Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
As EU leaders gather in Transylvania under Romania’s presidency, Liviu Dragnea is increasingly vexing the bloc
European leaders will gather on Thursday for a summit in the Transylvanian city of Sibiu, the showpiece event of Romania’s six-month presidency of the EU, the first time the country has taken on the role since it joined in 2007.
Despite the fact the UK is still an EU member, Theresa May has agreed to stay away, to give the other 27 leaders the opportunity to discuss the future of Europe without her. But for observers of European politics who look beyond Brexit, there is likely to be another more significant absentee: Liviu Dragnea, the most powerful politician in the summit’s host country.
These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on today’s cabinet.
1. Cabinet sources say Brexit Sec Steve Barclay raised prospect of leaving EU in October without a deal at meeting this morning - big discussion on deal prep planned for next week - source suggests push back from Clark saying position was clear now that couldn't happen
2. No substantive discussion of cross party talks at Cabinet this morning - PM apparently also raised Williamson's sacking and said again there was compelling evidence - sources close to him say he still hasn't been told what it is
Almost all the MPs who have publicly backed a second referendum on Brexit are opposition MPs who would vote remain again if given the chance. Only a handful of Tories have backed the idea. But there are some signs now that that is starting to change.
If we cannot do this, if this is beyond us, and if we fail, then another referendum is inevitable.
If we fail, if there can be no compromise between the parties, I can actually see then the logic, and other people will be demanding another referendum. And those like me who have genuine concerns about what will happen to our society if we go through this process again, we will lose that debate over the referendum, because it will be the only option then left available to try to break the gridlock that we’ve entered into.
Talking to them, I think they are so obsessed with this issue, and they are so determined not to compromise in any way, they feel almost as if any form of compromise is some sort of betrayal. And certainly that narrative, one gets a great deal on Twitter: ‘This is a betrayal’, ‘This is a betrayal to the country’, ‘We are not fulfilling what the British people voted for’. I think that’s for the birds – it’s crazy …
I have to say, wouldn’t it be ironic if the ERG, the Eurosceptic caucus, through their intransigence, actually result in another referendum which will potentially overturn the previous result.
Nigel Farage is facing strong criticism from Jewish organisations and a series of other groups after it emerged he repeatedly took part in interviews with a far-right US talkshow host, during which the Brexit party leader openly discussed conspiracy theories, some of which have been linked to antisemitism.
A Guardian investigation has found Farage has appeared at least six times on the show of Alex Jones, who was sued by bereaved parents after claiming a US school shooting was faked, and was banned permanently from Facebook last week.
Corbyn faces opposition from at least 60 MPs to a customs pact with May without a second vote
Jeremy Corbyn will not be able to get enough of his MPs to back a Brexit deal without the promise of a second referendum, even if Theresa May makes a big offer on a customs union and workers’ rights this week, senior Labour figures believe.
Senior party sources said they believe two-thirds of Labour MPs, including several shadow cabinet ministers and many more frontbenchers, would refuse to back a deal without a people’s vote attached.
Shadow chancellor says he has no trust in PM and likens Brexit talks to dealing with firm that is going bust
The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has poured cold water on Theresa May’s plan to offer a temporary customs union to win Labour over to a Brexit deal, saying the cross-party talks were like “trying to enter a contract with a company going into administration”.
McDonnell said his party wanted to do a deal as quickly as possible but would require a permanent customs union to provide stability for businesses, not just an interim arrangement until the next election.
In the uprising against Omar al-Bashir in Sudan, the Saudi royal family see a portent of their own demise
In the days following the Yom Kippur war, after the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, agreed to a ceasefire and subsequent peace treaty with Israel, he faced questions at home about his climbdown. When confronted on his capitulation, he is reported to have said that he was prepared for battle with Israel but not with America. On the third day of the war, President Nixon had authorised Operation Nickel Grass, an airlift from the United States with the purpose of replenishing Israel’s military losses up to that point. In November of 1973, the New York Times reported that “Western ambassadors in Cairo confirm Egyptian accusations that American Galaxies were landing war equipment in the Sinai.”
Results reveal slight loosening of traditional unionist-nationalist stranglehold
Centrist parties have thrived and the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) has consolidated its support, results of Northern Ireland’s local elections show.
With all first preference votes now counted, the Alliance and Green parties, as well as other small parties and independents, made gains, revealing a slight loosening of the traditional unionist-nationalist stranglehold. The DUP won 24.1% of first preferences, a modest increase from the 2014 local election, and Sinn Fein won 23.3%, a slight drop, confirming both parties still dominate the political landscape.
Thousands of people have marched in Glasgow in the largest show of support for Scottish independence since Nicola Sturgeon said she would introduce legislation to hold a second referendum on the issue.
The All Under One Banner event, led by a single flag-bearer and a pipe band, left Kelvingrove Park at 1.30pm and was following a route west to east through the city centre to a rally at Glasgow Green.
