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Incoming UK ambassador walks back comments on ‘danger’ of Trump: ‘Ill-judged and wrong’

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Incoming UK ambassador walks back comments on ‘danger’ of Trump: ‘Ill-judged and wrong’

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EXCLUSIVE – Newly appointed U.K. ambassador to the U.S., Lord Peter Mandelson, is readying himself to take up the top job of preserving the “special relationship” long championed by London and Washington, but first he’s looking to set the record straight. 

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Mandelson, when asked about previous comments he made regarding the recently re-elected president, including in 2019 when he said President Donald Trump was “a danger to the world,” said his opinion of the president had changed.

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“I consider my remarks about President Trump as ill-judged and wrong,” he said. “I think that times and attitudes toward the president have changed.”

Peter Mandelson, former Labour MP and European commissioner, speaks to the media following the result of the EU referendum, in London, June 24, 2016. (Reuters/Stefan Wermuth)

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“I think that he has won fresh respect,” he added in reference to Trump’s second election as president. “He certainly has from me, and that is going to be the basis of all the work I do as His Majesty’s ambassador in the United States.”

The incoming ambassador’s comments come amid reports that the U.K.-U.S.’s “special relationship” could be put to the test, and Mandelson’s appointment may be blocked by the White House. 

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Mandelson rejected these claims and said, “I’ve heard nothing from the president or the White House or anyone working for him that suggests that there’s going to be any difficulty about my appointment.”

But speculation on the reliability of the U.S. in that trans-Atlantic relationship remains high following comments made by officials from Trump’s campaign, as well as by close ally and tech titan Elon Musk.

Musk, who engaged in a social media spat leveled at British Prime Minster Keir Starmer earlier this month, is not in Trump’s Cabinet, but he has been charged with overseeing the new Department of Government Efficiency.

Despite the negative social media banter by those who have Trump’s ear, the president and Starmer engaged in an apparently friendly phone call over the weekend – suggesting Trump may look to prioritize the U.S.-U.K. partnership.

Elon Musk speaks with former President Donald Trump during a campaign event, Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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“They’re not Siamese twins, President Trump and Prime Minister Starmer, but they’re both pragmatic people. They know where each is coming from, they want to find common ground,” Mandelson said. “I feel very optimistic. I feel very upbeat about the relationship that they’re both going to have.”

Mandelson is the first non-career diplomat to take up the job as chief U.K.-U.S. liaison in over half a century. That could prove beneficial for Mandelson when up against Trump, who has long strayed from engaging in traditional diplomacy.

“The president isn’t a career diplomat, and I’m not a career diplomat,” Mandelson said. “I came into politics to change things for the better for people, and so did he.

“We share a similar, if not identical, outlook on the world and motivation in politics. But I think above all, we believe in something which is really special between our countries,” he added, pointing to the enduring relationship between the U.S. and U.K.

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Mandelson said his chief priorities will be to work with the U.S. on trade, technological developments and defense partnerships – particularly in the face of adversarial powers like China.

“I think that the United States and Britain, working together, can outsmart and keep ahead of the curve as far as China is concerned,” the incoming ambassador said. “[Trump] wants a dialogue with China, he wants to do deals with China. But he’s also not going to be naive about China. 

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer addresses members at the Labour Party in Liverpool, England, on Tuesday. (AP)

“We face a challenge together from China, and we’ve got to make sure that we are able to deter that challenge or that threat when they’re having aggressive intents toward us,” he added. 

Mandelson championed the trilateral alliance shared by the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, established with the intent of countering China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific. 

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“Security in the Euro-Atlantic area depends on making sure that China is kept at bay in its own region,” he said. “China has the right to prosper, to generate higher standards of living for its own people, but not at the expense of others.”

Mandelson argued that despite international apprehensions over certain security uncertainties under the Trump administration, the U.K. does not share in these concerns.

“There are so many threats and challenges the world is facing at the moment. It takes courage, somebody, sometimes, who’s prepared to be argumentative and, indeed, disruptive, not just take business as usual,” he detailed.

“Frankly, I think President Trump could become one of the most consequential American presidents I have known in my adult life,” Mandelson said. 

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Stocks fall and oil prices gain after Trump warns the Iran ‘clock is ticking’

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Stocks fall and oil prices gain after Trump warns the Iran ‘clock is ticking’

HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks mostly retreated and oil prices jumped on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran that the “clock is ticking” as U.S.-Iran negotiations over a permanent end to the war stall.

U.S. futures fell and markets in Japan and South Korea pulled further back from their records. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1% to 60,815.95, a decline led by technology-related stocks. It reached all-time intraday high levels last week above 63,000.

The yield on the 10-year Japanese government bond surged to as high as 2.8%, its highest level since the late 1990s, part of a shift toward higher yields as the Bank of Japan gradually raises interest rates and higher energy costs raise expectations of rising inflation. That’s up from around 2.55% just one week ago.

Seoul’s Kospi climbed 0.3% to 7,516.04 after trading lower earlier in the day. It crossed the 8,000 mark for the first time on Friday, supported by buying of technology shares driven by the boom in artificial intelligence, but later declined partly on profit-taking by investors.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.4% to 25,596.68. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% lower to 4,131.53, after China reported weaker-than-expected retail data for April.

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Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.5% to 8,505.30.

Taiwan’s Taiex dropped 0.7%, while India’s Sensex fell 0.1%.

Oil prices rose after Trump warned Iran in a social media post that “the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them” following a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump has set deadlines for Iran and then backed off, so investors have remained cautious about the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and how it is impacting global energy flows, including oil and gas. The strait is still mostly closed, and the U.S. has also imposed its own sea blockade on Iranian ports since last month.

