tensions surrounding Greenland. She argued that allowing the use of Prestwick could make Scotland complicit in actions that conflict with domestic and international law.

“Prestwick Airport is not a private military base. It is a publicly owned airport operated under the authority of the Scottish Government,” she said, adding: “It is simply unacceptable that a foreign military, which has shown a total disregard for Scottish and international law, is continuing to use our publicly-owned infrastructure.” Mackay said the Scottish Government must act immediately, calling for what she described as the eviction of US military operations from Prestwick and a halt to access at all Scottish Government-owned airports. “This is about ensuring no government, no matter how powerful, can disregard Scotland’s legal authority while enjoying unrestricted access to our public assets,” she said.

The Scottish Government said:

“Prestwick Airport operates on a commercial basis and at arms length from the Scottish Government. Operational decisions regarding the day-to-day running of the airport are a matter for its management.”

Labour MSP Paul Sweeney criticised the Greens’ proposal, warning it would undermine transatlantic defence links and damage Scotland’s economy. He argued Prestwick plays a strategic role in NATO cooperation and remains a key transit hub supporting wider Euro-Atlantic security efforts. “Prestwick Airport remains a strategic gateway for transatlantic defence links, supporting NATO’s vital work, including the new Atlantic Bastion programme, which is transforming how we protect our undersea cables, pipelines, and sea lanes from Russian aggression,” Sweeney said.

He claimed restricting access would weaken collective defence at a time of increasing threats from authoritarian states, and said the airport benefits from legitimate military transits.

“In a world where threats from authoritarian states are growing, closing off our closest ally’s access would weaken collective defence, hurt Scottish jobs reliant on the airport’s revenue from legitimate military transits, and signal division at a time when unity is crucial,” he said. Sweeney added that Scotland should focus on ensuring transparent and profitable use of the airport, rather than what he described as isolationist gestures, and argued the Greens should instead oppose any privatisation of Prestwick given its perceived strategic and economic value.

Additionally, Scottish Conservative MSP for South Scotland Sharon Dowey said: “Prestwick Airport is a huge asset to Ayrshire and to Scotland. We should be taking every opportunity to promote it and attract more investment into the area. Instead, the Scottish Greens are using it as a pawn to make a cheap political stunt.

We know the airport plays an important strategic role, supporting military operations and contributing to the security of the UK and our allies. Frankly, the Scottish Greens shouldn’t be meddling in matters they clearly know nothing about.”

Greens demand US military flights be barred from Prestwick

Starmer has confidence in minister linked to investigations into journalists

We've just been hearing from the prime minister's spokesperson.

They were asked about Josh Simons, the Cabinet Office minister, in connection with the revelations about Labour Together.

This is the thinktank that is linked to Labour, and reported over the weekend to have collected information on journalists.

Simons was in charge of the thinktank at the time - around the end of 2023 and start of 2024.

As we reported earlier, the Cabinet Office is looking into whether there is any connection to the government.

But the spokesperson stated that Sir Keir Starmer has full confidence in Simons.

In a statement to The Sunday Times report on Simmons said he "was surprised and shocked to read the report extended beyond the contract by including unnecessary information" on a journalist.

CIA, Pentagon reviewed secret 'Havana syndrome' device in Norway, Washington Post reports

Feb 14 (Reuters) - U.S. officials investigated a previously unreported experiment in Norway in which a government scientist tested a microwave device and developed neurological symptoms similar to so-called Havana syndrome, the Washington Post reported on Saturday citing people familiar with the matter.

Norway informed the CIA about the incident, prompting at least two visits by Pentagon and White House officials, the report said. People familiar with the test said the results did not prove U.S. diplomats and spies were targeted by a foreign adversary, though they showed pulsed-energy devices can affect human biology.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

CIA, Pentagon reviewed secret 'Havana syndrome' device in Norway, Washington Post reports | Reuters

Kremlin Rejects European Accusations of Navalny Poisoning

 

The Kremlin on Monday rejected an assessment by five European countries that Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny died from poisoning in an Arctic prison two years ago.

“We naturally do not accept such accusations. We disagree with them. We consider them biased and baseless,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a daily briefing call.

“In fact, we strongly reject them,” he said.

