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Iran says it could rejoin US nuclear talks if treated with ‘dignity and respect’

Tehran is willing to restart nuclear talks with Washington as long as it is treated with “dignity and respect”, Iran’s foreign minister has told the Guardian. Abbas Araghchi said only diplomacy worked, and disclosed fresh requests had come from intermediaries to reopen negotiations with the Trump administration. He said Iran did not have any undeclared nuclear sites, and Tehran could not yet allow the UN nuclear inspectorate to visit bombed nuclear sites for security reasons. Araghchi is treading a difficult path since Iran does not want be seen to be acting from a position of weakness, and he insisted repeatedly that Iran had emerged stronger militarily and psychologically from the Israeli-US attack on its nuclear sites in June. He was speaking at a security conference in Tehran where he restated that Iran had “an inalienable right to enrich uranium domestically that it will never give up” – the primary cause of the impasse in the previous talks. The previous five rounds of talks between the US and Iran were brought to an abrupt and acrimonious end on 12 June when Israel, with US support, attacked Iranian nuclear sites in a 12-day war that ended with Donald Trump claiming the sites had been obliterated. Subsequently, European countries used their right to reimpose UN-wide sanctions, but Iran insists they have not had a major impact. Iranian officials said they felt they had reached a “magic solution” to the enrichment issue in previous talks, when it was agreed an Iran-based consortium, with American involvement, could enrich uranium. Both sides would have been able to claim victory since domestic enrichment would have continued and the US could be confident that Iran’s nuclear programme was exclusively peaceful. It had not been agreed in the talks that US nuclear scientists could operate inside Iran, but that was a logical implication of the consortium proposal. Officials claimed three times they had reached agreement with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff only for the deal to collapse due to “spoilers in Washington”. Iranian officials said the consortium offer was now off the table, but it seems highly likely the proposal could be revived in some form if talks reopen. Trump last week said he had been receiving messages that Iran wanted to reopen negotiations, but privately Iranian officials say they are not yet receiving coherent offers from Washington either directly or from key regional mediators, such as Qatar, Egypt, Oman and Saudi Arabia. The Iranian foreign ministry has been accused of passivity in the face of Trump’s direct instinctive approach, but Tehran says diplomacy is not part of a show. In his speech to the forum, designed to paint the US as a hegemonic power that misuses the concept of international law, Araghchi said the 12-day war showed the conflict could not be ended by military means. He said the attacks started with a US demand for an unconditional Iranian surrender and ended with an unconditional call for a ceasefire. Iran is convinced the initial Israeli attacks were mounted with full US knowledge and coordination, making trust hard to restore. Araghchi said: “It was not Iran that had fled diplomacy; it was America and the western countries that had always sought to impose their will during the negotiations. Diplomacy can still be alive and remains the ultimate solution to resolve disputes, but its criteria, rules and principles must be adhered to. “If they speak to the Iranian people with the language of dignity and respect, they will receive a response in the same language.” In what is described by Iranian officials as the battle of repair and recovery, Araghchi said he was confident Iran’s defence capabilities “are much stronger than before 13 or 14 June of this year. All our capabilities have been restored. We learned many lessons from this war; we have come to know our own weaknesses and the weaknesses of the enemy.” He added: “We successfully passed this war. Our nuclear technology, which they intended to destroy, remains in place. The facilities and equipment, if destroyed, will be rebuilt; what is important is the will of the Iranian people and then the national cohesion that they targeted, but failed to break. The Iranian people have become stronger, more united, and more supportive of the government and the state in the face of this invasion.”