They thought they’d be out of Brussels weeks ago – instead they continue to work in limbo. We followed four through months of near-exits and false dawns
When the Newcastle upon Tyne result came in, Linda McAvan knew it was all over. It was 23 June 2016 and, after a day knocking on doors, the Labour MEP and remain campaigner was at her local count in Sheffield. Things started to go wrong before midnight. Newcastle was meant to be a comfortable victory, but remain only scraped home. Then Sunderland voted to leave. Across McAvan’s Yorkshire and Humber constituency, counts were called: Craven, Scarborough, Sheffield; leave, leave, leave. In the small hours, David Dimbleby called it: “We’re out.” At a stroke, 73 British members of the European parliament were handed their redundancy papers.
These MEPs, who make up nearly 10% of the 751 members of the European parliament, did not lose their seats immediately: this was just the start of the UK’s odyssey to leave the European Union. While the past three years have seen Westminster convulsed by cabinet resignations, missed deadlines and political deadlock, British MEPs have carried on their business more or less as usual. Now, they face the once-unimaginable prospect of a fresh European election – an event that some hope will be a proxy referendum, while Nigel Farage seeks to repeat his 2014 landslide with a new Brexit party.
UK foreign secretary refuses to be called on possible leadership bid during marathon African tour
Jeremy Hunt’s 12,500-mile odyssey through Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya has been a chance for the man who could be the UK’s next prime minister to learn more about Africa – and for us to learn more about him.
The visit by the foreign secretary was ambitious in mileage and scale, speckled with meetings with presidents, helicopter rides to Maiduguri – the Boko Haram haven in Nigeria’s north-east – keynote speeches at the African Union headquarters, seminars with civil society and photo-ops.
Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have vowed to press ahead with seeking a cross-party solution to the Brexit deadlock at Westminster, after voters punished both major parties in local elections.
The Conservatives’ net loss of more than 1,300 seats on their 2015 figures marked their biggest defeat since John Major was prime minister. Disillusioned voters deserted the party in droves, including in traditional Tory areas such as Chelmsford and Surrey Heath.
This is from Tony Robinson, the former Black Adder actor and longstanding Labour activist. It speaks for itself ...
I’ve left the Labour Party after nearly 45 years of service at Branch, Constituency and NEC levels,partly because of it’s continued duplicity on Brexit, partly because of it’s antisemitism, but also because its leadership is complete shit.
Here is a picture of Stuart Davies, the Tory activist who heckled Theresa May as she started speaking at the Welsh Conservative conference. “Why don’t you resign,” he shouted.
As the man shouted “we don’t want you here”, a small group of delegates at the Welsh Conservative conference at Llangollen Pavilion clapped and chanted “out”, in an apparent call for the heckler to be removed. As the Press Association reports, the prime minister then drew laughter and applause from a majority of the hall as she told the conference: “It’s great to be back in North Wales again - I have to say my experience of North Wales is that everybody I meet here is friendly.”
A major YouGov survey shows that extremists are not as prevalent as you might think
It is not hard to scroll through a huge global opinion survey and find the outliers. They are many and compelling: vaccine-doubters, conspiracy theorists, arch-pessimists and even people who approve of Theresa May.
The danger however is that these newspoints can give us a certain impression about the world: that outliers are the norm, that eccentrics are far more prevalent than they actually are.
View in Whitehall: the leak from the National Security Council is not being referred to the police because a judgment was made that a crime was not committed
Home Office figures revealed as immigration inspector calls for scheme to be improved
More than 600,000 EU citizens have already applied to stay in the UK post-Brexit, Home Office figures reveal.
But the settled status scheme for EU citizens seeking to remain has room for improvement, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration (ICIBI) in the UK has said.
New development minister mounts staunch defence of 0.7% commitment and says DfID will keep spending on climate change
Rory Stewart, the new secretary of state for international development, has reiterated his support for the government’s commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid.
Stewart, the former prisons minister, who was appointed to his new role on Wednesday night after Penny Mordaunt replaced the sacked Gavin Williamson as defence minister, also pledged to put climate change at the heart of his work.
Findings contradict assumption UK is more hostile than European neighbours
British people are more persuaded of the benefits of immigration than any other major European nation, according to a global survey, which has also found that almost half of Britons think immigrants are either positive or neutral for the country.
The YouGov–Cambridge Globalism survey found that 28% of Britons believed the benefits of immigration outweighed the costs, compared with 24% in Germany, 21% in France and 19% in Denmark. A further 20% of British people believed the costs and benefits were about equal, while 16% were not sure.
Court orders Home Office and Ministry of Justice to make payment to teenager attacked while being illegally detained at Morton Hall
A child trafficking victim has won £85,000 in compensation from the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice after he was sexually assaulted and illegally detained at Morton Hall immigration centre.
The Home Office must pay £82,000 to the Vietnamese national – known as H – after it admitted the teenager was being detained illegally when a fellow inmate attempted to rape him in his cell in 2016.