Don’t tie our hands in Brexit negotiations, British government tells parliament

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, June 12, 2018. (Reuters)
Updated 12 June 2018
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Don’t tie our hands in Brexit negotiations, British government tells parliament

  • PM May faces Brexit showdown with lawmakers
  • House of Lords amended EU withdrawal bill

LONDON: Britain’s Brexit minister told parliament on Tuesday to back down in a showdown over Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans to leave the European Union, warning lawmakers they could undermine negotiations.
Lawmakers kicked off two days of debate on Tuesday on changes to May’s Brexit blueprint, or EU withdrawal bill, after the upper house of parliament, the House of Lords, introduced 15 changes.
The strained parliament session underlined deep divisions over Britain’s EU exit.
The main point of contention between those who want to keep the closest possible ties with the EU and those who aim for a clean break is a demand to give parliament a “meaningful vote” on any agreement May negotiates with Brussels.
Hours before the debate began, a justice minister resigned in protest at what he called its “wish to limit” the role of parliament in shaping Brexit. He said he would vote against the prime minister.
Brexit minister David Davis told parliament if it rejected the government’s compromise on the “meaningful vote” and backed the House of Lords amendment: “What it actually amounts to is an unconstitutional shift which risks undermining our negotiation with the European Union.”
Some lawmakers tried to shout him down and accused the government of wanting too much power.
“The government cannot demonstrate the flexibility necessary for a successful deal if its hands are tied midway through that process,” Davis said.
But just an hour before the vote, due at around 1500 GMT, the government sought to compromise with senior pro-EU Conservative lawmaker Dominic Grieve, who had put forward his own amendment, which increased the risk of a government defeat.
The vote on Tuesday is the first of two days of debate that will test May’s authority and her plans for leaving the EU.
In a highly charged atmosphere in parliament, lawmakers who oppose the government said they had received death threats and brandished a copy of one of Britain’s tabloid newspapers, the Daily Express, which ran a headline saying: “Ignore the will of the people at your peril.”
Britons voted 52 percent to 48 percent in favor of leaving the EU in a June 2016 referendum.

UNITY, PLEASE
After days of frantic lobbying by Conservative officials to try to get the party on board, May renewed appeals for unity over the “meaningful vote,” after the government appeared to have secured a compromise to stop a similar rebellion on Wednesday over Britain’s trading ties with the EU.
“The prime minister said that the votes were important in terms of the message they send to Brussels,” May’s spokesman said she told her cabinet team of ministers.
“She said that anything which undermines the government at home would make the negotiations with the EU more difficult.”
Parliament must decide whether to support an amendment approved by the House of Lords that could mean sending May back into negotiations with the EU if lawmakers reject a Brexit deal.
Davis warned lawmakers the government would never allow them to “reverse Brexit” and called on them to back its own amendment, which proposes a 28-day breathing space if parliament rejects a Brexit deal, during which the government would have to make a statement on its plans.
After it was not clear whether that would win over potential rebels, a minister offered Grieve a compromise to discuss parts of his amendment that the government could adopt — a move aimed at warding off a potential rebellion led by the lawmaker.
His competing amendment could force ministers to hand over control of its Brexit strategy to parliament if there is no deal by mid-February. The government earlier had said it would not support that amendment.

FRUSTRATIONS
Conservative Brexit campaigners accused those in the party who indicated they would vote against the government of not respecting the referendum result.
“We are asking members of parliament to abide by the referendum result, our manifesto commitment and to back our country,” Andrew Bridgen, Conservative lawmaker and Brexit campaigner, told Reuters. “It’s not difficult.”
But the resignation by Phillip Lee, who has long been critical of the government’s Brexit strategy, underlined the deep rifts in the party over Brexit that makes such votes anything but easy.
The “meaningful vote” will be the first major test after the House of Lords introduced changes to the bill, trying to reshape the government’s approach to Brexit by encouraging lawmakers to press for the closest possible ties.
On Tuesday, parliament will also debate other amendments, including a challenge to the government’s plan to put March 29, 2019, or ‘Brexit Day’, into law and an attempt to toughen a commitment to ensure a frictionless border between Northern Ireland and the neighboring Irish Republic, which will remain in the EU.
On Wednesday, parliament will consider a challenge to May’s commitment to leave the EU’s single market and customs union, which will transform Britain’s future trading relationships for many years to come.
If May is defeated in the House of Commons it will be yet another blow to a prime minister whose authority has been challenged several times since last year’s election. She now relies on the support of a small Northern Irish party.
Matthew Pennycook, one of the opposition Labour Party’s Brexit policy team, urged lawmakers to vote to hand parliament more powers.
“The question of what form parliamentary approval of the withdrawal bill takes is one of the most significant decisions this house will have to take,” he said.