Five people killed and three injured in car crash in County Louth, Ireland

Ireland is in mourning after a road crash killed five people in their early 20s and left three other people injured. The two-vehicle collision happened at about 9pm on Saturday on a road near Dundalk in County Louth. Police said the five people who died – three men and two women – were on their way to Dundalk when their Volkswagen Golf collided with a Toyota Land Cruiser on the Ardee road at Gibstown. Police named the victims on Sunday as Shay Duffy, 21, and Chloe McGee, 23, both from Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, Alan McCluskey, 23, and Dylan Commins, 23, both from Drumconrath, County Meath, and Chloe Hipson, 21, from Lanarkshire, Scotland. A sixth occupant in the Golf, a male, survived and was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, as were the two occupants of the Land Cruiser, a male and a female. The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said he was “numbed and shocked” and that Ireland’s thoughts and prayers were with the families and friends of the dead and injured. Prayers were said at masses around the country. Simon Harris, the tánaiste, or deputy prime minister, said a “veil of deep sadness has come over our country” and paid tribute to first responders. “One cannot even imagine the extraordinarily difficult and tragic circumstances in which they found themselves working last night as they set about trying to help in the most harrowing of situations,” he said. Gardaí appealed to any witnesses who may have seen the crash or had dashcam footage from the area between 8.30pm and 9.15pm on Saturday to contact them. Speaking near the scene of the crash, Supt Liam Geraghty noted that Sunday was World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. “The events that occurred here last night again are a very clear reminder of how things can change dramatically on our roads in a split second, and the tragedy that brings to families, communities and loved ones,” he said. A total of 157 people had been killed on Irish roads so far this year, a slight increase on the same period last year, said Geraghty.

Zelenskyy pledges to clean up Ukraine’s energy sector amid corruption scandal

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced a plan to clean up Ukraine’s energy sector after an $100m (£76bn) kickback scheme was alleged by anti-corruption investigators, in the worst scandal of his presidency. Over the weekend, the Ukrainian president announced an overhaul of key state energy companies including a complete change of management at Energoatom, the nuclear power operator at the centre of the alleged criminal scheme. Government officials, Zelenskyy said, were instructed “to maintain constant and meaningful communication with law enforcement and anti-corruption bodies. Any scheme uncovered in these companies must receive a swift and just response.” In further announcements on Sunday, he said he had instructed the government to submit an “urgent law” to Ukraine’s parliament to bring changes to the composition of a key energy regulator, the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission. He also promised to appoint new leaders at the top of other energy bodies. Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau announced last Monday that it was investigating a criminal gang behind a scheme whereby Energoatom’s counterparties were forced to pay kickbacks of 10-15% in order to avoid having payments blocked or losing their supplier status. Ukrainian media subsequently reported that one of the senior figures involved was Timur Mindich, a businessman and co-owner of a media production company founded by Zelenskyy before he became president. The reform promises came shortly before Zelenskyy arrived in Athens on Sunday to mark the signing of a deal that would enable Ukraine to import US-supplied liquefied natural gas through the winter. The Ukrainian government is urgently seeking alternatives to compensate for losses caused by relentless Russian attacks on energy infrastructure. The agreement between Greece’s state-owned gas company, DEPA Commercial, and its Ukrainian counterpart, Naftogaz, will supply Ukraine with US liquefied natural gas via Greece between December 2025 and March 2026. ‘This winter under Russian drones, missiles, and daily strikes is a major challenge for Ukraine and for the Ukrainian people,” Zelenskyy posted on X during his visit, where he met the Greek president, Constantine Tassoulas, the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the new US ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle. The Ukrainian president expressed his gratitude to his US counterpart, Donald Trump, for the US energy supplied via Greece. Zelenskyy, who is also due to travel to France and Spain this week to sign military aid agreements, is under pressure to prove to European allies that he is serious about tackling corruption, a key condition for Ukraine to become an EU member state. The Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, told the Associated Press news agency that Zelenskyy had to deal quickly with the corruption allegations, but also praised his wartime leadership and urged European leaders to increase financial and military support for Ukraine. The scandal comes at a difficult moment, as Kyiv faces a looming budget shortfall, while the EU is deadlocked over a €140bn (£124bn) loan for Ukraine based on Russia’s frozen assets. The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who is blocking progress in Ukraine’s EU accession talks, has seized on the anti-corruption investigation, claiming it showed “a wartime mafia network” with “countless ties” to Zelenskyy. The corruption allegations have caused outrage across Ukraine and have turned into the worst scandal of Zelenskyy’s presidency. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (Nabu) has released damning audio recordings featuring members of his inner circle. They include the president’s friend and former business partner Mindich, who fled his Kyiv apartment last Monday hours before investigators came to arrest him. Mindich – who co-founded Zelenskyy’s media production company, Kvartal 95 – escaped to Poland in a taxi. He is believed to be hiding in Israel. Zelenskyy’s reforms announced on Sunday followed his sacking last week of his justice and energy ministers. Both are implicated in the affair, in which a group of government officials are accused of taking kickbacks from contracts with Energoatom. The former ministers deny wrongdoing. Most commentators believe the illicit scheme was not a one-off, and suggest the scandal may spread to other ministries. Ukrainian media have reported that Mindich was allegedly involved in a bid to supply body armour to the defence ministry, via an Israeli firm and shell companies. Rustem Umerov, the secretary to the National Security and Defence Council, confirmed he met Mindich while defence minister. But Umerov, who denies any improper influence, said a contract was terminated and stressed no items were ever delivered. “It’s a huge blow, but the worst part of it is that I’m not sure that we are at the end of it. It might still be unfolding,” one pro-government deputy told the Kyiv Independent newspaper over the weekend. Nabu officials acknowledge Ukraine has a corruption problem, nearly four years after Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion. But they pointed out the scandal had come to light – something that would be unlikely in neighbouring Russia orHungary, they added. “The story isn’t about corruption. It’s about Ukraine’s struggle and fight against corruption,” Oleksandr Abakumov, the head of Nabu’s investigating team, said.