Peskov spoke after Britain, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands on Saturday accused Russian authorities of killing Navalny with a rare toxin found in South American dart frogs, known as epibatidine.

Their claims, which they said were based on laboratory analysis of samples taken from Navalny’s body, came ahead of the second anniversary of Navalny’s death. 

On Monday, Navalny’s relatives and supporters who remain in Russia, as well as foreign diplomats, gathered at his grave at Moscow’s Borisovskoye Cemetery.

Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, called for justice following the European assessment that her son died of poisoning.

“We knew that our son did not simply die in prison. He was murdered,” Navalnaya told reporters outside the heavily guarded cemetery. 

“I think it will take some time, but we will find out who did it,” she said.

Navalny, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, died on Feb. 16, 2024, at age 47 in the “Polar Wolf” penal colony under unclear circumstances while serving a 19-year sentence on “extremism” charges seen as political retribution for his anti-Kremlin opposition.

Moscow has not fully explained Navalny’s death, saying only that he fell ill and collapsed during a walk in the prison yard in the remote town of Kharp in the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous district.

American intelligence assessments were previously reported to say that Putin, who was re-elected to his fifth presidential term a month later, “probably” did not personally order Navalny’s death.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “we don’t have any reason to question” the European assessment that Navalny died from epibatidine poisoning.

Kremlin Rejects European Accusations of Navalny Poisoning - The Moscow Times

Iran says potential energy, mining and aircraft deals on table in talks with US

 Feb 15 (Reuters) - Iran is pursuing a nuclear agreement with the U.S. that delivers economic benefits for both sides, an Iranian diplomat was reported as saying on Sunday, days before a second round of talks between Tehran and Washington.

Iran and the U.S. renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme and avert a new military confrontation. The U.S. has dispatched a second aircraft carrier to the region and is preparing for the possibility of a sustained military campaign if the talks do not succeed, U.S. officials have told Reuters.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking at a news conference in Bratislava, said President Donald Trump had made it clear that he would prefer diplomacy and a negotiated settlement, while making clear that may not happen.

"No one's ever been able to do a successful deal with Iran but we're going to try," Rubio said.

Iran has threatened to strike U.S. bases in the Middle East if it is attacked by U.S. forces but on Sunday took a conciliatory line.

"For the sake of an agreement's durability, it is essential that the U.S. also benefits in areas with high and quick economic returns," foreign ministry deputy director for economic diplomacy Hamid Ghanbari said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

"Common interests in the oil and gas fields, joint fields, mining investments, and even aircraft purchases are included in the negotiations," Ghanbari said, arguing that the 2015 nuclear pact with world powers had not secured U.S. economic interests.

In 2018, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the pact that had eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme, and re-applied tough economic sanctions on Tehran.

On Friday, a source told Reuters that a U.S. delegation including envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would meet Iranian officials in Geneva on Tuesday, a meeting later confirmed to Reuters by a senior Iranian official on Sunday.

"Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be traveling, I think they are traveling right now, to have important meetings and we'll see how that turns out," Rubio said, without providing further details.

While talks leading to the 2015 nuclear pact were multilateral, the current negotiations are confined to Iran and the United States, with Oman acting as mediator.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi left Tehran for Geneva to take part in the indirect nuclear talks with the U.S. and meet the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, and others, his ministry said.

OPEN TO COMPROMISE

Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi signalled Iran's readiness to compromise on its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief, telling the BBC on Sunday that the ball was "in America's court to prove that they want to do a deal."

The senior official referred to the Iranian atomic chief's statement on Monday that the country could agree to dilute its most highly enriched uranium in exchange for the lifting of sanctions as an example of Iran's flexibility.

However, he reiterated that Tehran would not accept zero uranium enrichment, a key sticking point in past negotiations, with Washington viewing enrichment inside Iran as a potential pathway to nuclear weapons. Iran denies seeking such weapons.

In June, the U.S. joined Israel in a series of air strikes that targeted Iranian nuclear sites.

The U.S. is also stepping up economic pressure on Iran. At a White House meeting earlier this week, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed that the U.S. would work to reduce Iran's oil exports to China, Axios reported on Saturday.

China accounts for more than 80% of Iran's oil exports so any reduction in that trade would significantly lower Iran's oil revenue.