Somalia and Ethiopia agree to restore diplomatic ties

Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. (AFP)
Updated 4 sec ago
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Somalia and Ethiopia agree to restore diplomatic ties

  • Somalia's President Hassan and Ethiopia's PM Abiy Ahmed announced the agreement after a visit by Hassan to Addis Ababa
  • The two leaders also discussed deepening trade, and security cooperation against “extremist militant groups”

ADDIS ABABA/MOGADISHU: Somalia and Ethiopia announced Saturday they would restore full diplomatic relations following a visit by Somalia’s president to Addis Ababa to heal a year-long rift that threatened further instability in the Horn of Africa.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed “agreed to restore and enhance their bilateral relations through full diplomatic relations in their respective capitals,” they said in a joint statement.
Land-locked Ethiopia’s desire for access to the sea had deepened long-standing grievances between the two neighbors.
Somalia was outraged when Ethiopia signed a deal one year ago with its breakaway region of Somaliland, reportedly to recognize its independence in exchange for a port and military base on the Red Sea.
Ethiopia’s ambassador in Mogadishu was expelled last April and the countries broke off their diplomatic ties.
The row was defused by a peace deal last month, mediated by Turkiye and signed by both leaders.
During Mohamud’s visit to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday they reiterated their commitment to the deal and its “spirit of friendship and solidarity,” in a joint statement.
They also discussed deepening trade, and security cooperation against “extremist militant groups.”

Many questions remain unresolved, however.
Although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month’s deal would eventually give Ethiopia some form of sea access, it is not clear what form this would take.
The fate of Ethiopia’s deal with Somaliland is also uncertain.
Just hours before Saturday’s presidential visit, the continued tensions in the region were on display in Cairo when Somalia’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi met his Egyptian and Eritrean counterparts.
The three countries have lately found common ground in opposing Ethiopia’s ambitions and made a veiled reference to their rival.
“The Red Sea and its security is subject only to the will of the countries on its coast, and it is absolutely unacceptable for any country not bordering the Red Sea to have a presence, whether military, naval or otherwise,” said Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.
Egypt, Eritrea and Somalia forged a new regional alliance in October at a summit in the Eritrean capital Asmara, and the foreign ministers said Saturday that more would follow.
Shared concerns about Ethiopia have also pushed Egypt and Somalia into closer military ties.
Egyptian troops joined the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), the updated international coalition to fight Somali Islamist insurgents that launched this month.


US wildfires pose fresh threat despite winds easing

Fire crews monitor the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP)
Updated 11 January 2025
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US wildfires pose fresh threat despite winds easing

  • The National Weather Service said that conditions in the Los Angeles area would improve through the weekend, with sustained winds slowing to about 20 mph, gusting between 35 mph and 50 mph

LOS ANGELES: The largest of the raging wildfires that have devastated parts of Los Angeles this week was reported to have shifted direction on Saturday, triggering more evacuation orders and posing a new challenge to exhausted firefighters.

Six simultaneous blazes that have ripped across Los Angeles County neighborhoods since Tuesday have killed at least 11 people and damaged or destroyed 10,000 structures. The toll is expected to mount when firefighters are able to conduct house-to-house searches.
The fierce Santa Ana winds that fanned the infernos eased on Friday night. But the Palisades Fire on the city’s western edge was heading in a new direction, prompting another evacuation order as it edged toward the Brentwood neighborhood and the San Fernando Valley foothills, the Los Angeles Times reported.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Death toll rises to 11 with more fatalities expected.

• 10,000 structures burned as neighborhoods turn to ash.

• Thousands homeless, public health emergency declared.

• Insurers face billions in claims, Biden vows support.