Climate crisis or a warning from God? Iranians desperate for answers as water dries up

Water, and its absence, has become Iran’s national obsession. In the mosques of northern Tehran the imams have been praying for rain, while the meteorologists count down the hours until the weather is forecast to break and rain is finally due to fall from the sky. Forecasts of “rain-producing clouds” are front-page news. More than 50 days have passed since the start of Iran’s rainy season and more than 20 provinces have not yet had a drop. The number of dams that have less than 5% of their reservoir capacity had increased from eight to 32, and the crisis has spread from the central plains right across the country. On Sunday, despite some reports of localised rainfall, authorities attempted to take matters into their own hands, launching cloud seeding operations to try to induce rainfall. Cloud seeding involves spraying particles such as silver iodide and salt into clouds from aircraft to trigger rain. In Tehran, only 1mm of rain has fallen this year, a once-in-a-century event (the capital’s average annual rainfall between 1991 and 2000 was 350mm). All this comes on top of five previous years of drought. The second half of November is normally the snow season in the capital. Snow cover has decreased by 98.6% nationwide compared with the same point last year, and in Tehran the daily temperature has been a balmy 20C. The price of bottled water has escalated and limits are being placed on purchases. All across Iran, in towns and villages, organised rain prayers have been taking place. Past miracles are recalled, such as the spring of 1944, when wartime Iran was suffering drought and the people of Qom went out into the fields and for three days prayed for rain under the mocking eyes of their British occupier. After the third day, as the crowd scattered, the winds blew and the rail fell. Rather than blaming the climate crisis, attention in some quarters has turned to whether this descent into calamity is God sending a disapproving message. The link between “blatant debauchery on our streets” and drought is drawn by Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, a conservative member of the Assembly of Experts. Grand Ayatollah Javadi Amoli warned: “Sometimes cultural problems, social shortcomings and sin take away the grounds for mercy.” Some MPs have also blamed the drought on the Iranian government for failing to enforce the restrictive hijab laws passed by parliament. Supporters of the president, Masoud Pezeshkian, asked in reply: why is Europe, where women are free to expose their hair to the wind, so green? One headline read: “Why do atheist countries have more rain?” There is also discussion of what is the right kind of prayer. Dr Abdularin Saroush, a philosophy lecturer, distinguishes three forms of prayer – praise to God, supplication and request. But for those looking for explanations of Iran’s water supply beyond faith and morality, Iranians also take new heed of those officials who warned about the imminence of a crisis in the past but were ignored. Kaveh Madani, the award-winning former deputy head of the Environmental Protection Agency, recalls being told by senior officials not to use alarmist phrases such as “water bankruptcy”. He felt forced to leave the country when there was a crackdown on environmental activists, including himself, and is now the head of the Institute for Water Environment and Health at the United Nations University in Canada. He insists he was neither a prophet nor a fortune teller. But he also recognises how ordinary Iranians are puzzled by what has happened to their climate. “There are questions like: ‘Have the clouds really been stolen?” Madani said. “Does burning diesel cause it not to rain? Is it possible to fertilise the clouds … Is it true that we can evaporate the water of the Persian Gulf and transport it to the Zagros Mountains to make it rain there?” He says that, after the trauma of the Israeli attack in June, Iranians want to know what they can do to save their capital from a second catastrophe. According to Mohsen Ardakani, the director general of Tehran’s provincial waste and company, residents are already responding to appeals, cutting their water consumption by 10% in seven months, but he says a 20% reduction is needed. However, few signs are publicly visible suggesting an emergency campaign to save the capital from imminent disaster. Water rationing of a sort is already under way in Tehran, a city of more than 14 million people, as the water pressure is restricted after midnight. But Ardakani insists he will not resort to cutoffs. Pezeshkian, a leader who has a habit of delivering alarming home truths to his fellow Iranians, grabbed headlines worldwide when he warned the crisis was so serious it imay be necessary by mid-December to evacuate the capital and move its residents south – remarks that were rejected elsewhere in government as not feasible. But his proposal is not completely rejected as outlandish. Dariush Mokhtari, a senior academic in water resources management, admitted this week a situation may arise when the parts of Tehran most dependent on dam water would have to be evacuated. Mostafa Fadaei Fard, another water resources academic, said: “Is there any city village or camp available to provide temporary or permanent residence for more than 15 million people anywhere in Iran? If it does not rain on other cities and villages of the country by the end of December should the entire country be evacuated?” Mohammad Darwish, a popular Iranian environmentalist and the co-editor of a new book, Environment as Life, believes an environmental movement is growing in Iran, looking for practical solutions to how Iran adapts to the climate crisis. Pezeshkian, by his dramatic warning of Tehran’s evacuation, has at least convinced his fellow Iranians that denial is no longer an option.

‘She went through hell’: widow of Chornobyl engineer is killed in Russian drone strike on Kyiv

