LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has strongly defended his government’s plan to override sections of the Brexit deal he negotiated with the European Union, arguing that the EU has an “extreme” interpretation of the treaty that could jeopardize the UK’s future.
In a column published Saturday in The Daily Telegraph, Johnson said the government’s Internal Market Bill is needed to end EU threats to impose a “blockade” in the Irish Sea that the prime minister asserted could “carve up our country.”
The legislation, which the British government has conceded violates international law in places, has prompted a furious outcry within the EU and Johnson’s Conservative Party. British lawmakers are expected to debate it next week.
With the government showing no sign of changing course, there are real concerns that ongoing talks on a future trade deal between the UK and the EU could collapse within weeks. If that happens, tariffs and other impediments to trade will be imposed by both sides at the start of 2021.
The furor is largely based on the fact that the bill would diminish the EU’s previously agreed oversight of trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland in the event a trade agreement isn’t secured.
Michael Gove, a senior member of Johnson’s Cabinet, told Sky News on Saturday that the government needs to take out an “insurance policy.”
The UK left the EU on Jan. 31, but it is in a transition period that effectively sees it benefit from the bloc’s tariff-free trade until the end of the year while a future relationship is negotiated. Even before the latest standoff, discussions between the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and his UK counterpart, David Frost, had made very little progress.
One major element of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, which allowed for the UK’s smooth departure from the EU, is the section related to ensuring an open border on the island of Ireland to protect the peace process in Northern Ireland
The issue proved thorny during the more than two years of discussions it took to get a Brexit deal done, as the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is the only land link between the UK and the EU.
The EU wanted assurances the border would not be used as a back-route for unlicensed goods arriving in Ireland from the rest of the UK — England, Scotland and Wales. As a result, the two sides agreed there would be some kind of regulatory border between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland.
In his newspaper column, Johnson wrote he was “now hearing” that unless his government agrees to the EU’s terms in the trade discussions, then the bloc will use “an extreme interpretation of the Northern Ireland protocol to impose a full-scale trade border down the Irish Sea.”
He said that could mean the EU imposing tariffs on goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK or that the bloc stops the transport of food products.
“I have to say that we never seriously believed that the EU would be willing to use a treaty, negotiated in good faith, to blockade one part of the UK, to cut it off; or that they would actually threaten to destroy the economic and territorial integrity of the UK,” the prime minister wrote.
EU leaders have expressed dismay at the U.K’s bill and warned that the trade talks will end if Johnson does not pull the contested proposal. Legal action has also been threatened.
Luis Garicano, a Spanish member of the European Parliament, slammed Johnson’s allegation that the EU is trying to break up the UK as “ridiculous.”
“I think Mr. Johnson insists on having his cake and eating it,” Garicano told BBC radio.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has also said there would be “absolutely no chance” of a trade deal between the United States and the UK if commitments to Northern Ireland are violated. Congress has to ratify all US trade deals.
The EU-UK trade discussions are set to resume on Monday in Brussels.
“It’s now for the UK to reestablish trust toward the European Union,” the EU’s economy commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, said Saturday at a meeting of European finance ministers in Berlin. “We are prepared to deal also with (an) extraordinary negative outcome of this discussion, but we are still working for finding agreements and solutions.”
Boris Johnson defends Brexit change to avoid UK ‘carve-up’
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Boris Johnson defends Brexit change to avoid UK ‘carve-up’
- Johnson said the government’s Internal Market Bill is needed to end EU threats to impose a “blockade” in the Irish Sea
- The legislation has prompted a furious outcry within the EU and Johnson’s Conservative Party
Danish police deploy to Israeli embassy in Copenhagen to examine a suspicious package
Police wrote on X that they had blocked roads near the embassy
COPENHAGEN: Danish police said Thursday they have deployed officers to the Israeli embassy in the Nordic country’s capital to examine a suspicious package.
Copenhagen police wrote on X that “we are present at the Israeli embassy, where we are investigating a shipment received.”
They added that “we currently have no further information.”
Danish public broadcaster DR showed photos of several police and emergency vehicles near the embassy, including what they reported was a hazmat emergency response team vehicle.
Police wrote on X that they had blocked roads near the embassy.
Anders Frederiksen, duty chief at the Copenhagen Police, told Danish daily Ekstra Bladet that “ordinary citizens in the area should not be worried.”
Security officials in many European countries have increased surveillance and protection of Israeli and Jewish institutions after a 12-day war broke out between Israel and Iran in June.