“The Palisades fire has got a new significant flare-up on the eastern portion and continues to northeast,” LA Fire Department Captain Erik Scott told local station KTLA, according to a report on the LA Times website.
The fire, the most destructive in the history of Los Angeles, has razed whole neighborhoods to the ground, leaving just the smoldering ruins of what had been people’s homes and possessions.
Some 153,000 people remained under evacuation orders and another 166,800 faced evacuation warnings with a curfew in place for all evacuation zones, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
Seven neighboring states, the federal government and Canada have rushed aid to California, bolstering aerial teams dropping water and fire retardant on the flaming hills and crews on the ground attacking fire lines with hand tools and hoses.
The National Weather Service said that conditions in the Los Angeles area would improve through the weekend, with sustained winds slowing to about 20 mph, gusting between 35 mph and 50 mph.
Officials have declared a public health emergency due to the thick, toxic smoke.
Pacific Palisades residents who ventured back to their devastated neighborhoods on Friday were shocked to find brick chimneys looming over charred waste and burnt-out vehicles as acrid smoke lingered in the air.
“This was a house that was loved,” Kelly Foster, 44, said while combing through the rubble where her house once stood.
Foster’s 16-year-old daughter, Ada, said she tried to get inside but “I just became sick. I just couldn’t even ... Yeah, it’s hard.”
In Rick McGeagh’s Palisades neighborhood, only six of 60 homes survived, and all that remained standing at his ranch house was a statue of the Virgin Mary.
“Everything else is ash and rubble,” said McGeagh, 61, a commercial real estate broker who, along with his wife, raised three children at their home.
On Friday morning, hundreds of people streamed into a parking lot near the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena for donated clothing, diapers and bottled water.
Denise Doss, 63, said she was anxious to return to her destroyed home in Altadena to see if anything was salvageable, but officials stopped her due to safety concerns.
“At least to say goodbye until we can rebuild. I will let God lead me,” Doss said.
Many Altadena residents said they were worried government resources would go to wealthier areas and that insurers might short-change those who cannot afford to contest denials of fire claims.
Beyond those who lost their homes, tens of thousands remained without power, and millions of people were exposed to poorer air quality, as the fires lofted traces of metals, plastics and other synthetic materials.
Private forecaster AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic loss at $135 billion to $150 billion, portending an arduous recovery and soaring homeowners’ insurance costs.
President Joe Biden has declared the fires a major disaster and said the US government would reimburse 100 percent of the recovery for the next six months.

 


Russia says US risks global energy instability with new sanctions

Updated 11 January 2025
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Russia says US risks global energy instability with new sanctions

  • “Of course Washington’s hostile actions will not be left without reaction,” said Moscow’s foreign ministry
  • Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier told reporters that the Biden administration was trying to leave Trump “as heavy a legacy as possible“

MOSCOW: Moscow on Saturday accused the US of being ready to risk global energy instability with new wide-reaching sanctions on Russia’s energy sector.
The US and the UK on Friday announced new sanctions against Russia’s energy sector, including oil giant Gazprom Neft, just days before President Joe Biden leaves office.
Moscow’s foreign ministry said in a statement that on the eve of Biden’s “inglorious time in power,” Washington was trying to “cause at least some harm to Russia’s economy even at the cost of destabilising world markets.”
“Of course Washington’s hostile actions will not be left without reaction,” it added.
In a reference to the California wildfires, Moscow accused Biden’s administration of leaving behind “scorched earth,” or total destruction, for incoming US President Donald Trump — since he cannot cancel the sanctions without Congress approval.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier told reporters that the Biden administration was trying to leave Trump “as heavy a legacy as possible.”
The US Treasury Department said Friday it was designating more than 180 ships as well as Russian oil majors Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, fulfilling “the G7 commitment to reduce Russian revenues from energy.”
Gazprom Neft on Friday slammed the sanctions as “baseless” and “illegitimate,” Russian state news agencies reported.
Biden’s deputy national security adviser for international economics, Daleep Singh, called the sanctions “the most significant” yet on Russia’s energy sector, which he said was “by far the largest source of revenue for (President Vladimir) Putin’s war.”
The Russian ministry on Saturday accused the US of seeking to “hinder as far as possible or even make impossible any bilateral economic ties, including with US business.”
It said Washington was “sacrificing to this the interests... of European allies,” which are “forced to switch over to more expensive and unreliable American supplies.”
It also accused Washington of “ignoring” the views of its own population on rising energy prices once the presidential election was over.