The widow of the first Soviet engineer to die in the Chornobyl nuclear power plant explosion was killed on Friday in Russia’s massive drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Nataliia Khodemchuk as the victim of a “new tragedy caused by the Kremlin”, nearly four decades after her husband, Valerii, was killed inside Chornobyl’s nuclear reactor number four. Valerii was the only plant worker whose body was never recovered. A circulating pump operator, he was in the reactor’s main northern hall in April 1986 when an explosion ripped through the unit. His remains are still under the rubble. After the blast, Nataliia Khodemchuk was evacuated from her home in the town of Pripyat, and given an apartment on Kyiv’s left-bank. On Friday, a drone crashed into the side of her building, known as Chornobyl house, on Honoré de Balzac Street in the Troieshchyna district. She suffered 45% burns and died later in hospital. Six other people were killed in the attack. The Kyiv apartment block is home to other former Chornobyl workers, including Oleksiy Ananenko, who dived into a tank beneath the reactor, preventing a second explosion. Ukraine’s state agency for exclusion zone management said Khodemchuk had been due to take part in a photoshoot to mark the 40th anniversary of the disaster. “We lost a woman who went through Chornobyl hell, lost her husband, raised children and withstood tragedies that would break anyone. But not her,” it said. “Nataliia lived with dignity, love, and a quiet strength that inspired everyone who knew her personally or through her story. She was cheerful, supported others, and shone. Now her voice joins the voices of all innocent Ukrainians killed by Russian terror.” It added: “The pain of this loss is unbearable. Russia proves its true face every time: a terrorist country that recognises neither humanity nor compassion.” The couple met in the 1970s in Pripyat’s canteen, where Nataliia worked as a salesperson. They had two children – a son, Oleh, and a daughter, Larysa. In the hours after the 1986 blast, she visited Chornobyl’s medical unit and morgue in search of her missing husband. She was instructed to pack a few belongings and to evacuate Pripyat, together with her children and other nuclear families. “They left with only small bags for three days. As it turned out it was forever,” Tamara Khrushch, a Ukrainian journalist, wrote in a tribute on Facebook. Khrushch – who interviewed Chornobyl survivors for a TV documentary series – said Russia’s drone attack on Friday had left many of them homeless for a second time. “I’m stunned. Nataliia suffered severe burns. She was already in poor health with chronic diseases because of the 1986 accident,” she said. In recent months, the Kremlin has dramatically escalated its aerial attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Most cities and towns experience frequent blackouts, including Kyiv and its presidential palace. Zelenskyy has called on allies to help bolster its air defences systems. Writing on social media, he said the Russians last week “launched nearly 1,000 attack drones, nearly 980 guided aerial bombs and 36 missiles of various types”. Overnight, there were strikes on Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, and the Odesa and Dnipro regions, he said. “Every night requires multi-component air defence – air defence systems, combat aviation, mobile fire groups, interceptor drones. We are actively working with partners … to reinforce Ukraine’s protection,” he wrote. Additional reporting by Artem Mazhulin

This Palestinian human rights group was sanctioned by Trump. Its chief wishes US allies would take a stand

