{"text":[[{"start":12.85,"text":"Downing Street has insisted the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands is “not in question” in response to reports of a leaked Pentagon memo suggesting the US may review its position on the territory in retaliation for the UK’s lack of support for strikes against Iran."}],[{"start":28.950000000000003,"text":"Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesperson on Friday highlighted that the Falklands had voted “overwhelmingly in favour of remaining a UK overseas territory” and defended the “islanders’ right to self-determination”. "}],[{"start":42.35,"text":"An internal Pentagon memo suggested the US may re-examine its diplomatic support for European claims to “imperial possessions” such as the Falklands as one of a suite of options to hit back at Nato allies who withheld support in the US-Israeli war against Iran, Reuters reported on Friday."}],[{"start":60.900000000000006,"text":"The fresh tensions create a tumultuous backdrop to King Charles III’s four-day state visit to the US, which begins on Monday. "}],[{"start":68.80000000000001,"text":"The Falklands are a particularly sensitive subject for the royal family, given that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was a naval pilot in the 1982 war between Britain and Argentina over the remote archipelago in the south Atlantic."}],[{"start":82.85000000000001,"text":"UK officials were blindsided by reports of the leaked memo on Friday and were scrambling to find out whether it represented the wider US administration’s views, according to people familiar with the matter."}],[{"start":95.00000000000001,"text":"Argentina’s right-wing president Javier Milei, a close Trump ally, has sought to thaw frosty relations with the UK since taking office in 2023 and has previously proposed a “Hong Kong-style” negotiated handover of the islands. "}],[{"start":109.90000000000002,"text":"Following the UK’s comments on Friday, Milei’s foreign minister Pablo Quirno reiterated Argentina’s “sovereign rights” to the islands and its “willingness to resume bilateral negotiations” to end “this special and particular colonial situation”."}],[{"start":125.10000000000002,"text":"Reports of the memo emerged after Trump on Thursday reignited an old battle with Starmer’s government, cautioning that he would “probably put a big tariff on the UK” if the British government does not drop its digital services tax."}],[{"start":138.55,"text":"Introduced in 2020, the digital services tax imposed a two per cent levy on the revenues of several major US tech companies whose global income exceeds £500mn, more than £25mn of which is made in the UK."}],[{"start":153.45000000000002,"text":"“We’ve been looking at it and we can meet that very easily by just putting a big tariff on the UK, so they better be careful,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office."}],[{"start":163.4,"text":"Downing Street on Friday said that it would not bow to pressure from Trump and scrap the tax."}],[{"start":168.9,"text":"Former US ambassador Lord Peter Mandelson told the FT last year that the “tax itself is under discussion”, signalling that a variety of options were on the table other than scrapping it entirely, but the levy receded from focus later in the year as discussions about a trade deal between London and Washington advanced."}],[{"start":190,"text":"Earlier this week a report by the House of Lords international relations and defence committee found the bilateral relationship was “under greater strain today than at any point since the second world war”."}],[{"start":201.7,"text":"Despite increasingly fraught UK-US relations, Number 10 sought to put a positive spin on the monarch’s trip. “We’re absolutely confident the state visit will showcase the very best of the UK-US bilateral relationship, from security to our economic ties and our people-to-people relationship,” Starmer’s spokesperson said. "}],[{"start":219.75,"text":"The King will have a private audience with Trump and address Congress, as well as attend a White House banquet in Washington. He and Queen Camilla will also stop off in Virginia, New York — where they will visit the 9/11 memorial — and Bermuda."}],[{"start":233.85,"text":"“As President Trump has said, despite everything that the United States has done for our Nato allies, they were not there for us. The War Department will ensure that the President has credible options to ensure that our allies are no longer a paper tiger and instead do their part. We have no further comment on any internal deliberations to that effect,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement."}],[{"start":257.75,"text":"Additional reporting by Amy Mackinnon in Washington"}],[{"start":270.75,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1777249828_1198.mp3"}