Friday, March 29

Europe

Denmark fines first woman for violating burqa ban
Europe, Featured

Denmark fines first woman for violating burqa ban

    The traditional clown's walk against the burqa ban in Danish police have fined a woman for wearing a niqab in a shopping complex, local media reported. It's the first such fine to be issued for violating the country's contentious law banning full-face Islamic veils in public places, which came into effect on Wednesday. In accordance with the law, the 28-year-old was asked by police to either remove her veil or leave the public space. She chose the latter. She was also informed she would receive a fine of 1,000 kroner ($156/€134) in the mail. Police were called to a shopping center in Horsholm, north of Copenhagen, where the woman had become involved in an altercation with another woman, police duty officer David Borchersen told the Ritzau news agency. During the ...
Europe’s record temperature of 48C could be beaten this weekend
Europe, Featured

Europe’s record temperature of 48C could be beaten this weekend

    Britain is basking in 31C heat, temperatures on the continent have reached 45C, and a mountain in Sweden has melted so much it is no longer the country’s highest. Europe’s heatwave is not over yet, with temperatures across the UK this weekend forecast to remain at an average of about 27C (80.6F), with highs of 31C a possibility in London. A yellow severe warning for thunderstorms is in place for some parts of England and Scotland until 9pm on Friday. The Met Office said: Some flooding of a few homes and businesses is possible, leading to some damage to buildings or structures. There is a good chance driving conditions will be affected by spray, standing water and/or hail, leading to longer journey times by car and bus. Some short-term loss of power and other servi...
May meets Macron as Britain tries to bypass Brussels
Europe, Featured

May meets Macron as Britain tries to bypass Brussels

    Theresa May will meet with French president Emmanuel Macron this week as she attempts to sell her Brexit plan to EU leaders. The prime minister and Mr Macron are to meet at his presidential retreat at Fort Bregancon near Toulon, in the south of France. Mrs May's visit comes amid an apparent attempt by ministers to go over the heads of Brussels officials with a direct Brexit plea to the EU's national governments. Ahead of talks with his own French counterpart on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called on France and Germany to push EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier into a pragmatic and sensible outcome. He warned Brussels' current approach to the UK's departure could prompt a breakdown in relations and trust between Britain and European countries, resu...
Michel Barnier takes apart Theresa May’s Chequers white paper plan
Europe, Featured

Michel Barnier takes apart Theresa May’s Chequers white paper plan

    The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator has taken apart Theresa May‘s new Chequers Brexit plan, just hours after the embattled Prime Minister insisted there would be no further compromise on her side. Speaking in Brussels after a meeting with EU national ministers Michel Barnier raised a wide variety of serious concerns with the PM’s proposals on customs control and single market regulations for goods. Mr Barnier said Ms May’s complicated proposal for customs would likely create huge amounts of new paperwork, warning: Brexit cannot and will not justify additional bureaucracy. Ms May had hoped the proposal would allow frictionless trade with the EU, but Mr Barnier said the plan to exclude UK services from following EU rules could give a significant competitive advantage to...
EU and Japan sign monumental free-trade deal
Europe, Featured

EU and Japan sign monumental free-trade deal

    Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (C) signs an agreement with European Council President. The European Union and Japan signed a monumental trade deal Tuesday, eliminating nearly all tariffs between the entities in one of the world’s largest free-trade deals. The pact, signed in Tokyo, covers a third of the global economy, the Associated Press reports. The agreement is in stark contrast to President Donald Trump’s trade war and alignment with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday. Although the leaders didn’t mention him by name, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and EU leaders Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker distanced themselves from Trump’s tactics in a press conference following the deal. Politically, it’s a light in the increasing darkness of internati...
Trump said Germany is captive to Russia
Europe, Featured

Trump said Germany is captive to Russia

    President Donald Trump claimed a pipeline project has made Germany totally controlled by and captive to Russia during a combative breakfast Wednesday that kicked off what was already expected to be a fraught NATO summit. Trump, in a testy exchange with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, took issue with the U.S. protecting Germany when the European nation is making deals with Russia. The president appeared to be referring to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would bring gas from Russia to Germany’s northeastern Baltic coast, bypassing Eastern European nations like Poland and Ukraine and doubling the amount of gas Russia can send directly to Germany. The vast undersea pipeline is opposed by the U.S. and some other EU members, who warn it could give Moscow greater...
Markel coalition under threat
Europe, Featured

Markel coalition under threat

    Germany’s interior minister dramatically announced plans to resign on Sunday night, after a heated showdown with chancellor Angela Merkel over migration. Horst Seehofer, Germany’s Interior Minister and leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), said on Sunday evening that he wanted to resign from all offices, after hours of heated talks with his party. Mr Seehofer said the conflict with Mrs Merkel over migration was affecting the credibility of his role as party leader. He also slammed the migration deal Mrs Merkel secured with her EU counterparts last week as ineffective. Mr Seehofer has been a fierce critic of Mrs Merkel and in particular her decision to open Germany’s doors to over 1 million migrants in 2015. With that in mind his resignation may be welcome new...
Brexit deal will be signed with the UK by October
Europe, Featured

Brexit deal will be signed with the UK by October

    EU negotiators have abandoned all hope that a Brexit deal will be signed with the UK at October’s European Council summit. Brussels officials said a complete standstill in talks with Britain means securing settlements on major outstanding issues in the remaining three-and-a-half months is fanciful. They point to the political logjam in Theresa May’s government as the obstacle blocking negotiations, piling pressure on the prime minister to break the deadlock this week. She is set to meet her full cabinet on Friday at Chequers for a meeting that may go late into the night, in a bid to finally thrash out the government’s approach to post-Brexit relations with the EU. The EU officials were speaking after last week’s European Council summit which saw the bloc focus on ...
British PM Stark warning to EU leaders
Europe, Featured

British PM Stark warning to EU leaders

    Theresa May has issued a stark warning to EU leaders that their citizens lives will be at risk if they fail to show more flexibility on Brexit, as she struggled to regain the initiative at a bad-tempered summit in Brussels. The prime minister had earlier faced pointed criticism from a succession of leaders as they arrived at the European council meeting, in which they highlighted division and indecision at Westminster. The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, told reporters: “I don’t have to lecture Theresa May, but I would like our British friends to make clear their position. We cannot go on to live with a split cabinet. They have to say what they want and we will respond to that. The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, expressed the concern of many...
EU reaches migration deal after toxic talks at tense summit
Europe, Featured

EU reaches migration deal after toxic talks at tense summit

    European leaders struggled to overcome deep divisions on migration at a tense EU summit that dragged into the early morning hours of Friday before yielding vague pledges to strengthen external borders and explore new migrant centres. The meeting in Brussels, dominated by a nine-hour dinner, underscored how Europe's 2015 sharp rise in immigration continues to haunt the bloc despite a sharp drop in arrivals of people fleeing conflict and economic hardship in the Middle East and Africa. It took place in an atmosphere of political crisis, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel under intense political pressure at home and a new eurosceptic Italian government threatening to torpedo any deal that did not meet its demands. A bleary-eyed Mrs Merkel, speaking to reporters at 5...