Prudent Merkel to meet unpredictable Trump

BERLIN: Europe's most powerful leader, Angela Merkel, meets for the first time next week America's flamboyant President Donald Trump whose arrival in the White House has sent shockwaves across the Atlantic.

While former US president Barack Obama had labelled Merkel his "closest international partner", there has been little known contact between the German leader and Trump since he took office. Trump's criticism of Germany over issues ranging from its record trade surplus to Merkel's liberal refugee stance, as well as his backing for Britain to leave the European Union, have not gone unnoticed in Berlin.

A month after US Vice President Mike Pence delivered a message to Europe underscoring the importance of transatlantic ties, Tuesday's meeting will be scrutinised for clues on whether Trump fully endorses that message.

The reserved German leader herself underlined that she is travelling to Washington not only as Germany's leader, but also as an envoy of the EU. "I will of course point out that for us, our country and our membership in the European Union are two sides of the same coin," Merkel said in Brussels ahead of the visit.

The Washington meeting would also allow for "an exchange of bilateral and international topics, and transatlantic ties, as we have always stressed, are very important," added Merkel's spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer. LONDON: Imams in the UK will be encouraged to preach in English as part of plans to crack down on hate preaching in the country.

Britain's counter-extremism taskforce is working on the plans amid concern that preaching in foreign languages enforces divisions between Islam and mainstream British society and can foster radicalisation, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

"If imams are speaking in another language it makes it far harder to know if radicalisation is taking place," a government source told the newspaper.

The plans form part of the UK government's Prevent antiextremism initiative, which will also be given a big increase in spending and staff. The number of people working on the programme will double by 2020 as part of a revamped anti-terrorism and extremism strategy, known as Contest, to be announced by next week.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Times reports the expansion of Prevent will go alongside a tougher approach to returnees from Islamic State (ISIS), with measures to exclude British citizens permanently from the UK.

More than 30 dual nationals have been stripped of their British citizenship but the new drive could mean that many who hold only British passports are made stateless. Ministers can cancel the citizenship of single-nationality Britons, if they were previously citizens of another country.