‘ No- deal’ Brexit blocked Arms sales halted

LONDON — With Britain set to get a new pro-Brexit leader within days, lawmakers on Thursday erected a roadblock in the path of any attempt by the incoming prime minister to take the country out of the European Union without a divorce deal.

The move came as the U. K.’ s official economic watchdog said a no- deal Brexit would trigger a recession, with the pound plummeting in value and the economy shrinking by 2% in a year.

The Office for Budget Responsibility made its assessment as chances of a disruptive exit from the 28nation bloc appear to be rising.

Britain is due to leave the EU on Oct. 31, but Parliament has repeatedly rejected the divorce deal struck between Prime Minister Theresa May and the bloc. Both men vying to take over from her as Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, say they will leave without an agreement if the EU won’t renegotiate.

Congress is heading for a showdown with President Donald Trump after the House voted to block his administration from selling billions of dollars in weapons and maintenance support to Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Trump, who has sought to forge closer ties with Riyadh, has pledged to veto the resolutions of disapproval that passed the Democratic- led House largely along party lines. Two of the resolutions passed with 238 votes, while a third was approved with 237. Each of the measures garnered just four Republican backers.

The Senate cleared the resolutions last month, but like the House, fell well short of a veto- proof majority. Overturning a president’s veto requires a twothirds majority in both the House and Senate.

Guns, missile seized

Police in Italy recovered Nazi paraphernalia, guns and missile during an operation that was part of a yearlong investigation into “Italian fighters with extreme ideologies.”

One of the three suspects taken into custody had been flagged for trying to sell an air- to- air missile that was located in the northern Italian city of Pavia. The weapon did not have an explosive, police say, but was still usable. Authorities also found assault rifles, bayonets, pistols, and nearly a thousand cartridges and other weapons parts.

Confession in killing

A man has confessed to raping and killing an American scientist whose body was found last week in a cave on the island of Crete, authorities said

The disappearance of Suzanne Eaton, 59, a prominent developmental biologist who had been in Crete for a conference, set off an international online campaign by friends and family members to find her. Her remains were discovered July 8, six days after she was last seen alive.

A coroner found that she had died of asphyxiation and ruled that her death had resulted from a criminal act.