BRUSSELS: French President Emmanuel Macron said he hopes the European Union and Britain were on the cusp of concluding a tentative Brexit deal that leaders would seek to complete at a summit Thursday.
The French leader said Wednesday that “I want to believe that a deal is being finalized and that we can approve it tomorrow,” when EU leaders are meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Brussels.
Hopes were increasingly turning toward getting a broad political commitment, with the full legal details hammered out later. Negotiators were locked in EU headquarters with few details leaking out. Wild movements in the British pound on Wednesday underscored the uncertainty over what, if anything, might be decided.
Meetings between EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and key EU legislators as well as with ambassadors of the member nations were rescheduled for the evening — an indication there was still momentum in the ongoing talks among technical teams from both sides.
“It looks like things are moving,” said an EU official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because talks were still ongoing.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, echoed that, saying there is still “a chance of securing a good deal” at the summit, even though a number of issues remain.
The thorniest among them is how goods and people will flow across the land border between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK
But Northern Ireland is not the only issue. An eventual withdrawal agreement would be a legal treaty laying out the terms of Britain’s departure and setting up a transition period in which relations would remain as they are now at least until the end of 2020, to give people and businesses time to adjust to new rules. It will guarantee the rights of EU citizens in Britain, and British nationals living elsewhere in the EU, to continue with their lives.
But it leaves many questions about the future unanswered, and Britain’s departure is sure to be followed by years of negotiations on trade and other issues.
Even if a provisional deal is inked this week, moves in the British parliament could still mean another delay to Britain’s departure, currently due to take place on Oct. 31. It also raises the prospect that the EU needs to hold another Brexit summit before the end of the month.
“The 31st of October is still a few weeks away, and there is a possibility of another summit before that if we need one,” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said in Dublin.
Adding to the pressure and uncertainty is that any deal must be approved by the British Parliament, which has already rejected agreements three times and has also issued an order that Johnson’s government must seek to delay the departure if a deal isn’t in place by Saturday.
The British government continues to insist the UK will leave on Oct. 31 — but also promises to obey Parliament’s order.
With the need to get Parliament’s approval looming over negotiations, EU leaders are seeking reassurances from Johnson during this week’s summit that he has the political weight to push any new deal through the House of Commons, which is due to meet on Saturday for its first weekend session in almost 40 years.
The Brexit talks plodded ahead Wednesday, further delaying preparations for the EU summit. Since the weekend, negotiators have been locked in long sessions on how to deal with detailed customs, value-added tax and regulatory issues under British proposals to keep goods and people flowing freely across the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
“Talks have been constructive, but there still remains a number of significant issues to resolve,” EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said after being briefed by EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.
Johnson is eager to strike a deal at Thursday’s summit that will let the UK leave the bloc in good order on Oct. 31, fulfilling his promise to get Brexit done. But he has also vowed to leave the bloc deal or no deal.
UK lawmakers, however, are determined to push for another Brexit delay rather than risk a chaotic no-deal Brexit that economists say could hurt the economies of both the UK and the E.U.
Beyond the questions of disrupting to daily life, an open Irish border underpins both the local economy and the 1998 peace accord that ended decades of Catholic-Protestant violence in Northern Ireland. But once Britain exits, that border will turn into an external EU frontier that the bloc wants to keep secure.
The big question is how far Johnson’s government is prepared to budge on its insistence that the UK, including Northern Ireland, must leave the EU’s customs union — something that would require checks on goods passing between the UK and the EU.
The alternative is to have checks in the Irish Sea between Britain and Northern Ireland. But Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, the party that props up Johnson’s minority Conservative government, strongly opposes any measures that could loosen the bonds between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK
Pro-Brexit Conservative British lawmaker David Davis says success in passing a Brexit deal rests on the stance of the DUP.
“If the DUP says ‘This is intolerable to us’ that will be quite important,” he said.
DUP leader Arlene Foster said the party had not yet consented to a deal. She tweeted: “Discussions continue. Needs to be a sensible deal which unionists and nationalists can support.”
Brexit talks close in on tentative deal before summit
Brexit talks close in on tentative deal before summit
- Hopes were increasingly turning toward getting a broad political commitment, with the full legal details hammered out later
- Even if a provisional deal is inked this week, moves in the British parliament could still mean another delay to Britain’s departure, currently due to take place on Oct. 31
Loud blasts in Ukraine capital after ballistic missile warning
- Authorities also reported missile attacks in the southern port city of Kherson
- Moscow’s forces are advancing in the Kharkiv region that borders Russia
“Ballistic missile from the north!” the Ukraine air force warned in a Telegram message, nearly three years after Russia invaded in a war that has cost tens of thousands of lives.