A drone strike over the weekend on a United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant added to worries over a potential escalation in the conflict.

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Brent crude, the international standard, gained 0.7% to $110.02 per barrel. It was trading at roughly $70 a barrel in late February before the start of the Iran war. Benchmark U.S. crude was trading 0.8% higher to $106.31 per barrel.

“Re-escalation risks are increasing,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a research note. While there has also been a pick up on shipping activities over the past week around the strait, they said, “this can change quickly.”

The pair also noted that the oil market was reacting to the lack of tangible results on the Iran war after last week’s widely-watched summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, even as the White House said both the U.S. and China had agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open.

U.S. officials had hoped that Beijing could use its influence, given its economic ties with Iran, to help broker a peace agreement and reopen the strait. Trump said last week in an interview that Xi told him China “would like to be of help” in negotiating an end to the war. So far it’s been unclear how Beijing might do that.

The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury was at around 4.60%, up from 4.47% last Thursday and sharply higher than the nearly 4% level it was holding at before the Iran war.

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On Friday, the benchmark S&P 500 dropped 1.2% from the record it set the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite lost 1.5%.

In other dealings early Monday, the U.S. dollar rose to 158.86 Japanese yen from 158.62 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1635, up from $1.1622.

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Canada confirms hantavirus case linked to cruise ship outbreak that has killed three passengers

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Canada confirms hantavirus case linked to cruise ship outbreak that has killed three passengers

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Canadian health officials on Sunday confirmed that one of four Canadians who returned from the MV Hondius cruise ship, the subject of an international Andes hantavirus outbreak, tested positive for hantavirus. Three people connected to the outbreak have died.

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The Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed the positive test after British Columbia’s top public health officer previously described the case as a “presumptive positive.”

“One individual’s sample was confirmed positive for hantavirus,” the agency said in a statement.

Officials said additional testing will be conducted at a national laboratory. It was not immediately clear whether that testing was for confirmation, strain characterization or another purpose.

CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER DESCRIBES UNCERTAINTY AFTER 3 DEATHS AMID HANTAVIRUS PROBE

Experts say cruise outbreaks get more attention due to public reporting rules, but many travelers still plan to sail as booked. (Myloupe/Universal Images Group)

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The development comes as global health officials continue monitoring the rare hantavirus outbreak tied to the MV Hondius, which has sickened multiple passengers.

As of May 13, the World Health Organization said 11 cases had been identified in connection with the cruise outbreak, including eight confirmed cases, two probable cases and one inconclusive case. Those figures included three deaths. The Associated Press later reported that the Canadian confirmation brought the number of people from the ship who had tested positive to 10.

Canadian health officials said four Canadians returned home from the MV Hondius, though only one has tested positive for the virus.

RARE HANTAVIRUS HUMAN-TO-HUMAN TRANSMISSION SUSPECTED ON LUXURY CRUISE SHIP WHERE 3 HAVE DIED

The rare Andes virus, which was linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak, is the only known hantavirus strain that has the capability to spread from person to person, usually through prolonged close contact. (Andres Gutierrez/Anadolu)

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The confirmed patient and a traveling companion — identified as a Yukon couple in their 70s — returned from the cruise together. The companion later tested negative, officials said.

A third person in their 70s from Vancouver Island remains in isolation, along with a British Columbia resident in their 50s.

So far, no confirmed U.S. cases tied to the cruise ship have been reported, though WHO said as of May 13 that one U.S.-repatriated passenger had inconclusive laboratory results and was undergoing retesting.

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Pictured is the MV Hondius, the cruise ship tied to a hantavirus outbreak after a stop in Argentina that left three passengers dead. (Europa Press Canarias via Getty Images)

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Last week, however, health officials in Ontario County, New York, announced they were investigating a suspected locally acquired hantavirus case unrelated to the cruise ship.

The Ontario County Public Health Department said there was no risk to the general public. Officials also said the strain typically seen in the United States is not known to spread from person to person.

The outbreak linked to the MV Hondius began after the Dutch cruise ship, carrying 147 passengers and crew members, departed Argentina on April 1 for a South Atlantic voyage.

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The outbreak has prompted heightened precautions internationally, including in the Netherlands, where Radboud University Medical Center quarantined 12 staff members after officials said a hantavirus patient’s blood and urine were not handled under the strictest protocols recommended for the virus strain.

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The outbreak has also sparked comparisons to the coronavirus pandemic. However, Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel previously told Fox News Digital there is “no comparison.”

He noted hantavirus is difficult to spread.

Passengers evacuated from the hantavirus-stricken Hondius cruise ship walk with their belongings after disembarking at Eindhoven Air Base, Netherlands, on May 12. (Piroschka van de Wouw)

“It’s not airborne … in terms of respiratory droplets hanging in the air,” he said. “It’s very difficult to transmit.”

While coronavirus “moved in the direction of humans in a significant way,” hantavirus has not, except for “very rare” cases of human-to-human transmission, he added.

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The World Health Organization has assessed the risk to the global population as low, while noting that current evidence suggests subsequent human-to-human transmission may have occurred on board. Andes virus is the only hantavirus known to have documented person-to-person transmission, though such spread is considered rare.

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Siegel also noted hantavirus cases have been reported in the United States for decades, though they remain “very rare.”

Fox News Digital’s Brittany Miller and Angelica Stabile, along with The Associated Press, contributed to this report.

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Moment of collision between two Navy jets at Idaho air show

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Moment of collision between two Navy jets at Idaho air show
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Two US Navy jets collided during an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, sending both aircraft crashing to the ground in front of spectators. All four crew members ejected safely before impact.

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