Al-Haq, a leading Palestinian human rights organization based in the West Bank, is not new to adversity. But since the group was sanctioned by the Trump administration in September, its world has shrunk. Today, staff work without pay because the group’s banks closed its accounts. US-based funders have pulled away. YouTube has pulled hundreds of the group’s videos documenting Israeli forces’ human rights abuses against Palestinians. Perhaps most upsetting, US-based groups that had long collaborated have gone quiet, fearful that communications with Al-Haq may draw the attention of an administration that has made clear they are a target. “I feel a deep, deep pain in my heart,” said Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq’s director, of the silence from US-based organizations in the human rights and social justice sector. “Most of them – if not all – they stopped working with us or engaging with us formally and openly.” Speaking to the Guardian, Jabarin called on US-based rights groups to take a more defiant stance against the Trump administration. “Standing on the side of human rights and justice doesn’t mean that you have to respect draconian orders or laws,” he said. “You have to fight back with all means.” The Trump administration announced sanctions against Al-Haq over the group’s support for investigation of Israeli crimes in Palestine by the international criminal court (ICC). The sanctions marked an early strike in a broader campaign against civil society, a campaign disproportionately focused on groups championing Palestinian rights that also threatens to sweep up climate, democracy and racial justice groups. In a statement announcing the sanctions, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that “the United States will continue to respond with significant and tangible consequences to protect our troops, our sovereignty, and our allies from the ICC’s disregard for sovereignty, and to punish entities that are complicit in its overreach”. Israel and the US – which are not members of the ICC – have long attacked the court and maintain that it has no jurisdiction over them. But the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian groups is hardly limited to their connection to the ICC. Last month, the administration instructed US attorneys across the country to investigate the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the philanthropic network founded by liberal billionaire George Soros, over unfounded allegations that it has sponsored groups promoting political unrest and suggesting charges as severe as material support for “terrorism”. In a presidential memorandum signed in September, Trump also instructed law enforcement to “disband and uproot” organizations and networks that the administration says promote “domestic terrorism” and “organized political violence”. Groups and individuals critical of Israel, both in the US and abroad, are under particular scrutiny. The Trump administration has also detained foreign nationals for pro-Palestinian speech and sanctioned the UN special rapporteur for the occupied territories and senior ICC officials. Palestine-based groups like Al-Haq, which do not enjoy the constitutional protections their US-based peers do, are among the easiest targets. But as a Palestinian, Jabarin said, he knows something about standing in defiance of a repressive regime. “Maybe it’s our nature and our essence as Palestinians, because we are fighting for every aspect of our life,” he said. “Our culture is not to give up, and to continue fighting for justice. Maybe other societies haven’t reached this point yet.” But the group’s continued advocacy has come at a steep price. Since the sanctions were announced, Al-Haq has lost access to its bank accounts as three banks the group works with dissolved them in October, leaving roughly 45 staffers without pay. (Even banks overseas not explicitly affected by sanctions are often jittery about working with people and groups sanctioned by the US.) The group is currently unable to receive donations or pay its employees, and two American funders have stopped their donations. US staff had to resign. Other staff have continued to work for free, Jabarin said, aided by former colleagues and supporters abroad. In addition to YouTube, Meta and Mailchimp have restricted or pulled their services. (The