Iran says potential energy, mining and aircraft deals on table in talks with US | Reuters

Over 6,000 people killed in three days as Sudanese city of Al Fashir was attacked by paramilitary group, says UN

More than 6,000 people were killed in three days when a Sudanese paramilitary group took control of the key city of Al Fashir last October, the United Nations has said.

The offensive by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) included widespread atrocities that amounted to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, the UN Human Rights Office said in a report.

Rights violations in the final push for the city in Sudan underscored how "persistent impunity fuels continued cycles of violence", according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

The RSF and their allied Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, overran Al Fashir, the Sudanese army's only remaining stronghold in Darfur, on 26 October 2025 and rampaged through the city and its surroundings.

It had previously been under siege for more than 18 months.

The UN Human Rights Office said it documented the killing of at least 4,400 people inside the city between 25 October and 27 October, while more than 1,600 were killed as they were trying to flee the RSF rampage.

The 29-page UN report detailed atrocities that it said ranged from mass killings, summary executions, sexual violence, abductions for ransom, torture and ill-treatment to detention and disappearances.

In many cases, the attacks were ethnicity-motivated, it said.

Sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, was apparently widespread during the Al Fashir offensive, with RSF fighters and their allied militias targeting women and girls, the report added.

The RSF did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

The alleged atrocities in Al Fashir, the provincial capital of North Darfur, mirror a pattern of RSF conduct in other areas in its war against the Sudanese army, the report said.

The tribal militia turned paramilitary is known to document its own war crimes.

Videos of their fighters lynching women, lashing emergency responders and cheering over dead bodies have circulated online since the start of the conflict.

The war began in April 2023 when a power struggle between the two sides led to open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere across the country.

The conflict created the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with parts of the nation pushed into famine.

It has also been marked by atrocities, which the International Criminal Court said it was investigating as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been accused of backing the RSF, something that an RSF intelligence officer appeared to confirm in an exclusive interview with Sky News.

But the UAE's foreign ministry hit back at the allegations, saying: "We categorically reject any claims of providing any form of support to either warring party since the onset of the civil war."

Over 6,000 people killed in three days as Sudanese city of Al Fashir was attacked by paramilitary group, says UN | World News | Sky News

How Porton Down scientists exposed Putin’s chemical weapons arsenal

 

Alexei Navalny, who died while imprisoned in the Arctic, seen in a Moscow court in 2021 - Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo

In their high-security base in the Wiltshire countryside, the scientists of Porton Down made an astonishing discovery.

Tissue samples taken from the body of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, and smuggled out of Russia showed he had been assassinated using the toxin produced by an Ecuadorian poison dart frog.

Eight years ago, scientists at the Ministry of Defence research centre revealed that the nerve agent Novichok had been used in the attempted killing of KGB defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury.

Scientists at work in the Porton Down research facility which has exposed Russia’s use of deadly poisons on its enemies - Simon Townsley

The finding was central to establishing that Russia was responsible for the failed assassination, which resulted in the death of innocent bystander Dawn Sturgess.

It called into question whether Moscow had been telling the truth when it claimed in 2017 to have destroyed its chemical weapons in line with the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, which bans them.

But the British scientists have now left the Foreign Office convinced Vladimir Putin is indeed in possession of illegal chemical weapons – made in secret laboratories for use against his enemies at home and abroad.

Navalny was 47 when he died at a high-security Arctic prison in February 2024 after years of accusing the Russian president and the Kremlin of corruption.

He had fallen suddenly ill while exercising outside. Escorted back to his cell, the dissident began vomiting as he writhed in pain on the floor. His sudden collapse, loss of consciousness and the failure of resuscitation efforts aroused suspicions.

State investigators, however, dismissed them, saying instead that his death was caused by arrhythmia, an abnormal heart rhythm, and another medical condition. His body was released to his family, and he was buried after a Russian Orthodox funeral service.

Mourners gather around the murdered dissident’s coffin in Moscow. Tissue samples from his body confirmed how he was poisoned - Reuters

It was then that his supporters embarked on a daring mission to show the world what really happened to a man who has been hailed as “the fiercest advocate for Russian democracy”.

Tissue samples were surreptitiously taken, smuggled out of Russia and secretly transferred across Europe to Porton Down, one of the world’s leading centres of scientific research.

