Trump Accuses U.K. Labour Party of U.S. Election Interference

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Trump campaign allegations against the U.K. Labour Party, a terrorist attack in Turkey, and new evidence confirming North Korean troops in Russia.

Alleged Illegal Contributions

With just 13 days until the U.S. presidential election, former President Donald Trump’s campaign has accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party of “blatant foreign interference.” In a six-page legal complaint, a Trump campaign lawyer asked the U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) late Tuesday to investigate alleged illegal contributions from Labour to Vice President Kamala Harris’s team.

The complaint alleges that some senior Labour advisors traveled to the United States in recent months to meet Democrat strategists on the Labour Party’s dime. These participants reportedly discussed how Labour recently won back almost all of the industrialized areas that had abandoned the party in 2019.

Among those accused of election interference include Morgan McSweeney, who attended the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this August while serving as a political advisor to Downing Street. He is now Starmer’s chief of staff.

The Trump team also pointed to a since-deleted LinkedIn post from Sofia Patel, the head of operations at Labour, that said nearly 100 current and former party staff would be heading to the United States ahead of the election to help elect Harris in four key swing states. Patel’s post said 10 spots still needed to be filled in North Carolina, adding, “We will sort your housing.”

U.S. rules dictate that foreign citizens can volunteer on election campaigns but cannot make financial contributions, receive compensation, or participate in decision-making processes, meaning that Trump’s allegations will hinge on whether Labour covered any of the activists’ costs. On Wednesday, Labour refuted the accusations, saying supporters volunteer in their own time and all costs are at their own expense, including housing. It stressed the long history of U.K. citizens traveling to other countries, including the United States, to volunteer in elections, with Britons who are part of the center-left Labour Party typically supporting Democrats and Conservative members largely backing Republicans.

In 2018, the FEC fined Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s campaign for illegally accepting services from volunteers with the Australian Labor Party during his 2016 presidential bid. If the agency agrees with the Trump campaign’s complaint that the Harris team and Labour Party broke the rules, then it could issue similar fines.

Beyond the potential financial repercussions, though, the allegations could pave the way for an awkward, and potentially turbulent, start to U.K.-U.S. relations under Trump if he wins in November. “When representatives of the British government previously sought to go door-to-door in America, it did not end well for them,” Trump campaign lawyer Gary Lawkowski wrote in warning, evoking the Battle of Yorktown and going on to misspell “Britain.”

Trump has previously described the Labour Party as “far left”—despite its centrist shift in recent years—and has publicly praised Conservative leaders, including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Starmer denied on Wednesday that the allegations could damage future bilateral relations.

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What We’re Following

Explosion at aerospace giant. A terrorist attack on Turkish Aerospace Industries’ headquarters near the Turkish capital of Ankara on Wednesday killed at least four people and injured 14 others, with three in critical condition. Two of those killed included suspected assailants responsible for the blast. No group has claimed responsibility; however, Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler suggested that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) could have been behind the attack. Ankara considers the PKK to be a terrorist organization and has fought a decadeslong insurgency by the group.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the attack on Wednesday while attending the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and the European Union also condemned the incident. Turkish Aerospace Industries, owned by the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation and the government, is the country’s largest aerospace manufacturer.

Foreign forces in Russia. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed evidence on Wednesday that North Korean troops have deployed to Russia. “What exactly they are doing? Left to be seen,” Austin said, adding that it would be a “very, very serious issue” if Pyongyang’s forces were preparing to fight alongside Russia against Ukraine, as Kyiv and South Korea have claimed. The Kremlin and Pyongyang continue to dismiss these allegations.

Austin portrayed Russia’s need for North Korean soldiers as a sign of desperation. Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that his government had intelligence indicating that more than 10,000 North Koreans could be sent to Russia by the end of the year, and South Korea’s spy agency said 1,500 special forces had been deployed to eastern Russia for training to help fight Kyiv. Seoul warned on Tuesday that it could consider supplying weapons to Ukraine if North Korea dispatched troops.

“Injecting actual combat troops into the war at a critical time not only ratchets up the pressure on a war-weary and manpower-weak Ukraine, it also deepens the bonds and implications of the four-month-old Russia-North Korea mutual defense pact,” FP’s Keith Johnson reports.

Thaw in relations. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held formal talks on Wednesday for the first time in more than five years on the sidelines of the Russia-hosted BRICS summit. The two briefly met at the 2022 G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, as well as at last August’s BRICS summit in Johannesburg.

“It’s important for both sides to shoulder our international responsibilities, set an example for boosting the strength and unity of the developing countries, and contribute to promoting multipolarization and democracy in international relations,” Xi said, signaling a thaw in bilateral relations. The two leaders expressed the importance of rapprochement just days after agreeing to jointly patrol their shared disputed border in the Himalayas, resolving a four-year military standoff there.

Hope for a truce. Israeli strikes across Gaza killed more than 40 people on Wednesday, with mass bombardments forcing the World Health Organization to postpone starting polio vaccinations in the enclave’s north. The operations come as new reports suggest that Israel may be considering a “small” cease-fire and hostage release deal to kick-start negotiations for a broader agreement.

The proposal, discussed in Cairo on Sunday between new Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Mahmoud Rashad and Israeli Shin Bet director Ronen Bar, would implement a two-week truce in Gaza for the release of just six Israeli hostages. “The thinking is that efforts at a big deal kept meeting challenges. So, the idea is to get the momentum going with a smaller deal,” an Israeli official told NBC.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Israel on Monday to push for a new cease-fire deal following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week. However, Israeli and Hamas officials have publicly vowed to continue the war.

Odds and Ends

London’s Home Office issued Paddington Bear—yes, the fictional teddy—an official British passport in July, local media reported on Monday. Complete with a photo of him licking the camera, the passport recognizes the Peruvian-born character as a British citizen. Filmmakers requested the passport to be used as a prop in the upcoming film Paddington in Peru, not expecting to receive the real deal. “You wouldn’t think the Home Office would have a sense of humor, but under official observations, they’ve just listed him as Bear,” co-producer Rob Silva said.