three companies did not immediately respond to request for comment.) Al-Haq has lost allies, too. Among the organizations now fearing Trump’s crackdown are scores of US-based non-profits. While more draconian efforts to silence civil society with so-called “non-profit killer” legislation have so far failed, and experts say Trump’s efforts against Soros will struggle to stand up in court, such groups have for months been on high alert, fearing attacks on their tax-exempt status and the prospect of costly litigation. US-based human rights and Palestinian advocacy groups that have collaborated with Al-Haq in the past are now afraid to do so. (Jabarin declined to name them.) The sanctions the US imposed on Palestinian rights groups – one of the only measures available to the administration in the absence of congressional action – make working with them a liability for their US peers. US-based organizations that worked with Al-Haq in the past declined to speak on the record about their relationship with the group when contacted by the Guardian, but some noted that maintaining professional communications with a sanctioned organization exposed them to significant risk. Coordinated advocacy with sanctioned organizations could expose US groups to civil and criminal enforcement, some noted, with possible consequences ranging from loss of fiscal benefits to jail time. Some US non-profits are so risk-averse they avoided public criticism of the sanctions altogether. Leena Barakat, a co-founder of the Block and Build Funder Coalition, a network of funders she described as “committed to resisting authoritarianism”, said that US-based groups and donors who support the work of sanctioned Palestinian organizations find themselves in a “devastating” position. “We should be fighting back and I think right now there’s absolutely the desire and the will to do it. The question on the table is what is the best and the most strategic fight,” she said. “We’re thinking about that every day.” Al-Haq has documented Israel’s human rights abuses in Palestine for half a century. Alongside other organizations that the US has also sanctioned – Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, and Addameer, which is focused on the rights of Palestinian prisoners and detainees – the group played a key role in demanding and later supporting the ICC’s investigation. In 2021, Israel designated Al-Haq and five other Palestinian rights groups as “terrorist organizations”, alleging links between the groups and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leftwing political party the US and other countries consider a terrorist organization. Reporting at the time revealed that Israel had no concrete evidence to back the designations, and the CIA was unable to corroborate Israel’s claims about the groups. Months later, Israeli soldiers raided Al-Haq’s office. The designations and raids were widely condemned by international rights groups and the Biden administration distanced itself from them. But Jabarin always feared the possibility the US might at some point follow Israel’s lead and seek to punish the group. Jabarin dismissed the latest US sanctions as a “political attack” and pledged that Al-Haq would continue its documentation of human rights violations and its work with the ICC. “They want to silence any voice calling for accountability, calling for ending the culture of impunity, anyone speaking about the rights of Palestinians and justice for Palestine,” he said. “We will continue doing our work, we will continue fighting for justice and for human rights, and we will continue going after the criminals and holding the criminals accountable.” Al-Haq’s submissions to the court, he added, are “legal” and “peaceful”. Jabarin says he understands the constraints imposed on his US colleagues but is frustrated by what he views as a reluctance to more openly defy Trump beyond issuing statements. What Trump wants is for organizations to comply without putting up a fight, and how global civil society responds to this moment will have lasting implications, Jabarin added. “Palestine is the test” for all people of conscience, he said. “The US administration, they are supporting the rule of the jungle, not the rule of law,” he said. “And what’s going on, globally speaking, is a war between the rule of the jungle and the rule of law.”