The headquarters of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) hosts some of the UK’s most advanced chemical laboratory capabilities, and researchers at the secretive base have a deep expertise in testing for chemical and biological weapons.

Deploying newly discovered toxicology techniques, researchers concluded that Navalny’s sudden collapse was caused by epibatidine, a toxin produced by the Ecuadorian poison dart frog.

The results, confirmed through collaboration with Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Germany, were shocking.

First discovered in the 1970s, the toxin is a fast-acting nicotinic receptor agonist which was first considered for use as a painkiller due to its numbing effects.

Those efforts were abandoned because in large doses it can cause death within 30 minutes by triggering respiratory failure, convulsions and paralysis.

There was “no innocent explanation” for the toxin – which is 200 times more potent than morphine, not native to Russia and is only found in wild frogs – being in Navalny’s body, the Government said.

Although a well-known poison, it does not appear to have ever been used in targeted killings before – at least that the West knows of.

There is a question mark over whether it was chosen for use because it is hard to detect, in which case Russia would not have expected the West to have the technical capabilities to identify that it had been used.

It is not impossible, however, that it was chosen precisely so that it would be uncovered as a calling card – a show of strength and ingenuity intended to signal Russian power.

Col Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the former commanding officer of the UK’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, said: “This is a classic FSB/GRU [Russian security services] modus operandi, using deadly toxins and chemical weapons.

“But it also shows how leaky and pretty inept the Russian secret service is, that we know so much detail.”

Such a message would have been intended to intimidate the West and neighbouring former Soviet nations which Russia believes rightfully belong to its sphere of influence, as well as the Russian public amid rising discontent over the war in Ukraine and the flatlining economy.

Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, met Yvette Cooper and the foreign ministers of the other European countries involved in the discovery at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday - Ben Dance/FCDO

“By using this form of poison, the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of political opposition,” Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, said on Saturday.

The toxin’s development in sufficient quantities for an assassination would have required serious technical capabilities – most likely a special laboratory – which put to bed the notion that Russia has abandoned its arsenal of chemical weapons.

It has shed light on the breadth of the Kremlin’s chemical stockpile, and revealed the extent of their expertise in chemical weapons production.

“This is not something you order online,” one specialist told Russian outlet The Insider. “You would need a state-level chemical programme or access to an advanced research laboratory. The number of actors capable of synthesising and weaponising epibatidine is extremely small.”

The tightly controlled environment in the Arctic prison where Navalny was held gave the Russian state free rein over when it would attempt to kill him.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Britain said Moscow had “the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison to him”.

Attention will now turn to the consequences Putin faces for his use of banned chemical weapons, which contradicts Russia’s claim that it had disposed of all 40,000 tonnes of toxins it inherited from the Soviet Union.

Sergei and Yulia Skripal survived a Novichok attack, but the Russian nerve agent killed Salisbury resident Dawn Sturgess - Pixel8000

Since then, Moscow has used Novichok against the Skripals in 2018, as well as on Navalny on a flight to Munich in 2020. In addition to the use of ebipatidine to kill Navalny, it has also deployed chloropicrin, a potentially fatal First World War choking agent, during the war in Ukraine.

Mr de Bretton-Gordon said: “This confirms what we were all thinking, that Russia’s chemical weapons programme is almost certainly extant and of course they are using industrial amounts of chemical weapons in Ukraine.”

As well as the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, Russia is a signatory to the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, which also prohibits the use of such weapons.

“Russia is a signatory of both, so if it was behind the poisoning of Navalny it has broken treaties it has sworn to uphold,” said Prof Alastair Hay, a British toxicology expert.

The conventions do not include a system of sanctions for non-compliance, and instead direct complaints to the United Nations Security Council, of which Russia is a permanent member. The council can recommend the imposition of sanctions following an investigation.

“These latest findings once again underline the need to hold Russia accountable for its repeated violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention and, in this instance, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention,” the foreign ministers’ joint statement said.

“Our permanent representatives to the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons have written today to the director-general to inform him of this Russian breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

“We are further concerned that Russia did not destroy all of its chemical weapons. our partners and we will make use of all policy levers at our disposal to continue to hold Russia to account.”

Story by Timothy Sigsworth, Rozina Sabur, James Rothwell

How Porton Down scientists exposed Putin’s chemical weapons arsenal