UK Prime Minister Liz Truss is meeting world leaders including Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when they visit Britain for Queen Elizabeth II's funeral.
No 10 Downing Street announced a list of senior figures with whom Ms Truss will hold talks this weekend, before the queen is laid to rest on Monday.
A meeting with US President Joe Biden, however, has been postponed for four days.
Mr Martin arrived at Downing Street for a meeting with Ms Truss shortly after 10am on Sunday, nodding and saying “good morning” to the assembled press as he entered the door to No 10.
Ms Truss had been due to meet Mr Biden but the talks were cancelled, and moved instead to a “full bilateral meeting” on Wednesday when both leaders will be in New York for the UN General Assembly.
She was also meeting Mr Trudeau and Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Ms Truss met Mr Biden while she foreign secretary but Sunday's now-postponed event was to be their first meeting since she succeeded Boris Johnson as prime minister.
The meetings were taking place against a backdrop of disputes over the Northern Ireland Protocol, difficulties working towards a trade deal with the US and the war in Ukraine.
It is also likely that Ms Truss will hold talks with French President Emmanuel Macron at the UN summit, rather than during his visit to the UK for the funeral.
Mr Macron said he would attend after offering his country's condolences in a call to King Charles III.
He posted a message on Twitter that described the “unbreakable” ties between France and the UK and promised to strengthen the relationship between the countries by “following the path” of queen.
A meeting represent an opportunity for Ms Truss to clear up where their relationship stands, after she sparked controversy during her campaign to become Conservative Party leader by saying the “jury's out” over whether Mr Macron was a “friend or foe”.
Ms Truss and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are also expected to meet on the sidelines of the UN summit on Wednesday to discuss the dispute between the UK and the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The British prime minister is not expected to meet Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, who is set to attend the state funeral on Monday instead of President Xi Jinping.
China's official delegation is expected to be barred from attending the queen's lying in state in Westminster Hall because of Beijing's sanctions imposed on seven MPs and peers.
No 10 has declined to describe the conversations Ms Truss and leaders of allied countries as formal bilateral meetings, portraying them instead as talks in which to offer condolences over the queen's death, during which politics is likely to come up.
Chevening in Kent will be used as one base for meetings rather than the prime minister's country residence of Chequers, which is said to be undergoing routine maintenance work after Mr Johnson stepped down.
As well as her meetings with world leaders on Sunday, Ms Truss will have an audience with the king before attending his reception for visiting heads of state at Buckingham Palace.
Ms Ardern will meet Ms Truss, the king and Prince William, Prince of Wales, before the queen's funeral.
Rehearsal at dawn for Queen Elizabeth's funeral — in pictures
New Zealand's leader confirmed the meetings but revealed few details after arriving in the UK, saying she would offer her country's condolences to King Charles.
“I'll simply share the sorrow that New Zealand has and pass on our deepest condolences,” she said in London.
“At the end of the day, although this is a period of transition for him, he has also lost his beloved mother. For us and New Zealand, that's first and foremost.”
Ms Ardern said the queen's death and new king would be the “focus of conversation” when she and Ms Truss met.
She said she Ukraine and the UK's free trade agreement with New Zealand were also likely to feature on the agenda.
“I am sure we will also transact our relationship as well, but it is all within the context of the week of mourning that the UK is currently in,” she said.
As a member of the Commonwealth, New Zealand will bring a delegation of 10, including the Maori King, Tuheitia Paki, a Foreign Office source said.
About 500 dignitaries from around the world will arrive in London for the state funeral, in what is set to be one of the biggest logistical and diplomatic events in the UK.
They will join members of the royal family, former UK prime ministers and key figures from public life at Westminster Abbey, which can hold about 2,000 people, at 11am on Monday.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
About Seez
Company name/date started: Seez, set up in September 2015 and the app was released in August 2017
Founder/CEO name(s): Tarek Kabrit, co-founder and chief executive, and Andrew Kabrit, co-founder and chief operating officer
Based in: Dubai, with operations also in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon
Sector: Search engine for car buying, selling and leasing
Size: (employees/revenue): 11; undisclosed
Stage of funding: $1.8 million in seed funding; followed by another $1.5m bridge round - in the process of closing Series A
Investors: Wamda Capital, B&Y and Phoenician Funds
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
What is a robo-adviser?
Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
Many robo-advisers charge what are called wrap fees, meaning there are no additional fees such as subscription or withdrawal fees, success fees or fees for rebalancing.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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