‘Brutal’ tram collision in France’s Strasbourg injures dozens

Updated 20 min 31 sec ago
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‘Brutal’ tram collision in France’s Strasbourg injures dozens

  • The collision occurred near Strasbourg’s main train station, one of the busiest in France outside of Paris
  • According to the prefecture, citing preliminary estimates, between 30 and 35 victims were injured. Firefighters put that figure at around 50

STRASBOURG, France: Two trams collided in a tunnel in a rare accident in the eastern French city of Strasbourg on Saturday, injuring dozens of people, the authorities said.
The collision occurred near Strasbourg’s main train station, one of the busiest in France outside of Paris.
In 1994, Strasbourg was the first major French city to re-introduce trams, after the service closed in 1960.
Since the return of the vehicles, there have been no major accidents.
According to the prefecture, citing preliminary estimates, between 30 and 35 victims were injured. Firefighters put that figure at around 50.
A video posted by a witness on social media showed a chaotic scene with the two trams significantly damaged in a tunnel near the station.
One of the trams appeared to have derailed as a result of the impact, whose cause has yet to be established.
“The public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation,” the prefecture said.
A large security perimeter was set up in front of the station, where ambulances have taken up position, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
Paramedics and firefighters were loading injured people secured on stretchers into ambulances. Other victims were receiving first aid under the station’s glass roof.
Strasbourg’s Mayor Jeanne Barseghian and other officials rushed to the station.
The accident occurred shortly before 4:00 p.m. (15:00 GMT).
“What we know at this stage is that there was a brutal collision between two trams, on the platform, under the station,” said Barseghian.
“There were a number of people on the trams,” she said, adding that there were no fatalities or people in “absolute urgency.”
Some of the injured were in a state of shock as a result of the “head-on” impact which was “relatively violent,” the mayor added, expressing her support.
Patrick Maciejewski, chairman of the board of directors of the Strasbourg transport company (CTS), said that there had been demonstrations in central Strasbourg, which had disrupted tram traffic.
“A number of trams had to be reorganized and put on standby. There was a traffic jam,” he said.
“We don’t know why the train was stopped, but it started to move backwards.”
Rene Cellier, director of the Bas-Rhin fire and rescue service, said around 50 people had suffered non-fatal injuries such as scalp wounds, clavicle fractures, and knee sprains.
“Mostly trauma,” said Cellier.
“There are also around 100 people who have no particular injuries but are being seen by the doctors,” he added.
Cellier said around 50 vehicles and 130 firefighters were on site, adding that the situation “could have been much more serious.”
Johan, a witness who declined to give his last name, said that one of the trams reversed at full speed.
“There was a problem with the brakes,” he told AFP. “We heard a big impact, a big bang.”
The two drivers were not injured, “but are very shocked,” said CTS director Emmanuel Auneau.
Strasbourg saw a similar in 1998 when one tramway collided with another in the same tunnel, wounding 17 people.
Located in the historic region of Alsace, the city is the official seat of the European Parliament.


Syrian migrant dies trying to cross Channel: French authorities

Updated 11 January 2025
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Syrian migrant dies trying to cross Channel: French authorities

  • Several dozen migrants tried to get into the water on the beach at Sangatte, on the northern coast of France

LILLE: A 19-year-old Syrian migrant perished while trying to cross the Channel to Britain, French authorities said on Saturday, adding he was probably crushed to death in a leaking dinghy.
It was the first reported death at sea of a migrant seeking to travel to Britain from France so far this year.
Several dozen migrants tried to get into the water on the beach at Sangatte, on the northern coast of France, on Friday night, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture told AFP.
The prefecture said that “a few minutes later” the group disembarked from the leaking dinghy. On the floor of the boat, a Syrian man was found, the prefecture said, adding that he had suffered cardiac arrest.
He had “probably” been crushed to death.
“This was the first death at sea in 2025,” the prefecture said.
The victim, 19, was pronounced dead at 5:24 am, the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor, Guirec Le Bras, said separately.
A forensic investigation will be carried out to determine the exact cause of death.
Citing members of law enforcement, the prosecutor said the small boat carried around 60 migrants.
A 33-year-old Syrian-born man was arrested and placed in police custody, according to the prosecutor.
According to the prefecture, 77 people died trying to reach Britain in flimsy inflatable boats last year, making it the deadliest year for migrants who are taking ever greater risks to evade Britain’s border control.
Associations providing help to migrants recorded 89 fatalities last year. The count includes migrants who died at sea and on the coast of northern France.
The groups planned a march in Calais on Saturday to denounce security policies they say are responsible for the mounting death toll.
Due to unfavorable weather conditions, only 61 migrants arrived in the United Kingdom on small boats between 1 and 10 January, according to British authorities.
More than 36,800 people were detected crossing the Channel last year, a 25 percent increase from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to provisional figures from the interior ministry.
Immigration, both irregular and regular, was a major issue in the UK’s July general election, which brought Labour to power but also saw a breakthrough for Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party.
According to Downing Street, illegal migration was one of the issues discussed by French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday.