US sets out aims for post-Brexit trade deal amid fears about chicken and beef standards
The US has outlined its objectives for a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK, demanding greater access to the food markets where products such as chlorinated chicken or hormone-fed beef are currently banned under EU rules.
The US laid out its aims for a trade deal to cut tariff and non-tariff barriers for US industrial and agricultural goods and reduce regulatory differences.
Continue reading...Vladimir Zelenskiy, whose character becomes president in hit TV show, leading polls
Vladimir Zelenskiy may just joke his way to becoming Ukraine’s next leader. A comic actor who plays a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president in a hit Ukrainian TV show after his rant against corrupt politicians goes viral, he is now pitching for the top job in real life and has a 10-point lead in some opinion polls.
It is Ukraine’s most unorthodox presidential campaign in history. After announcing his campaign on New Year’s Eve, Zelenskiy has shot into first place by contrasting his screen personality, a genial everyman who speaks in a gravelly bass, with public discontent against the country’s ruling class. His political party and TV show share the same name, Servant of the People.
Continue reading...Until recently Vladimir Zelenskiy was known for playing the part of an accidental president in the popular Ukrainian television show Servant of the People. Then on New Year's Eve he announced that life would be imitating art with his candidacy in this year's presidential elections, the first round of which is on 31 March. Zelenskiy has a 10-point lead in some opinion polls
Continue reading...Mounting weirdness descends as a mother and young son set up home in the middle of a dark and sinister forest
Here’s an Irish folk-horror that clearly drew the right conclusions from the midnight-movie pairing of The Babadook and Under the Shadow: a film operating at a suspenseful, spider-like creep that allows it to skirt your defences and get some distance under the skin.
It opens with a broadly familiar set-up. Recently separated, subtly scarred Sarah (Seána Kerslake) installs herself and young son Chris (James Quinn Markey) in the kind of countryside fixer-upper-type property that conventionally serves as a magnet for trouble. Yet its foundations are undermined in unexpected fashion, first by the discovery of a vast sinkhole in the surrounding forest, then by the neighbourhood crone (Kaurismäki regular Kati Outinen) who pauses her catatonic murmuring to insist that Chris isn’t who he seems. As Sarah briefs one confidante: “It’s been a funny few days.”
Continue reading...Agency says increase in attacks on migrants is likely before European elections in May
Italy’s intelligence agency has warned in a briefing to the Italian parliament that attacks on migrants and minorities could rise in the run-up to May’s European elections.
Racially motivated attacks have seen a sharp increase in Italy and tripled between 2017 and 2018, when the far-right League entered government in coalition with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.
Continue reading...Mounir el Motassadeq flew to Morrocco with envelope containing thousands of euros
German prosecutors have launched an investigation into why a Moroccan man convicted of assisting the 9/11 suicide plotters was allowed to leave Germany with an envelope containing thousands of euros in cash.
Mounir el Motassadeq who was deported from Germany in October, having served 15 years in prison for his role in the plot as a member of a terror organisation, was handed the payment of €7,000 – the wages accumulated for the prison work he did, plus a monthly allowance of around €30 – before leaving the country.
Continue reading...Xavier Bettel says his same-sex marriage would condemn him to death in some countries
Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, has confronted Arab leaders over the repression of gay rights, telling them his same-sex marriage would condemn him to death in some of their countries.
The conference room at a summit of EU and Arab states fell silent when Bettel made his statement, according to a German TV journalist.
Continue reading...Gallup poll measuring opinion in 133 countries and areas in 2018 found 31% approved of US leadership and 30% for Russia
Global confidence in US leadership is so low that the country is now in a virtual tie with Russia for worldwide approval.
Related: 2018: the year the global order frayed
Continue reading...Commissioners demand hard numbers from firm ahead of European parliament elections
Facebook has repeatedly withheld key data on its alleged efforts to clamp down on disinformation ahead of the European elections, the EU’s executive has said.
Related: Anti-vaxx propaganda has gone viral on Facebook. Pinterest has a cure
Continue reading...Trump’s ex-fixer hints Mueller may have proof of coordination with Russia and again alleges campaign finance violations
Michael Cohen on Wednesday delivered a sharp warning to Donald Trump and the Republican party that the president faces legal and political peril on at least two fronts.
First, the Trump-Russia investigation.
Continue reading...UN security council officials clash over ‘politicised’ aid to troubled country as peace-building chief warns of ‘grim realities’
Infant mortality in Venezuela has soared by roughly 50% during the prolonged political crisis in the country.
Briefing the UN security council, the UN’s political and peace building chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, depicted a devastating collapse in Venezuela’s health system. She warned that 40% of medical staff had left the country and said hospital stocks of medicine had dwindled to 20% of the required level.
Continue reading...A team of volunteer firefighters were called to the scene of an unusual emergency in the western German town of Bensheim-Auerbach on Sunday after an oversized rat was found wedged halfway through a manhole cover
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the Commons debate on Brexit next steps, and Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs
The Electoral Commission has released its latest figures for political donations. In the last three months of 2018 £10.4m was given to political parties - £1.9m more than in the previous quarter. Most of it, £7.4m went to the Conservatives, who received more than four time as much in donations as Labour (£1.6m). The increase is almost certainly linked to speculation about a possible early election.
There are more details on the Electoral Commission website here.
Yesterday the arch Corbynite MP Chris Williamson was reprimanded by Labour party officials after he helped to arrange a screening in parliament of a film defending Jackie Walker, the activist suspended from the party over comments about antisemitism. This morning Williamson is in the headlines again after the Yorkshire Post uncovered a video of him saying Labour had been “too apologetic” over antisemitism allegations.
On Sky’s All Out Politics the Labour MP Phil Wilson said Williamson should be suspended from the party for his comments. Wilson said:
I think it is just outrageous, really. And I think he should be suspended from the Labour party. I actually spoke to Tom Watson [the Labour deputy leader] about this this morning, and Tom is [of] the same view. Tom, I know, is writing to the general secretary of the Labour party to express his concerns about it. I just think it’s outrageous. There has got to be tough action taken on people like this in the Labour party. And when you have got a member of parliament expressing these views, I don’t think there is any place for them ultimately in the Labour party.
Stomach-turning. No action will be taken. https://t.co/gWd1a8G3zK
Continue reading...Hungarian PM’s anti-EU attitude is alienating centre-right European People’s party
Viktor Orbán could face renewed calls for his expulsion from the European People’s party (EPP) at a gathering of the powerful centre-right bloc next month.
The Hungarian prime minister and his Fidesz party will be on the agenda of the EPP political assembly on 20 March, an event intended to approve the group’s manifesto before European parliament elections in May.
Continue reading...Overweight rodent found itself in trouble after it tried to squeeze through a small gap in a sewer cover
A multi-agency rescue operation has taken place in the town of Bensheim in Germany after a tubby rat became stuck in a manhole cover.
The rat, still plump with winterspeck – which translates literally as winter bacon and refers to extra pounds piled on in the colder months – became stuck after it tried to squeeze through a small gap in the sewer cover.
Continue reading...Close associate of Pope Francis faces jail sentence for child sexual abuse crimes
The Catholic church’s already shaky credibility on sexual abuse was dealt another hammer blow on Tuesday, with its third most powerful figure and a close associate of Pope Francis facing a jail sentence for crimes committed against two choirboys in the 1990s.
The news that Cardinal George Pell – who until the weekend was in charge of the Holy See’s finances and of rooting out corruption at the heart of the church – had been found guilty on five charges of sexual abuse was painful and shocking, said the Vatican.
Continue reading...Winning and shortlisted images from the magazine’s annual competition, with categories for Cities, People, Food, Nature and Portfolio
Continue reading...Retailer faced outrage from some of Macron’s ministers against Muslim head-coverings
The French sports store Decathlon has cancelled a plan to put a sports hijab on the market in France after several politicians, including one from Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, called for a boycott.
The retailer’s plain, lightweight running headscarf, which covers the hair but not the face, is already on sale in Morocco and was to be extended to France and worldwide. But after a social media storm and outrage from some politicians against Muslim head coverings, the company backtracked and said the garment would not go on sale “at the present time” in France.
Continue reading...Authorities say investigations led to suspicions the haul was to be taken to Pyongyang
Dutch customs officials at the port of Rotterdam have seized 90,000 bottles of vodka believed to be destined for the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and his army chiefs.
The discovery, on the eve of Kim’s two-day summit with Donald Trump in Hanoi, was made after Dutch authorities flagged up the suspicious route and records of a Chinese-owned container ship, Nebula.
Continue reading...Alicante airport is likely to be worst affected, says consumer group Which?
British tourists to Spain could face airport queues of five hours or more after a no-deal Brexit, according to analysis by Which?, and the consumer group suggests travellers should take food, water and even nappies to survive prolonged delays.
Alicante airport, which serves Benidorm and other Costa Blanca resorts, is likely to be the worst-affected airport, and Which? said visitors to Tenerife, Lanzarote and Málaga were also facing “life in the slow lane”.
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