Authorities also reported missile attacks in the southern port city of Kherson, where one person was killed and six injured, as well as several other Ukrainian cities and towns.
Moscow’s forces are advancing in the Kharkiv region that borders Russia and are aiming to recapture the town of Kupiansk, which was occupied in the first year of the war.
Ukraine recaptured it in September 2022 as part of a lightning offensive that saw its forces regain large swathes of the Kharkiv region.
‘You always feel vulnerable’: Britons impacted by no-fault evictions
- This so-called no-fault eviction is a feature of English law that could soon be abolished under a new rental bill
- Campaigners have warned that landlords are ramping up these types evictions ahead of the ban being passed into law
LEWES, United Kingdom: Sitting by the fireplace in her house in the south of England, Jackie Bennett recalls the shock she felt when she received out-of-the-blue an eviction notice giving her just two months to move out.
This so-called no-fault eviction, which sees Bennett kicked out of her home without cause, is a feature of English law that could soon be abolished under a new rental bill.
But campaigners have warned that landlords are ramping up these types evictions ahead of the ban being passed into law.
“I’ve canceled some of my work. I’ve canceled my Christmas plans and my holiday plans,” the 55-year-old artist explained, as she pushed back tears.
Hanging across her apartment are colorful crocheted tapestries that mask the damp that covers the walls of her house in Lewes, southern England.
Her landlord explained to her by email that she wanted to sell the property after Bennet had already received the eviction notice.
As a tenant, “you always feel vulnerable,” she said.
No-fault evictions were introduced in 1988 by Margaret Thatcher’s government as part of a push to deregulate the rental market to attract more private landlords.
Under the new Renters’ Rights Bill, currently under consideration by the Labour majority parliament, landlords will have to provide a reason in advance for evicting tenants, such as to reclaim the property to move into or unpaid rent.
The bill would give tenants a longer notice period in the event of an eviction, giving them more time to plan their next housing arrangement.
It marks an important step in protecting tenants against being evicted after they make reasonable complaints to landlords, said Ben Twomey, chief executive of tenants rights organization Generation Rent.
These instances, termed “revenge evictions” by campaigners, are a “massive problem” in England, he added.
While he supports the reforms, Twomey warned that in the absence of a rental price caps, tenants could still be evicted “through the back door” by landlords hiking rents to unreasonable levels.
Rents have already jumped over nine percent in the past year in the UK, according to official data.
Between July and September this year, 8,425 households in England where taken to court over no-fault eviction notices, the highest number in eight years, said Twomey, citing Ministry of Justice figures.
As the bill comes closer to being passed into law, more landlords have been ramping up the use of no-fault evictions, according to Paul Shamplina, founder of Landlord Action, a company that helps landlords repossess properties.
“That will increase until the ban date comes in, because landlords are worried about how will they get their property back,” he added.
Alexandra Casson, who works in television production in London, was also served one of these eviction notices after she refused her landlord’s attempt to raise the rent by over 50 percent.
She denounced it as “an absolute brazen attempt to extort tenants.”
“They forget that there are humans that live in the property assets that they shuffle around,” said the 43-year-old, based in East London’s popular Dalston neighborhood.
Casson, a member of the London Renters Union, welcomed a measure in the new bill that would extend the notice period to vacate a property from two months to four months.
Although, she predicts that it’ll take her around six months to finalize purchasing a new property, and even then, she considers herself one of the lucky ones.
Sri Lanka navy rescues boat of 100 Rohingya refugees
- The group, including 25 children, were taken to Sri Lanka’s eastern port of Trincomalee
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s navy said Friday it had rescued 102 Rohingya refugees from war-torn Myanmar adrift in a fishing trawler off the Indian Ocean island nation, bringing them safely to port.
The group, including 25 children, were taken to Sri Lanka’s eastern port of Trincomalee, a navy spokesman said, adding that food and water had been provided.
“Medical checks have to be done before they are allowed to disembark,” the spokesman said.
The mostly Muslim ethnic Rohingya are heavily persecuted in Myanmar and thousands risk their lives each year on long sea journeys, the majority heading southeast to Malaysia or Indonesia.
But fisherman spotted the drifting trawler off Sri Lanka’s northern coast at Mullivaikkal at dawn on Thursday.
While unusual, it is not the first boat to head to Sri Lanka — about 1,750 kilometers (1,100 miles) across open seas southwest of Myanmar.
The Sri Lankan navy rescued more than 100 Rohingya refugees in distress on a boat off their shores in December 2022.
The navy spokesman said Friday that language difficulties had made it hard to understand where the refugees had been intending to reach, suggesting that “recent cyclonic weather” may have pushed them off course.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh in 2017 during a crackdown by the military that is now the subject of a United Nations genocide court case.