Last week, security officers arrested a man in the Danish city of Aarhus on suspicion of gathering information on Jewish locations and individuals in Germany for Iranian intelligence.
Prosecutors said the man was tasked by an Iranian intelligence service early this year with gathering information on “Jewish localities and specific Jewish individuals” in Berlin. They didn’t elaborate.
He spied on three properties in June, “presumably in preparation of further intelligence activities in Germany, possibly including terrorist attacks on Jewish targets,” prosecutors said.
German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig said that “if this suspicion is confirmed, we are dealing with an outrageous operation,” adding in a statement that “the protection of Jewish life has the highest priority for the German government.”
Germany has requested the extradition of the suspect.
Shock in Jakarta, MPs demand action after Israel assassinates Indonesian hospital director
- Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, renowned cardiac surgeon, was killed in targeted Israeli airstrike
- Israel has killed at least 492 doctors and health workers in Gaza since October 2023
JAKARTA/DUBAI: Israel’s assassination of Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, has sparked shock in Jakarta, with parliamentarians calling for new international accountability mechanisms to hold Israel legally responsible for its crimes in Gaza.
A renowned cardiac surgeon and one of Palestine’s most senior doctors, Dr. Al-Sultan graduated from Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences in Hyderabad, Pakistan, in 2001.
He was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli airstrike on their temporary residence in northern Gaza on Wednesday.
His surviving daughter, Lubna, told the media that the missile “targeted his room exactly, right where he was.” Her testimony confirmed statements from the Gaza Ministry of Health and the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee — which funded the Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia — that the attack was a targeted assassination.
“The attack on Dr. Marwan was utterly savage and barbaric,” Dr. Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of MER-C’s board of trustees, told Arab News.
“It was a shock to hear the news. I couldn’t believe it. He was the only heart specialist left in the north. This is a huge loss.”
The Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia, one of the biggest health facilities in Gaza, was one of the first targeted by Israel when it started its deadly war on the Palestinian enclave in October 2023.
Dr. Al-Sultan had never left his post, remaining with patients through multiple Israeli offensives on the hospital and personally overseeing repairs to restore essential services, MER-C said in a statement recalling how in December 2024, he evacuated the facility while under Israeli siege.
The moment was recorded on a mobile phone, showing Dr. Al-Sultan leaving only after he had ensured the safety of every patient.
The Indonesia Hospital opened in late 2015. Coordinated by MER-C, its construction and equipment were financed from donations of the Indonesian people, with dozens of engineers and builders volunteering to design and build the facility and to prepare its operations.
The killing of Dr. Al-Sultan has spurred outcry in Indonesia, with the government issuing an official condemnation and lawmakers from the Committee for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation calling on parliamentarians around the world to “push for international accountability mechanisms” to ensure that “crimes against humanity be immediately brought to international forums, including global parliamentary bodies, so that Israel can be held legally and morally accountable for its actions in Gaza.”
Israel has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 133,000 others, since October 2023. The true death toll is feared to be much higher, with research published in The Lancet medical journal in January estimating an underreporting of deaths by 41 percent.
The study says the death toll may be even higher, as it does not include deaths caused by starvation, injury and lack of access to health care, caused by the Israeli military’s destruction of most of Gaza’s infrastructure and the blocking of medical and food aid.
Data from the UN and international health organizations shows that Israel has killed at least 492 doctors and medics in Gaza since October 2023.
Dr. Al-Sultan is the 70th health care worker to be killed in the last 50 days, according to Healthcare Workers Watch.
“He was a prominent medical figure, both as a heart specialist and director of the Indonesia Hospital,” Dr. Hadiki Habib, chairman of MER-C’s executive committee, told Arab News.
“We had feared that this could happen, but he had said that he would remain in Gaza and, if he were to be martyred, it would be in his homeland.”
5 dead, 29 missing after ferry sinks on way to Indonesia’s Bali
- Java-based Surabaya search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit told AFP that a fifth victim was found dead on Thursday
- “Thirty-one victims were found safe, five died, 29 people are still being searched for,” Nanang said
DENPASAR, Indonesia: At least five people were dead and dozens unaccounted for Thursday after a ferry sank in rough seas on its way to Indonesian resort island Bali, according to rescue authorities who said 31 survivors had been plucked from the water so far.
Rescuers were racing to find 29 people still missing at sea after the vessel carrying 65 passengers and crew sank before midnight on Wednesday, as it sailed to the popular holiday destination from Indonesia’s main island Java.
