Former Brexit minister says UK ‘cannot be defeated’ by Brussels in provocative Telegraph column
The former Brexit minister David Frost has said the UK should not fear a trade war with the EU.
In a provocative newspaper column, he said the UK “cannot be defeated” by Brussels and needed to “make sure it is ready” for the consequences of a unilateral move to scrap parts of the Northern Ireland protocol.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Influential delegation likely to underline Biden’s commitment to defend Good Friday agreement
A delegation of influential US congressmen will fly to London within days amid growing concern in the White House about spiralling tensions over the Northern Ireland protocol, the Guardian can reveal.
With the UK government poised to table legislation next week which could revoke parts of the protocol, arrangements are being made for at least half a dozen representatives from the US Congress to fly to Europe for a series of meetings in Brussels, Dublin, London and Belfast.
Continue reading...Lawyers reject Liz Truss’s claim that UK is able to dump parts of treaty with EU without its agreement
Claims that the UK government has discovered a legal justification for tearing up large parts of Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland have been greeted with scorn by expert lawyers.
The attorney general, Suella Braverman, has reportedly approved overriding the Northern Ireland protocol on the grounds that it is being unfairly enforced by the EU. Her submission, understood to be based on external advice, claims the EU’s “disproportionate and unreasonable” implementation is undermining the Good Friday agreement (GFA), according to the Times.
Continue reading...Foreign minister will meet Maroš Šefčovič as attorney general said to approve overriding Brexit deal
The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, is to hold talks with the vice-president of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, in the first meeting since the UK threatened to remove parts of the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol.
The attorney general for England and Wales, Suella Braverman, is said to have approved the scrapping of large parts of the Northern Ireland Brexit deal, according to reports.
Continue reading...Jagtar Singh Johal has been detained since 2017 and allegedly tortured, accused of helping to fund assassination plot
The UK is under pressure to insist India release Jagtar Singh Johal, a British citizen, after a UN working group ruled he had been arbitrarily detained by India and his detention lacked any legal basis.
Boris Johnson apparently raised the case when he met the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, last month and provided a written note of consular cases, but Foreign Office ministers have not confirmed whether they regard his detention as arbitrary.
Continue reading...DUP will refuse to join new administration until UK government addresses post-Brexit trade border deal
Sinn Féin was celebrating a historic victory in the Stormont assembly election on Saturday despite warnings from the Democratic Unionist party that it would block the formation of a new power-sharing executive until the Northern Ireland protocol was changed.
As counting resumed ahead of the allocation of final seats, it was clear that Sinn Féin, with 29% first preference votes, had overtaken the DUP, which won 21.3%. It meant the all-Ireland republican party would be entitled to nominate its deputy leader, Michelle O’Neill, as the Northern Ireland’s first nationalist first minister.
Continue reading...Russian foreign ministry says it will continue to react ‘harshly and decisively’ to all sanctions imposed by London
The British ambassador to Moscow, Deborah Bronnert, has been summoned to the Russian foreign ministry to be warned over new UK sanctions imposed on Russian media outlets, in a move seen as likely to presage reprisals on British press operations in Russia.
In a statement late on Friday, the ministry said Russia would continue react “harshly and decisively” to all sanctions imposed by London.
Continue reading...Foreign Office says company part-owned by billionaire ‘operates in sectors of strategic significance to government of Russia’
The UK government has placed sanctions on Evraz, the multinational steelmaker part-owned by the billionaire Roman Abramovich that was formerly counted among Britain’s biggest companies.
The Foreign Office said on Thursday that Evraz “operates in sectors of strategic significance to the government of Russia” and the action would “further chip away at Putin’s financial reserves and siege economy, and support Ukraine’s continued resistance”.
Continue reading...Funding for 133 schools run by Syria Relief ended on 30 April, leaving pupils at risk of child labour and early marriage
More than 40,000 Syrian children are out of school as a direct result of British aid cuts and more schools could soon close, a leading charity has said.
British funding for 133 schools run by Syria Relief ended on 30 April, as the government cut its total foreign aid spending from its commitment of 0.7% of gross national income to 0.5%.
Continue reading...More than 95,000 sign petition urging the release of geologist Jim Fitton, detained over artefact smuggling allegations
Ministers are under increasing pressure to help free a retired British geologist at risk of facing the death penalty in Iraq over smuggling allegations.
A petition urging the release of father-of-two Jim Fitton, 66, has received more than 95,000 signatures in the three days since it was launched.
Continue reading...In a further twist, the islands’ premier has been arrested in a Miami sting operation on suspicion of drug trafficking
Britain is poised to impose a form of direct rule over the British Virgin Islands after the Caribbean territory’s premier was arrested in Miami on suspicion of drug running, and a UK-appointed commission of inquiry found rampant failings in governance.
