LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson is sticking to his Brexit plan and will not seek a delay to Britain’s departure from the EU at a summit next month, two of his ministers said on Sunday following a resignation from his government.
After work and pensions minister Amber Rudd’s shock resignation late on Saturday over Johnson’s Brexit policy, two ministers said the prime minister was determined to “keep to the plan” to leave the European Union by Oct. 31 with or without an agreement.
Johnson’s determination to leave “do or die” by that deadline has been shaken by the events of recent days, which have prompted critics to describe him as a tyrant and deepened uncertainty over how Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the EU will play out.
He has lost his Conservative government’s majority in parliament, expelled 21 rebels from the party and failed to force through a new election. Then his own brother quit, saying he was torn between family loyalty and the national interest.
Saturday’s resignation of Amber Rudd as work and pensions minister over what she described as the government’s disproportionate focus on preparing for a no-deal Brexit has only heightened the sense of crisis.
On Sunday, Rudd denied she was accusing the government of lying over its efforts to negotiate a Brexit deal, saying she was just reporting what she had seen.
“I am saying that 80 to 90 percent of the work that I can see going on on the EU relationship is about preparation for no deal. It’s about disproportion,” she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.
“The purpose of this resignation is to make the point that the Conservative Party at its best should be a moderate party that embraces people with different views of the EU.”
But foreign minister Dominic Raab rebutted her view, describing ongoing “intense negotiations” in Brussels, and emphasized that Johnson’s government would not be deterred from what some describe as a hard-line strategy on Brexit.
“I do also think that on some of these key issues, people need to understand, and the voters get it, that we’ve got to keep to the plan,” Raab told Sky News.
Both he and finance minister Sajid Javid also contradicted EU officials who have said Britain has yet to come up with new suggestions for changes to the deal agreed by Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May.
Johnson, Javid said, would go to an EU summit on Oct. 17 to try to secure the new deal.
“First of all, the prime minister will go to the council meeting on the 17th and 18th (of October), he’ll be trying to strike a deal. He absolutely will not be asking for an extension in that meeting,” Javid told the BBC.
But France said Britain was failing to say what it wanted, and the Foreign Minister in Paris, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said that, as things stood, an extension would not be granted even if Britain asked for one next month.
“It’s very worrying. The British must tell us what they want,” Le Drian told Europe 1 radio.
Asked if an extension beyond Oct. 31 was possible, Le Drian said not under current conditions. “We are not going to do (extend) this every three months,” he said.
Britain’s political crisis stepped up a gear last week, when parliament passed legislation to try to force Johnson to secure a Brexit extension if parliament has not approved either a deal or consented to leaving without agreement by Oct. 19.
Queen Elizabeth is expected to sign it into law on Monday, but Johnson says he would rather be “dead in a ditch” than request such an extension — something that opposition parties say could mean seeing the British prime minister breaking the law.
Johnson has countered by asking for a new election on Oct. 15, but opposition parties, led by Labour, said they could not trust him to stick to his word by holding the new poll before Britain is due to leave the EU at the end of the month.
“Until we’ve ruled a no deal off the agenda, I can’t risk, with Boris Johnson being in power, that he wouldn’t somehow impose that on the country,” Labour’s finance policy chief John McDonnell told the BBC.
“So, we can get no deal off the agenda, then I’d like a general election and part of that would be saying let’s have a referendum.”
UK’s Johnson will not seek Brexit delay, sticking to plan: ministers
UK’s Johnson will not seek Brexit delay, sticking to plan: ministers
- Boris Johnson’s determination to leave ‘do or die’ by the October 31 deadline has been shaken by the events of recent days
US to announce new weapons package for Ukraine as defense leaders prepare to meet in Germany
Advisers to Trump have floated proposals to end the Ukraine war that would cede large parts of the country to Russia for the foreseeable future
WASHINGTON: The US is expected to announce $500 million in military aid for Ukraine on Thursday at a final gathering of President Joe Biden’s weapons pledging conferences, meetings Kyiv says have been critical to its defense against Russia.
The Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG), comprised of about 50 allies who usually meet every few months at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, was started in 2022 by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to speed and synchronize the delivery of arms to Kyiv.
The group’s future is unclear with President-elect Donald Trump set to take office on Jan. 20. Advisers to Trump have floated proposals to end the Ukraine war that would cede large parts of the country to Russia for the foreseeable future.
Washington has committed more than $63.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion and the additional $500 million could be announced later on Wednesday, a US official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
On Thursday, the defense leaders will meet at Ramstein Air Base for the 25th UDCG meeting.
“We’re not sunsetting the group. The next administration is completely welcome and encouraged ... to take the mantle of this 50 country strong group and continue to drive and lead through it,” said a senior US defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
“It will endure in some capacity, in some form going forward, I believe, regardless of exactly how the next team does or doesn’t pursue it,” the official said.
Trump will have a few billion dollars in appropriated money that he could use for Ukraine’s military needs once he takes office.
The official added that the Thursday meeting would look to endorse roadmaps for Ukraine’s military needs and objectives through 2027.
More than 12,300 civilians have been killed in the Ukraine war since Russia invaded nearly three years ago, the United Nations said, noting a spike in casualties due to the use of drones, long-range missiles and glide bombs.
Ukraine said on Tuesday its forces were “commencing new offensive actions” in Russia’s western Kursk region.
Ukraine first seized part of the Kursk region in a surprise incursion last August, and it has held territory there for five months despite losing some ground.
The apparent escalation in the fighting in the Kursk region comes at a critical time for Ukraine, whose outnumbered and outgunned troops are struggling to repel Russian advances in the east.
Gunfire heard near presidency in Chad capital
- A security source said armed men had attacked the interior of the presidential compound
N’DJAMENA: Sustained gunfire was heard Wednesday evening near the presidency in Chad’s capital N’Djamena, AFP reporters said.
A security source said armed men had attacked the interior of the presidential compound but authorities made no immediate comment.
All roads leading to the presidency have been blocked and tanks could be seen on the streets of the capital, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.
The gunfire erupted less than two weeks after the landlocked country in Africa’s northern half held a contested general election.
The government hailed it as a key step toward ending military rule, but it was marked by low turnout and opposition allegations of fraud.
The election had taken place against a backdrop of recurring attacks by the jihadist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region, the ending of a military accord with former colonial master France, and accusations that Chad was interfering in the conflict ravaging neighboring Sudan.
Several hours earlier on Tuesday, China’s foreign minister Wang Li met with President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno and other senior officials.
The former French colony hosted France’s last military bases in the region known as the Sahel, but at the end of November it ended the defense and security agreements with Paris.
Around a thousand French military personnel were stationed there, and are in the process of being withdrawn.
France is now reconfiguring its military presence in Africa after being driven out of three Sahelian countries governed by juntas hostile to Paris — Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Senegal and the Ivory Coast have also asked France to leave military bases on their territory.
Baby born on migrant vessel in Atlantic: Spanish rescuers
- “Christmas ended in the Canaries with the rescue of a baby born while crossing the sea,” the coast guard said
- A record 46,843 undocumented migrants reached the Canary Islands in 2024
MADRID: Spanish coast guards rescued a baby that was born on an inflatable vessel carrying migrants to the Canary Islands, authorities said on Wednesday.
The newborn was recovered safely along with their mother on Monday, the coast guard service said in a message on X.
They were the latest to make the crossing that has seen thousands drown as migrants try to reach the Atlantic archipelago from Africa.
“Christmas ended in the Canaries with the rescue of a baby born while crossing the sea,” the coast guard said.
A coast guard boat “rescued a mother who had given birth aboard the inflatable craft in which she was traveling with a large group of people.”
The two were taken by helicopter to Arrecife on the island of Lanzarote, it added.