“The ferry tilted and immediately sank,” survivor Eka Toniansyah told reporters at a Bali hospital.
“Most of the passengers were from Indonesia. I was with my father. My father is dead.”
Java-based Surabaya search and rescue agency head Nanang Sigit told AFP that a fifth victim was found dead on Thursday afternoon.
“Thirty-one victims were found safe, five died, 29 people are still being searched for,” Nanang said.
President Prabowo Subianto, who was on a trip to Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate emergency response, cabinet secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said, adding the cause of the accident was “bad weather.”
Nanang said earlier Thursday efforts to reach the doomed vessel were initially hampered by adverse weather conditions.
Waves as high as 2.5 meters (8 feet) with “strong winds and strong currents” had affected the rescue operation, he said, adding conditions have since improved.
A rescue team of at least 54 personnel was dispatched along with inflatable rescue boats, he said, while a bigger vessel was later sent from Surabaya city.
Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency chief Mohammad Syafii told a news conference that the agency sent a helicopter to help the effort.
Nanang said rescuers would follow currents and expand the search area if there were still people unaccounted for by the end of the day.
“For today’s search, we are still focusing on search above the water where initial victims were found,” the Surabaya search and rescue chief said.
The ferry’s manifest showed 53 passengers and 12 crew members, he said, but rescuers were still assessing if there were more people onboard.
It is common in Indonesia for the actual number of passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.
It was unclear if any foreigners were on board.
The ferry crossing from Ketapang port in Java to Bali’s Gilimanuk port is one of the busiest in the country and takes around one hour.
It is often used by people crossing between the islands by car.
Four of the known survivors saved themselves by using the ferry’s lifeboat and were found in the water early Thursday, the Surabaya rescue agency said.
It said the ferry was also transporting 22 vehicles, including 14 trucks.
Marine accidents are a regular occurrence in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of around 17,000 islands, in part due to lax safety standards and sometimes due to bad weather.
In March, a boat carrying 16 people capsized in rough waters off Bali, killing an Australian woman and injuring at least one other person.
A ferry carrying more than 800 people in 2022 ran aground in shallow waters off East Nusa Tenggara province, where it remained stuck for two days before being dislodged with no one hurt.
And in 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world’s deepest lakes on Sumatra island
PM: Ethiopia’s mega dam on the Nile ‘now complete’
- Prime Minister Abiy said the dam has been a source of tension with neighbors, notably Egypt
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Thursday said that a contentious multi-billion-dollar mega-dam on the Blue Nile is now complete and set to be officially inaugurated in September.
“The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is now complete, and we are preparing for its official inauguration,” Abiy told parliament of the dam that has been a source of tension with neighbors, notably Egypt.
China denies military base ambitions in Pacific Islands
- China has established a police presence in Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Vanuatu
- Former US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell urged the Trump administration to keep its focus on the region because China wanted to build bases in the Pacific Islands
SYDNEY: China’s embassy in Fiji denied on Thursday that Beijing wanted a military base or sphere of influence in the Pacific Islands, after Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said islands were trying to cope with a powerful China seeking to spread its influence.
“The claims about China setting up a military base in the Pacific are false narratives,” an embassy spokesperson said in a statement.
“China’s presence in the Pacific is focused on building roads and bridges to improve people’s livelihoods, not on stationing troops or setting up military bases.”
Rabuka said on Wednesday his country had development cooperation with China, but was opposed to Beijing establishing a military base in the region. In any case, China did not need a base to project power in the region, he added.
China tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in September that flew over Fiji to land 11,000 km (6,800 miles) from China in the international waters of the Pacific Ocean.
“If they can very well target an empty space they can very well target occupied space,” Rabuka told the National Press Club in Canberra. Washington became concerned about China’s ambition to gain a military foothold in the
Pacific Islands in 2018 when Beijing sought to redevelop a naval base in Papua New Guinea and a military base in Fiji. China was outbid by Australia for both projects. The concern resurfaced in 2022 when China signed a security pact with Solomon Islands, prompting Washington to warn it would respond if Beijing established a permanent military presence. In November, the outgoing US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell urged the Trump administration to keep its focus on the region because China wanted to build bases in the Pacific Islands.
The Chinese embassy spokesperson said Fiji and China respect each other’s sovereignty.
“China has no interest in geopolitical competition, or seeking the so-called ‘sphere of influence’,” the statement added.
China has established a police presence in Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Vanuatu.