Caribbean reparations leaders in ‘historic’ first UK visit to press for justice

A delegation from the body leading the Caribbean’s slavery reparations movement will be in the UK next week for a “historic” first official visit to advocate for former British colonies. The Caricom Reparations Commission (CRC) will be meeting with UK parliamentarians, Caribbean diplomats, academics and civil society groups from 17 to 20 November. Organised in collaboration with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the visit aims to strengthen strategic partnerships and increase public knowledge about the region’s colonial past and its reparations movements. “The Caricom Reparations Commission advocacy visit to the UK is historic, as it is the first of what we anticipate will be a series of engagements to raise consciousness and awareness, correct misconceptions about the reparations movement and build strategic partnerships to take this critical agenda to right historical wrongs forward,” Dr Hilary Brown, a member of the delegation and Caricom’s programme manager of culture and community development, said. Between the 15th and the 19th century, more than 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported to the Americas and sold into slavery. Caribbean governments have been calling for recognition of the lasting legacy of colonialism and enslavement, and for reparative justice from former colonisers, including a full formal apology and forms of financial reparations. Prof Sir Hilary Beckles, the CRC chair who is leading the six-member delegation, said the visit would help to amplify and advance the Caribbean’s pursuit of reparatory justice. “The global reparations movement is entering a new wave of impact, visibility and mobilisation, and reparations advocacy grassroots, academics and progressive civil society organisations in Great Britain have a pivotal role to play in amplifying the gains and the message of enlightenment,” he said. He added: “The Caricom Reparations Commission is here to demonstrate solidarity and support as together we navigate Windrush and advance the just claim for reparatory justice.” The issue of reparations for transatlantic slavery has been heating up, dominating headlines during last year’s Commonwealth leaders’ summit when the British government ruled out paying reparations or issuing a formal apology for the UK’s role in the transatlantic slave trade. At the summit, Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the slave trade was abhorrent but countries should be “looking forward” and addressing current challenges such as climate change. The UK government, under pressure from Commonwealth leaders to engage in a “meaningful, truthful and respectful” conversation about Britain’s past, later opened the door to discussing non-financial reparations, such as restructuring financial institutions and providing debt relief for the UK’s role in the transatlantic enslavement. In March, a poll commissioned by the Repair Campaign, an independent movement supporting calls for reparations, found that most Britons were not aware of the scale and lasting legacy of Britain’s role in transatlantic slavery and colonialism. Among the 2,000 UK adults surveyed, 85% were unaware that Britain forcibly transported more than 3 million Africans to the Caribbean, 89% did not know that Britain enslaved people in the Caribbean for more than 300 years, 63% support a formal apology to Caribbean nations and descendants of enslaved people – up 4% from 2024, and 40% support financial reparations, also reflecting a 4% increase from the previous year Caribbean governments have been resolute in their pursuit of reparative justice, based on the CRC’s 10-point plan, which specifies forms of reparations such as a full formal apology and debt cancellation. The plan, the CRC said, has recently been revised to include emerging scientific and historical evidence, though they have not yet revealed the updated version. At their last summit in July, Caricom leaders backed a petition to King Charles from Jamaica on reparations. The petition asks Charles to use his authority to request legal advice from the judicial committee of the privy council, the final court of appeal for UK overseas territories and some Commonwealth countries, on whether the forced transport of Africans to Jamaica was lawful, if it constituted a crime against humanity, and whether Britain was under obligation to provide a remedy to Jamaica for slavery and its enduring consequences.