A record 46,843 undocumented migrants reached the Canary Islands in 2024 via the Atlantic route, official data showed this month.
Ethiopians celebrate Christmas as natural calamities and conflict take their toll
- The patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church called for reconciliation and peace in a nation where conflict has been often fueled by ethnic strife
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christians are celebrating Christmas with prayers for peace in the Horn of Africa nation that has faced persistent conflict in recent years.
Ethiopians follow the Julian calendar, which runs 13 days later than the Gregorian calendar, used by Catholic and Protestant churches. They traditionally celebrate by slaughtering animals and joining family members to break the fast after midnight.
The patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Mathias, in his televised Christmas Eve message called for reconciliation and peace in a nation where conflict has been often fueled by ethnic strife. Different parts of Ethiopia recently have also faced natural calamities, including mudslides. Earthquakes last week in the remote regions of Afar, Amhara and Oromia have displaced thousands.
Despite the signing of a peace agreement to end the armed conflict in the northern region of Tigray in 2022, recurring conflicts in Amhara, Oromia and elsewhere have caused widespread suffering and forced 9 million children to drop out of school, according to UNICEF.
Almaz Zewdie, who was among thousands of Orthodox Christians attending ceremonies in Addis Ababa’s Medhanyalem Church, said she was praying for peace.
She was draped in an all-white traditional attire to mark the end of a 43-day fasting period and the birth of Jesus Christ.
“I lost friends and my livelihood,” said Zewdie, a merchant from the tourist town of Gondar, speaking of the toll of the conflict in Amhara, where government troops have been fighting members of a local militia.
Isaias Seyoum, a priest in Addis Ababa’s Selassie Church, said the celebration of Christmas is more than just feasting and merrymaking. It is also a time to share meals with needy people and help those impacted by conflict, including many sheltering in Addis Ababa, he said.
Baroness Warsi accuses UK Conservative Party of demonizing her over Islamophobia claims
- Party recently told Warsi she would not have whip restored in UK’s upper house of parliament
- Internal inquiry clears Warsi of ‘bringing the party into disrepute’ over support for pro-Palestinian protester
LONDON: The UK’s first Muslim cabinet member has accused her Conservative Party of attempting to “demonize” her after she criticized the party over Islamophobia.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi was told recently she was not welcome back into the Conservative Party in the UK’s upper house of parliament, where she holds a seat, The Independent reported on Wednesday.
Warsi resigned from the party in the House of Lords in September, claiming the Conservatives had moved too far to the right.
The former co-chair of the Conservative Party had also come under pressure from senior party members over language used in a tweet supporting a pro-Palestinian protester.
Warsi has now been cleared of being “divisive” and “bringing the party into disrepute” by a disciplinary panel investigating the tweet.
But the Conservatives wrote to Warsi saying that while she could remain a member of the party, they would not restore to her the party whip, meaning she could not be affiliated with the party in the Lords.
In response, Warsi said she had not asked to have the whip restored, and accused the Conservatives of playing games.
She told The Independent that the party was attempting to “demonize” her for challenging the party’s “rising levels of extremism, racism and Islamophobia.”
Warsi was appointed as the first Muslim Conservative Party chair in 2010 by Prime Minister David Cameron as he sought to modernize the party.
But in recent years the Conservatives have shifted further right as they seek to counter the growing popularity of far-right parties.
In March, Warsi said the party had become known as “the institutionally xenophobic and racist party.” She has also repeatedly accused it of failing to tackle Islamophobia within the party and criticized significant figures for their rhetoric over immigration.
In 2014, she resigned as a minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office over the government’s “morally indefensible” approach to Gaza.
Warsi’s decision to resign the whip in September was, she said: “A reflection of how far right my party has moved and the hypocrisy and double standards in its treatment of different communities.”
The move came after complaints against her for a tweet congratulating a pro-Palestinian protester acquitted of a racially aggravated public order offense. The protester had used a placard depicting Rishi Sunak, who was prime minister at the time, as a coconut.