Andrew Fahie appeared in federal court in Miami on Friday, a day after he was arrested by the US Drug Enforcement Agency in an elaborate sting operation that also snared the chief executive of the BVI port authority and her son.
Continue reading...António Guterres visits Borodianka outside Kyiv where Russian forces are accused of massacring civilians
The UN secretary general has described the war in Ukraine as “an absurdity” in the 21st century on a visit to the scene of civilian killings outside Kyiv, as Russia warned the west that increasing arms supplies to Ukraine would endanger European security.
António Guterres was touring Borodianka on Thursday, where Russian forces are accused of massacring civilians before their withdrawal, on his first visit to Ukraine since the start of the invasion on 24 February, before talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Continue reading...Fears grow in UK that any proposals could downgrade workers’ rights despite assurances on both sides
Britain’s trade talks with the US are moving ahead with only “minimal” input from workers, small businesses and thinktanks, according to MPs who accused the UK trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, of shielding her department from outside scrutiny.
Conservative and Labour MPs on the trade select committee also said scrutiny of a deal struck with Australia and New Zealand was in danger of being “rushed through” parliament before they could make an assessment of its impact on imports and exports to and from the Commonwealth countries.
Continue reading...Analysis: The PM travelled 4,000 miles to not get very far, on a trip fraught with tensions about Partygate and Ukraine
As Boris Johnson met Narendra Modi on Friday morning, he joked of the enthusiastic welcome he received in the Indian prime minister’s home state of Gujarat featuring giant posters of the British leader’s face, and flag-waving crowds: “I wouldn’t get that necessarily everywhere in the world.”
It was a characteristically self-deprecating reference to the fact that even 4,000 miles from home, he was unable to escape Partygate.
Continue reading...PM’s spokesperson denies move is escalatory as UK also trains Ukrainian troops in Poland to use anti-aircraft defences
• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
Boris Johnson has revealed that dozens of Ukrainian soldiers are training in the UK, learning how to use 120 British armoured vehicles before returning with them to fight in the war against Russia.
British forces are also training Ukrainian counterparts in Poland on how to use anti-aircraft missiles, the prime minister said, as he outlined further details of the UK’s military aid for Kyiv’s embattled forces.
Continue reading...Billionaire oligarch steps down from Russia’s second-largest oil firm after being hit with EU and UK sanctions
The multibillionaire Russian oligarch Vagit Alekperov has stepped down as the president of the London-listed firm Lukoil after sanctions were imposed on him by the UK and EU.
In a statement to the stock market, Russia’s second-largest oil company said Alekperov, who is on good terms with Vladimir Putin, had formally notified the company of his decision to resign on Thursday.
Continue reading...Brexit opportunities minister raises possibility of dramatic intervention after Stormont assembly elections
The UK will “reform” the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol if the EU will not, Jacob Rees-Mogg has warned, raising the possibility of a dramatic intervention after the assembly elections in a fortnight’s time.
The Brexit opportunities minister said he could not reveal any more due to the sensitivities of the Stormont election in Northern Ireland, where tensions have flared over the protocol.
Continue reading...Prime minister defends Canberra’s ‘calibrated’ approach to Honiara and tries to turn criticism back on Labor
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has fended off accusations that he is responsible for “the worst Australian foreign policy failure” in the Pacific since the end of the second world war after the Solomon Islands struck a new security pact with China.
Labor has seized on the new agreement as evidence that Australia has been asleep at the wheel while China has cemented its influence in the region, with leader Anthony Albanese saying more should have been done to prevent it from going ahead.
Continue reading...PM also expected to discuss free trade agreement and defence with Narendra Modi this week on twice-postponed trip
Boris Johnson has said his long-awaited visit to India this week will focus on “the things that really matter” to the people of both countries, primarily jobs and growth.
Although Tory MPs have been talking up Johnson’s role as a leader of the international pro-Ukraine coalition, an advance government briefing about the visit did not mention the war – which has not led to India loosening its close links with Russia.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary says 178 of those targeted helped prop up self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk
The UK government has imposed sanctions on another 206 individuals in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, including 178 people it said were involved in propping up the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said the latest sanctions were imposed in a direct response to the “horrific rocket attacks” on a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, that killed dozens of civilians.
Vladimir Yakunin, a former head of Russian Railways who the Foreign Office said had close ties to Putin. The US had already imposed sanctions on Yakunin.
Igor Kesaev, the founder of the cigarette company Megapolis, who the UK says has a £2.9bn fortune.
Saodat Narzieva, “a pro-Kremlin oligarch with close ties to Putin” and a sister of Alisher Usmanov. She was hit with EU sanctions last week.
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