Myanmar’s military seized power in a 2021 coup and a grinding war since then has forced millions to flee.
Last month, the UN warned Myanmar’s Rakhine state — the historic homeland of many Rohingya — was heading toward famine, as brutal clashes squeeze commerce and agricultural production.
Australia announces $118 million deal to enhance policing in Solomon Islands
- Australia has been energetically pursuing new bilateral security deals with its Pacific island neighbors
- Beijing and the Solomons signed a security deal in 2022 under prime minister’s Jeremiah Manele’s predecessor
MELBOURNE: Australia announced on Friday it will pay for more police in Solomon Islands and create a police training center in the South Pacific island nation’s capital Honiara, where Chinese law enforcement instructors are already based under a bilateral security pact with Beijing.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia would spend $118 million (190 million Australian dollars) over four years on funding and training new Royal Solomon Islands Police Force recruits with a package that would “reduce any need for outside support.”
“My government is proud to make a significant investment in the police force of the Solomon Islands to ensure that they can continue to take primary responsibility for security in the Solomons,” Albanese told reporters in Australia’s capital Canberra.
Albanese and his Solomons counterpart Jeremiah Manele said in a joint statement on Friday the package would build an enduring security capability in the Solomons, “thereby reducing its reliance on external partners over time.”
Australia has been energetically pursuing new bilateral security deals with its Pacific island neighbors since Beijing and the Solomons signed a security deal in 2022 under Manele’s predecessor, Manasseh Sogavare.
That deal has created fears among US allies including Australia that the Chinese navy will be allowed to build a base in the strategically important Solomons.
Albanese’s Labour Party, which was the opposition at the time the pact was signed, described it as Australia’s worst foreign policy failure in the Pacific since World War II.
Australia has recently signed security deals with Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and Nauru that effectively give Canberra veto powers over any security deals those countries might want to strike with third nations including China.
Asked if the new deal would require the Chinese security presence to be removed from the Solomons, Albanese did not directly answer.
“The Solomon Islands of course is a sovereign nation. They have some measures in place and we expect that to continue,” Albanese said.
“As a result of this agreement, what we’ve done is make sure that Australia remains the security partner of choice,” he added.
Mihai Sora, a Pacific islands expert at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based international policy think tank, said the agreement was a “clear win for Solomon Islands, which has gained a much-needed boost to its law and justice sector.”
“But Solomon Islands has not committed to scaling back the essentially permanent rotating presence of around 14 Chinese police trainers in the country, who have been running their own parallel training program with Solomon Islands police since 2022,” Sora said in an email.
“So, the agreement falls short of a solid strategic commitment to Australia from Solomon Islands, and there’s no indication that it would derail China-Solomon Islands security ties,” Sora added.
Blake Johnson, an analyst at the Australian Security Policy Institute, a Canberra-based think tank, said Chinese policing in the Pacific gives Beijing tools to control Chinese expatriates and pursue other goals.
“They can be very heavy-handed in their response sometimes. There are also concerns around data and privacy risks associated with Chinese police in the region,” Johnson said.
“Sometimes they’re providing surveillance equipment. There are concerns about what that is being used for and what it’s capturing,” he added.
Japan inspects US air base over chemical spill
- Japan’s probe follows US notice two months ago that water containing PFOS had spilled from the site
TOKYO: Japanese authorities on Friday staged an inspection of a US military base in Tokyo, a government spokesman said, after being informed by the American side of a chemical leak.
Japan’s probe at the Yokota Air Base followed a US notice two months ago that water containing PFOS — classified by the World Health Organization as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” — had spilled from the site.
PFOS is part of a large group of man-made chemicals known as PFAS, sometimes called “forever chemicals” because they do not degrade easily, experts say.
The US military informed Tokyo in October that the PFOS-laced water had leaked from an area of the base where a fire-fighting drill was being carried out, Fumitoshi Sato, deputy chief cabinet secretary, told reporters.
“This inspection was realized in response to the fears and concerns harbored by local residents, and we will continue to work together with the US side,” Sato said.
Officials including from the defense ministry and Tokyo’s metropolitan government visited the site on Friday, he said. Yokota Air Base was not immediately available for comment.
America’s military presence in Japan has frequently stoked local discontent in the past, with everything from noise to pollution to helicopter accidents.
This frustration is perhaps most evident on the southern island of Okinawa, which despite comprising just 0.6 percent of Japan’s landmass, hosts the vast majority of the country’s US military bases.
Okinawa is located east of Taiwan, a flashpoint for tensions between the United States and China.
Earlier this month, the United States began relocating thousands of Marines from Okinawa, with an initial “detachment of approximately 100 logistics support Marines” transferred to the US island territory of Guam.
